2110005 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application by a Chinese citizen for review of a delegate of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection's decision to refuse to grant him a protection visa. The applicant had previously applied for a protection visa, which was refused after he failed to attend a delegate interview. He then applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of this refusal.

The AAT was required to determine whether it had jurisdiction to review the delegate's decision, given that a previous application for review of the same decision had already been made and dismissed by the Tribunal. The applicant had failed to appear at a scheduled hearing for the initial review, leading the Tribunal to dismiss that application. Subsequently, the applicant made a second application for review of the original refusal decision.

The Tribunal reasoned that once it has received a valid application for review of a decision and conducted its statutory review, that decision is no longer "reviewable." Applying this principle, and citing relevant case law, the Tribunal held that it lacked jurisdiction to review the delegate's decision for a second time, as it had already been the subject of a valid review. The applicant had also failed to respond to the Tribunal's invitation to comment on the validity of his second application.

Consequently, the Tribunal determined that it did not have jurisdiction in this matter.