According to a brief statement from the AAT today, Justice Fiona Meagher stepped down on Wednesday, with Federal Court Justice Berna Collier to take over as Acting President effective immediately.

Justice Meagher will resume full-time Federal Court duties. Her resignation follows a Senate Estimates hearing last month in which the tribunal copped flak over political appointments and bullying by senior members.

In a statement published on the AAT website in November, Justice Meagher addressed concerns raised at the hearing by Labor Senator Nita Green that “at least 19 members of the AAT…have had more than one bullying, harassment or discrimination complaint made about them since 1 July 2016″.

The judge said she had “made significant inroads into implementing a reform agenda which includes making workplace culture and wellbeing a priority” since her appointment.

Senator Green also raised the issue of the political appointments of tribunal members – a matter she said “has been canvassed in [the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee] a number of times previously.”

“I think it’s clear that there have been about 90 political appointments made by the previous government, and I would suggest there has been some reputational damage to the AAT as a result,” she said.

In her statement, Justice Meagher endorsed “an independent and merit-based appointment process for Members,” and said she was looking forward to working with Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus “in relation to this and any other measures which may be taken to strengthen the AAT”.

Dreyfus has been an outspoken critic of the AAT appointments process.

In response to questions from reporters at an address to the National Press Club in October, Dreyfus flagged reforms to the tribunal, taking aim at the “extraordinarily partisan and political appointments” to the tribunal by successive Liberal governments over the past nine years.

“We’ve had an extraordinary politicisation of the AAT, which is quite wrong. It’s severely damaged the reputation of the institution, which is something that I regret, and we are embarked now on considering what we can do about it,” he said.

Reform to the AAT is in line with the Attorney-General’s avowed plans to “restore trust and transparency to government,” including by instituting a merit-based and transparent judicial appointment system and establishing a federal judicial commission to address concerns about the conduct of judges.

A spokesperson for the Attorney-General said the government “acknowledges Justice Meagher’s resignation as President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and thanks her for her service.”

Justice Meagher, the daughter of former High Court judge Ian Callinan, was appointed to the top job by then Attorney-General Michaelia Cash in April.

The judge served as a part time member of the tribunal from 2015 before becoming a full-time senior member in November 2018. She also served as division head of the tribunal’s NDIS division.

Acting President Berna Collier has been a Federal Court judge since 2006, and a judge of the Supreme and National Courts of Papua New Guinea since 2011.

Justice Collier, also a judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT, was previously a part time deputy president at the tribunal.

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