The Latest Breaking News from AAT

Handing out a cushy job to a political mate might seem harmless – after all, everyone does it, right? – but the politicisation of public appointments has real, pervasive consequences for Australian democracy. Increasingly, many government boards, tribunals and independent agencies are stacked with people who have worked in politics.

Does Barilaro’s appointment into a plum NY job at the expense of Jenny West constitute corruption? Time will tell. But its indecency is stark.

Mark Dreyfus ‘cannot have confidence’ in current make-up of Administrative Appeals Tribunal, but won’t be drawn on recommendation to scrap body

In the landmark 1973 decision of Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court held that the right to privacy provided by the 14th amendment to the US Constitution protects a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Last month, a leaked draft of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization…