ACX15 v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, ACX15, sought judicial review of a decision by the Refugee Review Tribunal (the Tribunal) to affirm the Minister for Immigration's refusal to grant a protection visa. The central dispute concerned allegations that the Tribunal had committed jurisdictional error, primarily due to the alleged incompetence of an interpreter during the hearing. The matter came before Judge Wilson of the Federal Court of Australia.

The court was required to determine whether the Tribunal had made a jurisdictional error by failing to properly consider the applicant's claims, particularly in light of the alleged interpreter incompetence. This involved an examination of what constitutes a "claim" and an "integer" of a claim in the context of migration law. The court also had to consider the applicable legal framework, including the principles established in *SZTAL v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection* [2016] FCAFC 69, while acknowledging that this decision was subject to an appeal to the High Court.

Judge Wilson reasoned that for an interpreter's alleged incompetence to amount to jurisdictional error, it must be shown that the interpreter's performance rendered the Tribunal hearing "unreal or unfair" to the applicant. The court found that the applicant had not adduced sufficient evidence to establish that the interpreter's conduct had this effect. Therefore, the court concluded that the Tribunal had not made a jurisdictional error in its assessment of the applicant's case, and the law applicable at the time of the decision, as informed by existing authorities, was correctly applied.

The application for judicial review was dismissed.