AYX16 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs

This appeal concerns the judicial review of an international treaty obligations assessment (ITOA) undertaken by the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs in respect of the appellant, a 31-year-old male of Sri Lankan nationality and Tamil ethnicity who arrived in Australia as an unauthorised maritime arrival. The appellant argued that he was not afforded procedural fairness during the ITOA process, as documents containing country information were not provided to him, and that the ITOA assessor applied the wrong standard in conducting the ITOA. The court was required to determine whether the appellant was denied procedural fairness and whether the ITOA assessor applied the correct standard in conducting the ITOA.
The court found that the obligation to afford procedural fairness in the ITOA process required the assessor to adopt a procedure that was reasonable in the circumstances and did not constrain the opportunity of the person to propound their case for a favourable exercise of the power to amount to a practical injustice. The court held that the appellant was not denied procedural fairness, as the statutory framework within which the decision-maker exercises statutory power is of critical importance when considering what procedural fairness requires. The court further found that the correct inference to determine the content of the instructions given to the ITOA assessor was that the assessor applied the correct standard in conducting the ITOA. Therefore, the appeal was dismissed and the appellant was ordered to pay the Minister's costs of the appeal.