1917414 (Refugee)

The applicant sought review of a decision by the Department of Home Affairs to refuse their application for a protection visa. The application for review was lodged with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) on 28 June 2019.

The primary legal issue before the AAT was whether it had jurisdiction to hear the application for review, given that it was lodged outside the time prescribed by the relevant legislation. The AAT was required to determine if the application was made in accordance with the legislative requirements for lodging an application for review.

The AAT Member, David McCulloch, found that the application for review was not received by the Tribunal until 28 June 2019. This date was outside the timeframe stipulated by the relevant legislation for making an application for review. Consequently, the AAT Member concluded that the application was not made in accordance with the law. The AAT Member noted that a Full Federal Court decision on the validity of a department notification letter, which failed to state a time period clearly, was binding on the Tribunal. However, this point did not alter the finding regarding the timeliness of the application.

The Tribunal determined that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the application for review.