2100169 (Refugee)

The applicant sought review of a decision made by the Minister's delegate concerning a protection visa application. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was asked to determine whether it had jurisdiction to hear the application, given that the delegate's decision had previously been reviewed by the Tribunal.

The central legal issue before the AAT was whether it retained jurisdiction to review a decision that had already been the subject of a prior review by the Tribunal. This question turned on the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth) concerning the finality of decisions and the scope of the Tribunal's review powers.

The Tribunal reasoned that once a decision has been validly reviewed by the AAT, it ceases to be a "reviewable decision" for the purposes of further review. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain a subsequent application for review of the same delegate's decision. The principle applied is that the Tribunal's jurisdiction is engaged by a specific, unreviewed decision, and once that decision has been subject to the statutory review process, the Tribunal's power in relation to that particular decision is exhausted.

Accordingly, the Tribunal made an order that it did not have jurisdiction in the matter.