Morris and National Disability Insurance Agency

The matter before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) concerned an application for review by the Applicant of a decision made by the National Disability Insurance Agency (the Agency). The Applicant sought funding for double-glazed windows, a request that had been declined by the Agency. Following the Agency's initial decision, the Applicant provided additional material. The Agency subsequently sent a letter to the Applicant titled ‘Your NDIS plan decision explained’. The Applicant then lodged an application with the Tribunal for review of this letter, which they considered to be a decision. The Agency raised a jurisdictional issue regarding the validity of this application.

The central legal issue for the Tribunal to determine was whether it possessed jurisdiction, under section 103 of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS Act), to review the application lodged by the Applicant on 14 September 2022. This required an examination of the legislative framework governing the Tribunal's jurisdiction and the specific provisions of the NDIS Act relating to reviewable decisions and the process for seeking a review.

The Tribunal's jurisdiction is established by section 25 of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975. For the Tribunal to have jurisdiction to review a decision under the NDIS Act, the NDIS Act itself must provide for such review. Subsection 103(1) of the NDIS Act permits applications for review of decisions made by a reviewer under subsection 100(6). However, subsection 100(2) states that a person may request a review of a "reviewable decision" by the decision-maker. The Tribunal noted that the Agency had not made a decision under subsection 100(6) in response to the additional material provided by the Applicant. The letter the Applicant sought to have reviewed was not a decision made by a reviewer under subsection 100(6), nor was it a "reviewable decision" as contemplated by subsection 100(2) that had been subject to an internal review process.

Consequently, the Tribunal found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the application lodged by the Applicant on 14 September 2022, as the necessary prerequisite of an internal review decision under subsection 100(6) of the NDIS Act had not been met. The application for review was therefore dismissed.