Stekovic and Comcare (Compensation)

This matter concerned a dispute between the Queanbeyan GP Super Clinic (the Clinic) and Comcare regarding the recovery of costs incurred by the Clinic in complying with a summons issued by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal). The summons required the Clinic to produce various documents and records in relation to an applicant. The Clinic issued a tax invoice for $1,215.28, which Comcare disputed, offering a lesser amount of $371 plus GST. The Tribunal was asked to determine the Clinic's reasonable expenses for complying with the summons.

The legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine the amount of reasonable expenses payable to the Clinic for complying with the Tribunal's summons, pursuant to regulations 13(6) and 13(7) of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Regulations 2015. This involved assessing whether the costs claimed by the Clinic, particularly for photocopying, were reasonable and should be reimbursed by Comcare.

The Tribunal reasoned that the allowance payable for reasonable expenses should be calculated based on the applicable regulations. While the Clinic sought reimbursement for 795 pages photocopied at $1.104 per page, Comcare's offer was based on 462 pages at $0.70 per page. The Tribunal ultimately determined that the reasonable expenses payable to the Clinic amounted to $376.05 plus GST.