MLTR and National Disability Insurance Agency

This matter concerned an application for review before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) concerning a decision by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). The applicant, MLTR, objected to the issue of summonses to two medical providers, Triple 333 Medical Centre and Word by Word Speech Therapy, and to the NDIA inspecting the documents produced under those summonses.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the summonses issued to the medical providers were relevant to the proceedings and whether the NDIA should be permitted to inspect the documents produced. The Tribunal considered the power to issue summonses under section 40A of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth) and the power to grant leave for inspection of documents produced under summons under section 40B of the same Act. The Tribunal also referred to established principles regarding the issuance of summonses and the subsequent inspection of documents, noting that such documents are typically issued without question initially, assuming relevance to the issues to be decided.

The Tribunal reasoned that while MLTR had a right to privacy regarding his medical information, this needed to be balanced against the need for both the Tribunal and the NDIA to be satisfied that the supports requested were reasonable and necessary. The Tribunal found that the conditions for which MLTR received medical treatment were not irrelevant to the review of the NDIA's decision. Specifically, documents from Word by Word Speech Therapy were considered relevant to assessing the request for increased speech therapy funding, even if the service was not currently being received. The Tribunal concluded that the documents sought could reasonably be expected to shed light on the issues requiring resolution and were therefore not irrelevant or unrelated to the application for review, serving a legitimate forensic purpose.

Ultimately, the Tribunal disallowed MLTR's objection to both the issue of the summonses and the NDIA's inspection of the documents produced. The Tribunal determined that making the complete records available to the NDIA would assist in satisfying the agency that the claimed supports were reasonable and necessary, thereby best serving the objective of merits review.