BB & Ors & DB

The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia heard an appeal concerning the interpretation of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and the *Migration Regulations 1994* (Cth) in relation to the cancellation of a visa. The applicants, BB and others, sought judicial review of decisions made by the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs to cancel their visas under s 501(3)(c) of the *Migration Act*. The primary dispute revolved around whether the Minister was required to consider certain information when making the cancellation decision, specifically information that had been provided to the Minister after the initial decision to cancel the visa had been made but before the notification of that decision was issued.

The central legal issue before the Full Court was whether the Minister, in exercising the power to cancel a visa under s 501(3)(c) of the *Migration Act*, was obliged to consider information provided by the visa holder after the decision to cancel the visa had been made but before the notification of that decision was formally issued to the visa holder. This involved an examination of the statutory framework governing visa cancellation and the procedural fairness obligations owed by the Minister in such circumstances.

The Full Court held that the Minister's power under s 501(3)(c) is enlivened when the Minister is satisfied that a person does not pass the character test. Once that satisfaction is reached, the Minister may cancel the visa. The Court determined that the statutory scheme did not impose an obligation on the Minister to consider information provided after the decision to cancel had been made, even if that information was received before the notification of the cancellation was issued. The Court reasoned that the decision-making process was complete once the Minister formed the requisite satisfaction and decided to cancel the visa. Therefore, subsequent information, unless it altered the Minister's satisfaction, did not need to be considered. The appeal was dismissed.