The names of the 9 new appointments and 23 re-appointments to seven year terms on the powerful Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was released on Friday at 4:35pm, when most of Australia had already knocked off work for the football grand final weekend.



Late last year BuzzFeed News revealed some of the Liberal party connections to those on the AAT — the independent body of review for important government decisions around freedom of information requests, disability and veterans' appeals, child support arrangements and refugee applications.

Six out of 23 of the senior full-time members on the AAT, that is more than 26 per cent, have identified Liberal links.



In June, after news broke that several members of the tribunal would not have their contracts renewed, Brandis purged the AAT and hand picked a series of new appointments, including a failed Liberal candidate and a lifetime member of the Sydney University Liberal Club.

Some of the jobs are full-time, others part-time, with tribunal members paid up to $360,000 a year. Both Labor and Liberal governments have attracted controversy in the past for appointing political allies to the tribunal.

Former Queensland justice department director-general for the Newman government John Sosso has been promoted to part-time deputy president, a position worth $1,800 day.