Case Law Updates

Federal Court. Is an address given on an incoming passenger card given for the purpose of s 52(3A) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth)? Was it open to the Minister to treat an address given for the purpose of s 52(3A) as the "person's last residential address ... known to the Minister" within the meaning of r 2.55(3)(c) of the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth)?

Federal Court. Para 8.3(4)(a)(i) of Direction 90 provided that "considerable weight should be given to the fact that a non-citizen has been ordinarily resident in Australia during and since their formative years". Does that compel the Tribunal to give "considerable weight"?

Federal Court. Does the "Citizenship Act require the relevant decision maker to consider and decide on each aspect of s 21(2) once s 21(1) is enlivened, even if a prohibition on approval applies", such as s 24(6)(g)?

Federal Court. Does the Federal Court have jurisdiction to review decisions made under s 198(6) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth)?

Federal Court. In circumstances where the Tribunal accepted that the applicant was suffering from a medical or psychological condition in relation to substance abuse and addiction that required clinical treatment and supervision, did it fail to complete the exercise of its jurisdiction, as para 9.2(1)(a) of Direction 99 require it to consider the applicant’s health issues relating to alcohol abuse and drug addiction, which it failed to do?

Federal Court (Full Court). Is it "permissible for the Court to speculate as to how the Tribunal might have reasoned or what conclusions it might have reached if it had not made the error in question"?

Federal Court. Is one reason why there may be no real prospect of removal becoming practicable that the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) itself imposes a statutory preclusion on the removal of the applicant? If so, did s 198(11) have the effect that removal of the applicant was only permitted to a regional processing country?

Federal Court (Full Court). Do the terms "at the time of the birth” in s 16(2)(a) of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) mean the moment the child “physically emerges from the mother or gestational carrier”, instead of a period of indefinite duration?

Federal Court (Full Court). Does a failure to perform the Secretary’s duty under s 418(3) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) to give the Tribunal the documents that are relevant to the review invalidate a subsequent decision by the Tribunal?

Federal Court (Full Court). Can it be said that, for para 9.2(1)(a) of Direction 90, "evidence or findings which reflect that the appellant misuses alcohol and drugs, has a propensity for poor behaviour or committing crimes while intoxicated and has required rehabilitative intervention does not compel a finding that the appellant has a dependency on alcohol amounting to a “health issue”, let alone one that would impede his reintegration in [his home country]"?