Repatriation Acts Amendment Act 1979

How the Tribunal Works

• The RRT is made up of a President (a qualified lawyer with at least 5 years' experience), Deputy Presidents, medical members (doctors), and Services members (people nominated by veterans' organisations).
• Hearings are normally private, but can be made public if the veteran requests it.
• Veterans can appear in person or be represented by someone (but not a lawyer, at least not at this stage — the Tribunal was designed to be accessible without legal costs).
• The Commission (the government body that manages veteran pensions) can also appear.
• Witnesses can be summoned; refusing to attend or answer questions is an offence carrying up to a $1,000 fine or 3 months' imprisonment.

Further Review Options

If the stakes are high enough (cases involving important legal principles), decisions can be escalated:

• To the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) — a broader government review body
• To the Federal Court of Australia — but only on questions of law (not just whether the facts were decided correctly)

The government pays a veteran's legal costs in most Federal Court cases.

Who Is Covered?

This Act extends the new review system to cover veterans from multiple categories, including:

• World War veterans
• Members of the interim forces (post-WWII)
• Far East Strategic Reserve service (Malaya/Malaysia)
• Special overseas service
• Merchant mariners (seamen) who suffered war injuries

Transitional Arrangements

Appeals that were already lodged with the old Appeal Tribunals but not yet decided were automatically transferred to the new RRT as if they had been lodged under the new system — so no veteran lost their place in the queue.