2120273 (Refugee)

The applicant sought review of a decision by the Minister to refuse to grant a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was asked to consider whether it had jurisdiction to hear the review application, which was lodged out of time.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the application for review had been made within the time prescribed by the relevant legislation. If the application was out of time and no extension of time was granted or available, the Tribunal would lack jurisdiction to proceed with the substantive review.

The Tribunal found that the application for review was not received until 31 December 2021. As this date was outside the statutory timeframe for lodging such an application, the Tribunal determined that it had no jurisdiction to consider the matter. The Tribunal applied the principle that strict adherence to legislative time limits is essential for the conferral of jurisdiction.

Consequently, the Tribunal made no orders on the merits of the protection visa application, as it lacked the power to do so. The Tribunal's decision was that it did not have jurisdiction in this matter.