First habeas corpus case relying on NZYQ
Federal Court. Is an alien who has no legal right to remain in Australia "permitted to engineer their own release into the community by frustrating the efforts of officers to carry out their duty under s 198 of the Act"? If so, should a non-citizen who seeks to prevent his/her return to the country where they fear harm, but does not seek to prevent his/her removal from Australia to some other place, be seen as engineering their own release into the community?
Tribunal acting under dictation?
Federal Court (Full Court). Can it be said that acting under dictation might "occur where a decision-maker, tasked with a particular statutory function impermissibly merely adopts the decision of another body without undertaking the statutory task themselves"? If the Tribunal accepts or adopts a proposition of law, where that proposition itself was not erroneous, is the Tribunal acting under dictation?
Is indefinite detention lawful?
High Court. Does the constitutionally permissible period of executive detention of an alien who has failed to obtain permission to remain in Australia come to an end when there is no real prospect of removal of the alien from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future? If so, who bears the onus of proving that there is no real prospect of removal becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future?
Does self-representation impact upon content of procedural fairness?
Federal Court. Is the fact that an applicant is self-represented before the Tribunal a relevant circumstance which impacts the question of the fairness of the procedure adopted by the Tribunal?
Overlap between failure to afford PF and apprehension of bias?
Federal Court. May there "be overlap between a failure to afford an opportunity to be heard, and a reasonable apprehension of bias on the ground of pre-judgment, because the former may give rise to the latter"?
Does family violence include belittling, intimidating or frightening conduct?
Federal Court. Does family violence include belittling, intimidating, frightening, or similar conduct directed to the person claiming to be the victim of domestic violence? Can it be said that, instead of being obliged to accept the evidence that was before her, the independent expert was required to make her own, independent assessment as to whether or not the appellant was a victim of relevant family violence?
Failure to consider matter which only arose from findings?
Federal Court (Full Court). Can it be said in the context of s 501CA(4) that "there is no foundation for the submission that [the administrative decision-maker] erred by failing to take into account a matter which was not advanced to him and which, if it arose, did so only by reason of the findings which he had made"?
XJLR extended?
Federal Court. Could a subsequent s 501(3A) cancellation decision rely on a conviction if that conviction was previously taken into account when deciding to revoke a mandatory cancellation?
Section 36(1C)(b): mental health only counts if it favours applicant?
Federal Court. In the context of s 36(1C)(b) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), is the state of an applicant's mental health now and into the future a matter which is only to be counted to the extent that it favours the applicant?
Section 36D(1) of Citizenship Act unconstitutional?
High Court. Is the effect of Ch III of the Constitution is to make punishment of criminal conduct exclusively judicial even if the punishment is separated from the adjudication of that criminal guilt? Did s 36D(1) of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) purport to vest such a power to impose additional or further punishment in the Minister? If so, is s 36D invalid in its operation in respect of the applicant because it reposes in the Minister for Home Affairs the exclusively judicial function of punishing criminal guilt?