According to SCT chair Jocelyn Furlan, in the long term the Tribunal tends to find in favour of trustees two thirds of the time.
The higher number in the March 2013 quarter is likely due to the higher number of administration complaints in the quarter, said Ms Furlan. Twenty of the 35 cases determined by the SCT in the quarter related to administration.
“The affirmation rate tends to be a bit higher [for administration complaints] because a lot of the complainants tend to be complaining about things the Tribunal can’t give them a remedy for,” she said.
The number of telephone calls received by the SCT was steady in the March quarter at 2,794 – up 1.6 per cent from the previous quarter. The Tribunal received 614 written complaints in the March quarter (compared to 611 in the previous quarter).
The Tribunal conciliated 537 written complaints in the March quarter (down 3.2 per cent), and 63 cases were conciliated (down 43.2 per cent from 111 in the previous quarter).
The median number of days from the receipt of a complaint was 1,171 for the March quarter. There was a significant jump between the figure between the September 2012 quarter (818) and the December 2012 quarter (1,179) because the SCT changed its policy to ‘first in, first out’ when it comes to complaints.
“We used to prioritise death complaints, but we found that we had so many complaints that we were never getting to some of the others because there were enough death and disability complaints coming in to keep us occupied,” said Ms Furlan.
The SCT will be using the extra $2.6 million in funding over four years allocated in the federal Budget to work through a backlog of complaints, she said.
The Tribunal will likely recruit an additional four to seven staff to add to the 41 employees currently working in the secretariat, Ms Furlan added.
The SCT also recently announced the creation of an Advisory Council, which will meet quarterly.
The council exists to “enhance the communication lines between the SCT and its stakeholders”, according to Ms Furlan. The council’s first meeting was on the 10 May.
