1904527 (Refugee)

The applicant sought review of a decision concerning a protection visa for Vietnam. The dispute before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) concerned the applicant's second application for review, which was lodged significantly outside the statutory time limit. The Tribunal was required to determine whether it had jurisdiction over this second application and, if not, whether it possessed the power to revoke its earlier decision that it lacked jurisdiction and to reopen the matter.

The Tribunal first considered the timeliness of the second application for review. It found that the applicant had been notified of the initial decision on 1 April 2020, establishing a deadline of 28 April 2020 for lodging a review application. As the second application was not received until 9 June 2022, the Tribunal concluded it had no jurisdiction in relation to this application. The Tribunal then turned to the question of its power to revoke and reopen its prior decision. Drawing on the High Court's decision in *Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Bhardwaj* and the AAT's own previous decisions in *Mora (Migration)* and *Re Michael and Secretary, Department of Employment, Science and Training; Re Edwards and Department of Health and Ageing*, the Tribunal affirmed that it had the power to revoke a decision to correct an obvious error. However, it noted that the exercise of this power required careful consideration of whether it was wise and just to do so, taking into account factors such as fairness to the parties and the nature of the error.

Applying these principles, the Tribunal determined that it was satisfied that its first decision, which found a lack of jurisdiction, should be revoked. The Tribunal considered it just and appropriate in all the circumstances to reopen the matter. Consequently, the Tribunal revoked its earlier decision dated 28 March 2019 and substituted it with a decision that the Tribunal has jurisdiction to conduct a review in relation to application number 1904527. The Tribunal reiterated that it did not have jurisdiction in relation to application number 2208444.