BAQ21 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2021] FCA 369

Federal Court of Australia

BAQ21 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2021] FCA 369 File number: VID 1404 of 2019

Judgment of: MOSHINSKY J

Date of judgment: 16 April 2021

Catchwords: MIGRATION – application for Ministerial intervention – where application assessed by Departmental officer under Minister's guidelines – where officer considered that the circumstances of the case did not meet the Minister's guidelines for referral and, accordingly, the request was finalised without referral – whether the officer's decision was made unlawfully due to a misconstruction of the guidelines – whether the officer's decision was legally unreasonable – whether the guidelines involved a delegation by the Minister of his power under the applicable provision – whether the guidelines involved an exercise by officers of the Department of the Minister's power under the applicable provision

Legislation: Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth), s 39B Migration Act 1958 (Cth), ss 46A, 48B, 195A, 349, 351, 415, 417, 501J

Cases cited: Alfred v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2020] FCA 457 Bedlington v Chong (1998) 87 FCR 75 Davis v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2020] FCA 791 Jabbour v Secretary, Department of Home Affairs [2019] FCA 452 Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v SZSSJ (2016) 259 CLR 180 Plaintiff M61/2010E v Commonwealth (2010) 243 CLR 319 Plaintiff S4/2014 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2014) 253 CLR 219; Plaintiff S10/2011 v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (2012) 246 CLR 636 Raikua v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2007) 158 FCR 510 XAD (by her Litigation Guardian XAE) v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2020] FCA 495