meganpepi – if you have had a full management order from the Tribunal then there must have been some serious issues with the management/administration of your plan. This is not the type of order that is given lightly, and the Tribunal needs to be satisfied that essentially the plan/scheme is not functioning, especially if full orders are made, which means that all power was taken away from the owners.
If there were insufficient levies then that also had to be rectified. In the general scheme of things $1700 a quarter in total is not a huge amount of money, although of course if the scheme were self-managed then you wouldn’t be paying a strata manager. We don’t know what other issues there were or are that require the increase in levies.
It also seems from what you have said that the other owner instigated the application for an order for a compulsory strata manager. They must have, as no-one else has standing to request such an order (well ok they might, but it would be unusual).
I think you are correct – at present you will not be able to remove the strata manager. You don’t say how long their appointment is for, but you will need to wait at least until that lapses.