2317208 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of Vanuatu, sought review of a decision by the Minister to refuse to grant a protection visa. The applicant lodged their application for review with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) outside the prescribed time limit. The AAT, constituted by Member Alison Murphy, was therefore required to determine whether it had jurisdiction to hear the application, given the out-of-time lodgement.

The central legal issue before the AAT was whether it possessed the power to extend the time for lodging an application for review of a protection visa refusal, or alternatively, whether the circumstances of the applicant's case warranted such an extension. This involved an interpretation of the relevant provisions of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth) concerning the time limits for making applications and the Tribunal's discretion to waive or extend those limits.

Member Murphy reasoned that the *Migration Act* does not confer upon the AAT a general discretion to extend the time for lodging an application for review of a protection visa refusal. The Tribunal's jurisdiction in such matters is strictly confined by the time limits prescribed in the Act. As the applicant had failed to lodge their application within the stipulated period and no statutory provision allowed for an extension in these circumstances, the AAT lacked the jurisdiction to proceed with the review. Consequently, the application was dismissed for want of jurisdiction.