Sand Goanna Institute Pty Ltd and Australian Skills Quality Authority

The Sand Goanna Institute Pty Ltd (the applicant) sought to issue a summons for the production of documents from the Australian Skills Quality Authority (the respondent). The matter came before B J Illingworth SM in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the proposed summons should be issued, specifically concerning the relevance of the documents sought to the reviewable decision and whether a summons could be issued to a party to the proceedings.

The Tribunal determined that the documents sought by the applicant were not relevant to the issue to be determined in the reviewable decision. Consequently, the Tribunal found no reason to further consider the applicant's arguments in opposition to the summons. The Tribunal also noted that the respondent's reliance on section 40A(1) of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth) might be misconceived, as the Tribunal had previously held that summonses are issued at the request of a party to a person who is not a party to the proceedings. The summons to produce documents was accordingly set aside.