Federal Court (Full Court): Direction 65, which for the purpose of this decision was identical to Direction 79, required the Tribunal to take into account a number of considerations in deciding whether to refuse a visa under s 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). One such consideration was labelled the "expectations of the Australian community". Are those expectations pre-determined by the direction itself as deemed expectations? What is the content of those expectations?
This is an appeal from a decision of a single judge of the Federal Court (FCA) to the Full Court of the FCA (FCAFC).
The questions to the FCAFC were as follows:
Question 1: In the context of determining whether a visa should be refused under s 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) on character grounds, were the "expectations of the Australian community" pre-determined by Direction No 65? In other words, were the expectations of the Australian community stated in Direction No 65 to be treated as deemed expectations?
Question 2: What is the content of those expectations? Can they weigh in favour of an individual?
The FCA answered those questions as follows: