The Classification Review Board and the Refugee Review Tribunal Will Soon be the Same Thing

Sooooo … This feels like it can’t be right, but the ABC is reporting that, as a part of this week’s Federal budget, the Classification Review Board and the Refugee Review Tribunal will be rolled into one giant organisation, along with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Migration Review Tribunal

For those playing at home, this means that the people who decided that Saint’s Row IV was too salacious for Australians to handle will be amalgamated with the body that conducts reviews of visa decisions made by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. That department will itself take in Customs, and get a shiny new Border Force as part of the budget.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which is the sexy dark horse of this merger, provides independent review of a wide range of decisions made across government. Just how and why these drastically different groups fit together is anyone’s guess. At the very least, it will lead to job losses at all agencies. Fans of violent movies and video games might be in luck if the Classification Review Board ends up being neutered by the merger, while fans of knowing what the hell’s going on with their visa application will probably be less so.

The amalgamation is part of a much broader program that will see more than 70 Commonwealth agencies shut down. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says that the number of said agencies is currently around 1000, and that the cuts will make for greater efficiency. “It is quite extraordinary when we were told on coming into government that nobody could actually tell us exactly how many different individual government bodies there were,” he said.

How the review board’s old enemy Margaret Pomeranz will take this news is anyone’s guess.

via ABC News
Image via RAGE

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