Got AATitude? A quantitative analysis of refugee decision-making at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
Type
Thesis, HonoursAuthor/s
Simpson, Rohan D.S.Abstract
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is the first level of appeal for an asylum seeker whose application has been rejected by the Department of Home Affairs. There have been allegations that appointments at the AAT have become politicised. Despite these concerns, there exists ...
See moreThe Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is the first level of appeal for an asylum seeker whose application has been rejected by the Department of Home Affairs. There have been allegations that appointments at the AAT have become politicised. Despite these concerns, there exists no empirical means to test political influence at the AAT. This thesis develops a method to quantitatively test these allegations and provide further insights into asylum decision-making. Drawing off a specially generated Database of all publicly available refugee decisions at the AAT for the years 2015-2018 (2,272 cases), this study measures the effect of the Party appointing each Member on asylum outcomes. The key finding is that the odds of a Labor-appointed Member giving a favourable decision to an asylum-seeker were 1.46 times higher than those of a Liberal-appointed Member. Further, this study finds that the decision patterns vary significantly between Labor- and Liberal-appointed Members for applications from the same country of origin.
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See moreThe Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is the first level of appeal for an asylum seeker whose application has been rejected by the Department of Home Affairs. There have been allegations that appointments at the AAT have become politicised. Despite these concerns, there exists no empirical means to test political influence at the AAT. This thesis develops a method to quantitatively test these allegations and provide further insights into asylum decision-making. Drawing off a specially generated Database of all publicly available refugee decisions at the AAT for the years 2015-2018 (2,272 cases), this study measures the effect of the Party appointing each Member on asylum outcomes. The key finding is that the odds of a Labor-appointed Member giving a favourable decision to an asylum-seeker were 1.46 times higher than those of a Liberal-appointed Member. Further, this study finds that the decision patterns vary significantly between Labor- and Liberal-appointed Members for applications from the same country of origin.
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Date
2020-01-14Licence
The author retains copyright of this thesisDepartment, Discipline or Centre
Department of Government and International RelationsShare