What external review decisions can the Tribunal make?

The Tribunal will take an independent look at:

  • your situation – for example, if you’re a participant and the Tribunal is reviewing our decision to approve your plan

  • NDIS laws 

  • Our Guidelines

  • the reasons for our internal review decision, and the information we used to make the internal review decision 

  • any new information you give the Tribunal. 

The Tribunal will then make the ‘correct or preferable’ decision. This means, out of the decisions it can make, it will make the decision it thinks is the correct decision, or the best decision, under the law based on the evidence. 

When the Tribunal reviews our decision to approve your plan, the Tribunal will look at whether we made the correct or preferable decision based on the evidence at the time the Tribunal makes its decision.

After the hearing, the Tribunal can make one of 4 types of decisions. It can either:

  • affirm the internal review decision – the Tribunal agrees with the internal decision and doesn’t make any changes 
  • vary the internal review decision – the Tribunal makes some changes to the internal review decision
  • set aside the internal review decision and make a new decision 
  • set aside the internal review decision and send it back to us for further consideration. 

If the Tribunal sends the decision back to us, it often gives us instructions on how to make the new decision.

The Tribunal will give reasons for its decision and provide you with a written copy of the decision. Most of the time, it’ll publish those reasons on the AustLII website .

Learn more about the types of decisions the Tribunal can make .

Learn more about the steps in the external review process .

This page current as of
13 January 2025
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