“Active intellectual consideration” necessarily an invitation to merits review?

Some of the questions to the Federal Court (FCA) were as follows:

Question 1: Is a decision-maker’s obligation to go beyond the case articulated by an applicant confined to unarticulated claims which are apparent on the face of the material before it?

Question 2: In the context of the review of a decision under s 501CA(4) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), the Minister is obliged to lodge with the Tribunal every document in the Minister’s possession that is ‘relevant to the making of the decision’: s 500(6F)(c). Does it necessarily follow that the Tribunal is under an obligation to at least consider the documents lodged with it under s 500(6F)(c) as relevant documents?

Question 3: Can it be said that "materials, information or evidence may in and of themselves supply a reason for revoking cancellation of the visa without the need for an applicant to specifically identify that ‘reason’ or expressly place a ‘label’ on the information, materials or evidence as another reason for revoking the cancellation of the visa"?

Question 4: Can it be said that, "if there is material before the Tribunal that raises a matter that Direction 90 requires a delegate to take into account, the Tribunal cannot ignore that material"?

Question 5: In Plaintiff M1, the High Court warned of the danger of labels such as "active intellectual consideration" inviting impermissible merits review. Does the use of such labels necessarily invite merits review?

The FCA answered those questions as follows: