2202736 (Refugee)

The applicant sought review of a decision made by the Minister's delegate concerning a protection visa. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) had previously considered an application for review of the delegate's decision but found it had no jurisdiction to do so. Consequently, the delegate's decision was no longer considered a reviewable decision.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it retained jurisdiction to review the delegate's decision, given that a prior review application concerning the same decision had already been determined by the Tribunal to be outside its jurisdiction. The Tribunal was required to consider the effect of its previous jurisdictional finding on its current ability to review the delegate's decision.

The Tribunal reasoned that once it had made a decision that it lacked jurisdiction to review a particular decision, that original decision ceased to be a reviewable decision. Therefore, the Tribunal could not subsequently entertain a further application for review of the same delegate's decision. The principle applied was that a decision that has been found to be outside the Tribunal's jurisdiction is no longer amenable to review by the Tribunal.

The Tribunal concluded that it did not have jurisdiction in the matter.