I reported last week how Chief Executive and Principal Registrar at the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), Michael Hawkins, informed Senate Estimates that the ART was being overwhelmed by an “explosion” of international students appealing their visa rejections.
Senate Estimates was told that the ART is struggling to process a whopping 46,590 student visa decisions as of October 31, 2025, with student visa cases representing 38% of the ART’s total caseload, with more than 13,000 one to two years old.
Hawkins warned that the ART “simply don’t have the resources” to process the claims. And when asked whether staff were triaging student visa cases, Hawkins was blunt.
