Peters and Secretary, Department of Education, Skills and Employment

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application by Mr. Peters for remission of his HECS-HELP debt. Mr. Peters sought remission on the basis of alleged special circumstances, specifically chronic migraine and vestibular migraine, which he claimed made it impracticable for him to complete his units of study after the census dates for those units. The Secretary, Department of Education, Skills and Employment was the respondent.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the circumstances relied upon by Mr. Peters constituted "special circumstances" for the purposes of section 36-20 of the *Higher Education Support Act 2003* (Cth). Specifically, the Tribunal had to assess whether these circumstances were beyond Mr. Peters' control, whether their full impact occurred after the census dates, and whether they made it impracticable for him to complete the requirements of the units of study. The Tribunal also considered whether the requirement to apply for remission before the end of the application period could be waived.

The Tribunal found that the "impracticability" criterion under section 36-20 of the Act was not satisfied in relation to any of the relevant study periods. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that section 36-20 did not apply to Mr. Peters for the units of study in question. The Tribunal affirmed the decisions under review.