On 17 April 1974, he was made Minister for Education, with Recreation, the Arts and Federal Affairs being added to his portfolio in 1976.
With the Left faction's perceived snub to Batt, the government sought to negate the effect of the how-to-vote ticket, and settled on the introduction of "Robson Rotation", a method of printing ballot papers in batches with candidates listed differently to combat the effect of the "donkey vote".
However, on 28 July, Batt announced his resignation from the House of Assembly and the Labor Party to take up a position with the United Nations in Bangladesh.
[4] Upon the end of his UN posting, Batt worked in private industry, but returned to politics in 1986, when he was re-elected to the House of Assembly for Denison on at the state election on 8 February.
In 1991, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for in recognition of service to the Tasmanian Parliament, to politics and to the community.