LAWS3300 Administrative Law: Session 2, 2023

LAWS3300 Administrative Law: Session 2, 2023

Professional Skills Task Policy Brief

Unit Convenor: Dr Catherine Greentree

Faculty of Arts, Macquarie Law School

POLICY BRIEF QUESTION

In 2023, the Commonwealth is introducing and developing significant administrative review changes, including the establishment and commencement of the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the announcement that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal will be abolished and replaced with a new federal administrative review body.

In April 2023, the Commonwealth Attorney-Generals Department released the Administrative Review Reform: Issues Paper which sought public responses to 67 questions about a wide range of matters relating to the new federal administrative review body. The published responses are available online.

What emerged from a number of the submissions was a need for administrative review mechanisms in Australia to be more accessible and designed to empower applicants in light of imbalances between government agencies and users, particularly those applicants who experience marginalisation or experience significant disadvantage.

You are a legal researcher at Macquarie University and you have been asked by the Commonwealth Attorney-Generals Department to provide advice on how Australian formal merits review mechanisms can be improved to increase accessibility and ensure transparency and fairness for marginalised Australians. You may choose to focus on a particular marginalised group or discuss these issues for general application to all marginalised groups. The Law Councils Justice Project is a great place to start in considering which marginalised group or groups you will consider.

You will prepare a policy brief for the Government which sets out your recommendation/s for specific legislative reform needed to ensure that the new federal administrative review body is able to meet the abovementioned needs (to improve formal merits review in the new Commonwealth tribunal). It is recommended that you consider the existing Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth) as a reference for the previous model, to identify any gaps that can be addressed in the new legislation. You will need to specifically identify where and how your recommendation/s should be legislated.

TASK INSTRUCTIONS

Submit a Word document via the Turnitin submission link. Do not submit a PDF or Google Doc (these formats can cause errors with generating a word count or issues with footnotes).

Formatting: The submitted policy brief must be submitted as a Word document, in double-line spaced text, 12-point Times New Roman font. The word limit is 1,500words,excluding footnotes (but including anything else you write, such as headings. Do not reproduce the question).Content over 1,500 words will not be marked. Remember to uncheck including footnotes and textboxes in the word count.

Footnotes: should only be used for references, and should not contain any argument. Footnotes should be single-line spaced text, 10-point Times New Roman font. A bibliography should not be provided. The policy brief must comply with theAustralian Guide to Legal Citation(4thed). Submissionsthat do not comply with these requirements will be penalised against the assessment rubric.

Assessment Criteria: You must conduct your own research beyond the textbook to engage with primary and secondary authorities (e.g. cases, relevant legislation, journal articles, extrajudicial speeches, scholarship, government reports etc). You may refer to the Administrative Review Reform: Issues Paper as well as the published responses to the Issues Paper. But your research must go beyond these resources as well. A good policy brief will analyse both case law and academic arguments. Seethe Rubric for Policy Brief Task. All arguments must be supported/substantiated by cited research. Unsubstantiated claims receive no credit. You can find MQs very useful study support resources here, as well as the sources linked under the Productive Study Resources and Assessment modules on iLearn.

LATE ASSESSMENT SUBMISSION POLICY

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of '0' (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11:55pm. A 1-hour grade period is provided to students who experience a technical issue.

This late penalty will apply to non-timed sensitive assessment (including essays, reports, posters, portfolios, journals, recordings etc). Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs etc) will only be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special Consideration application. Special Consideration outcome may result in a new question or topic.

USE OF GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS (GAITS)

For this assessment, students are permitted to use GAITs for spelling/grammar checking, as well as referencing software (for example, Grammarly, Microsoft spell-check, Turnitin Draft Coach, Endnote with the AGLC 4 extension).

Students are not permitted to use GAITs (such as ChatGTP etc) to: generate definitions or writing used in their final submission; produce counterarguments or refine thinking on their final submission; or read and summarise research and supporting evidence for the assessment. Using GAITs for this assessment, other than to check grammar and spelling or generate AGLC 4 compliant footnotes, constitutes and will be treated as a breach of academic integrity. Students may review Macquarie Universitys Academic Integrity resources here.

EFFECTIVE POLICY-WRITING - WHAT IS A POLICY BRIEF?

Policy briefs are a form of researched and supported advice that can have real-world implications. They can play a central role in public and government affairs and lead to policy and legal developments and change.

A policy brief a concise report that is well-researched which examines a particular/singular issue or problem, with a particular audience in mind. This could be law-makers, a government decision-maker, an advocacy group, the media, or a corporation. Your emphasis should be on clarity and succinctness, writing with a view to persuading your reader to adopt your message and give effect to your supported recommendations for policy or legal change.

Your audience

Who are they? What will they likely already know about the area? What new information should be highlighted, to provide insight into the issue?

Use language suited to and appropriate for your audience, and structure your brief logically so that it is easy to follow. Use headings to assist your audience to quickly find what theyre looking for, and so they can understand the development of argument throughout.

Your research

Your brief needs to be researched and persuasively argued on the basis of the evidence you found. The evidence can identify that there is an issue with an existing policy or law.

Your structure

You have been provided with a template for you to download and use, which has the following structure:

Title Page

Executive Summary

Scope of Problem or Purpose

Critical Analysis

Recommendations