High Court. Was the Tribunal required to apply a Direction in force at the time when the decision under review was made or when the application for merits review was made, instead of the Direction in force at the time when the Tribunal made its decision? In other words, did the Appellant have an accrued right to have Tribunal determine his review in accordance with a Direction in force before the date of the Tribunal's decision?
Some of the questions to the High Court (HCA) were as follows:
Question 1: Did the power conferred on the Tribunal by s 43(1) of the AAT Act to exercise "all the powers and discretions that are conferred by any relevant enactment" on the original decision-maker indicate that the Tribunal's task was to "apply the laws governing the exercise of powers and discretions in force at the time of the Tribunal's decision"?
Question 2: Can it be said that "an administrative decision-maker is required to make [their] decision on the basis of material available to [them] at the time the decision is made"?
Question 3: Did s 499(2A) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) apply to the Tribunal directly, instead of derivatively by reason of the Tribunal standing in the shoes of the delegate?
Question 4: Can the requirement of s 499(2A) that a body, which included the Tribunal, "must comply with a direction" under s 499(1), "only be understood as a requirement to comply with a direction in force at the time of the exercise of the relevant function or power"?
The HCA answered those questions as follows: