PB & PAP v Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services
[2012] QCAT 634
| CITATION: | PB & PAP v Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services [2012] QCAT 634 |
| PARTIES: | PB PAP (Applicants) |
| v | |
| Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services (Respondent) |
| APPLICATION NUMBER: | CML175-12 |
| MATTER TYPE: | Childrens matters |
| HEARING DATE: | On the papers |
| HEARD AT: | Brisbane |
| DECISION OF: | C Endicott, Senior Member |
| DELIVERED ON: | 20 November 2012 |
| DELIVERED AT: | Brisbane |
| ORDERS MADE: | The application to the tribunal to issue a notice to attend is dismissed. |
| CATCHWORDS: | REVIEW OF ADMINISTRATIVE DECISION – where applicant wanted to call staff member from original decision maker to give evidence at hearing – where no relevance established for that evidence – where merits review and not process review |
APPEARANCES and REPRESENTATION (if any):
This matter was heard and determined on the papers pursuant to s 32 of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (QCAT Act).
REASONS FOR DECISION
PB and PAP are seeking a review of a decision made by the Department to refuse them a certificate of approval as a carer. The review will come on for hearing in December 2012. PB and PAP have asked the tribunal to issue a notice to attend to AB who is an employee in the respondent Department.
When asked by staff from the tribunal registry as to the grounds on which the request was made, PAP stated that AB works at Child Safety in a regional town and was involved in processing their carer application. PAP explained that AB had asked Pathways, who was conducting an assessment of their application, to hold off completing the assessment because a matter of concern had been raised concerning PB and PAP. PAP told the tribunal staff member that there was no matter of concern and she wanted to ask AB about this.
The tribunal when reviewing an administrative decision of an entity such as the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services has the task of producing the correct and preferable decision. The tribunal must hear and decide a review by way of a fresh hearing on the merits of the case.[1] In doing so, the tribunal steps into the shoes of the original decision maker and examines all the relevant evidence about the original application ie the application for a carer’s certificate. The tribunal effectively starts again when it conducts a merits review of the decision and will substitute its own decision for that of the original decision maker.
[1] Section 20 of the QCAT Act.
The issue to decide is whether PB and PAP should be given a carer’s certificate. The tribunal will not conduct a review of the manner in which the Department went about making its decision which is now under review. The tribunal does not conduct a review of the process used by the Department to make its decision. What AB did in December 2011 as part of that process is not relevant to the decision to be made in December 2012 as to whether PB and PAP should have a carer’s certificate. The actions of the Department are not in issue: the issue is whether PB and PAP should be given a certificate.
As I was unable to find any relevance in the proposed evidence that PAP wanted to obtain from AB on the issue of their appropriateness for a care’s certificate, I declined to issue a notice to attend to AB.
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