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Monday, 30 August 1999
Page: 9419


Mr ALBANESE (9:28 PM) —The minister quite clearly has not read the legislation. He speaks about three members. That is our point. This legislation allows the SSAT to hear cases with just one member. At the moment it is a minimum of three—that is the whole point that we are making. Your job is to tell this House why that change in legislation is occurring, why it is that just one person will be able to hear appeals. Your job is also to explain how one person can possibly consider appeals, given the different backgrounds which are there, and it is to explain why the Australian Labor Party's approach, when in government, of ensuring that there were three people—one with a legal background, one with a welfare background and one from the Department of Family and Community Services—was wrong. That is our point. In answer to our questions we do not expect to get a justification for what we did in government. I agree with you that three is the correct number, but this legislation brings it down to one.