State Administrative Tribunal (SAT)

The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) reviews a range of administrative decisions. These range from reviews of multi-million dollar tax judgments and dog destruction orders to disciplinary proceedings, guardianship questions and town planning and compensation issues.

SAT receives its power to hear matters from a large number of different pieces of legislation – such as the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990, or the Planning and Development Act 2005. Before SAT was established, these were heard by many different government bodies, and SAT was established to make the legal process more efficient, flexible, and informal for parties.

You can apply to SAT to appoint a guardian or administrator, review these appointments, or decide on matters about powers of attorney and powers of guardianship.

SAT can consider applications about Advanced Health Directives and consider applications for declarations about treatment decisions for people under legal incapacity.

It can also give consent to sterilisation procedures for a person for whom a guardianship order has been made.

In addition to the above, SAT can review decisions about medical research or urgent medical research in relation to a research candidate’s participation in medical research under Part 9E of the Guardianship and Administration Act 1990.