Walsh and Australian Postal Corporation

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application by the Australian Postal Corporation (the Respondent) to dismiss an application for merits review lodged by Walsh (the Applicant). The Applicant sought review of a decision made by the Respondent on 13 May 2020, which determined that her request for reconsideration of an earlier decision was out of time. The Applicant had initially sought merits review of this decision on 2 July 2020.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the Applicant's application should be dismissed pursuant to section 42A of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth). This required the Tribunal to consider whether the Applicant had failed to comply with Tribunal directions, failed to proceed with her application within a reasonable time, and whether she could be contacted. The Tribunal was also guided by section 2A of the AAT Act, which mandates that the Tribunal's functions must pursue objectives of accessibility, fairness, justice, economy, informality, speed, proportionality, and public trust.

The Tribunal noted a history of non-compliance by the Applicant with multiple directions issued by the Tribunal regarding the provision of medical evidence and a Statement of Facts, Issues and Contentions. These directions were made on 7 September 2020, 23 October 2020, 5 November 2020, and 22 June 2021. The Applicant had also sought adjournments to obtain legal representation, which she had at various stages, but was again unrepresented by September 2021. The Respondent argued that the application had not progressed for over 12 months and that the Applicant had repeatedly failed to comply with directions. The Tribunal found that the Applicant had failed to comply with the direction of 22 June 2021, which prevented the Respondent from complying with its own subsequent direction. Given the prolonged lack of progress and the Applicant's failure to provide necessary documentation or indicate a path forward, the Tribunal concluded that the application should be dismissed.