On the subject of payments by CASA, a while ago – but post the implementation of the PGPA legislation - Avmed unlawfully place a purported restriction on my medical certificate. I applied to the AAT for review of Avmed’s decision. I had to pay a large application fee to the AAT.
The matter didn’t proceed to a hearing because Avmed’s decision was plainly unlawful – admitted as such by CASA before any more of my and the AAT’s resources were wasted – and the review was decided in my favour. (Appallingly, Avmed persisted with that unlawful behaviour because Avmed is insouciantly indifferent to its own compliance with the law and knows that most individuals cannot bear the stress and cost of seeking external review of the lawfulness and merits of what they do.)
Because of the circumstances, the AAT refunded some – but not all – of my application fee, in accordance with the AAT regs. However, CASA also wrote me a cheque for the ‘delta’ between the fee I paid and the refund I was given by the AAT.
There is no provision in the AAT Act or any other legislation that I can find which, in its terms, compelled CASA to write me that cheque. Costs are not awarded in AAT matters. I didn’t even ask for payment of the ‘delta’.
Doesn’t matter whether it was $1 or $1,000 or $1,000,000. The expenditure of each and every one of CASA’s dollars is the subject of PGPA and other stringent obligations.
Either the payment was lawful or it wasn’t. Either there was a policy basis for the payment or there wasn’t.
I’d be interested in Thirsty’s views as to the source of the legal authority and policy basis for CASA having made that payment to me, and what generic description would Thirsty apply to the payment.
So far as I am concerned and unless someone can point me to a legislative provision compelling the payment – in which case I will stand corrected - it was what I call an act of grace payment by CASA because I should not have had to spend any of my time and money teaching Administrative Law ‘101’ to public officials in CASA Avmed (Administrative Law ‘101’ being a subject which CASA Avmed continues to fail, abjectly).