Federal Court. Was the Minister's decision under s 501BA of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) "legally unreasonable in that he failed to consider (or deferred consideration of) the applicant’s protection claims, despite the applicant being unable to make a protection application by reason of being barred by operation of s 48A of the Act"?
By the time the Minister made a personal decision under s 501BA of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) to cancel the applicant's Class BF visa, a delegate had refused to grant him a protection visa, and he had withdrawn his application to the Tribunal for review of that refusal.
Some of the questions to the Federal Court (FCA) were as follows:
Question 1: Was the Minister's decision under s 501BA "legally unreasonable in that he failed to consider (or deferred consideration of) the applicant’s protection claims, despite the applicant being unable to make a protection application by reason of being barred by operation of s 48A of the Act"?
Question 2: Was it legally "unreasonable for the Minister, having identified the legal consequences of a cancellation decision as including the applicant being liable under s 198 of the Act to removal from Australia and in the meantime liable to detention under s 189 of the Act, to not give the legal consequences of the decision any weight"?
The FCA answered those questions as follows: