CHH17 v Minister For Immigration and Anor (No.2)

This matter concerned an application for judicial review brought by CHH17 against the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and the second respondent, the Immigration Assessment Authority. The applicant sought to challenge the decision of the Immigration Assessment Authority to affirm the Minister's decision to refuse to grant the applicant a protection visa.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the Immigration Assessment Authority had failed to provide the applicant with procedural fairness in its review of the protection visa refusal. Specifically, the applicant contended that the Authority had failed to provide him with adequate notice of the adverse information that formed the basis of its decision, thereby preventing him from responding to that information.

Judge Street found that the Authority had indeed breached the duty of procedural fairness. The Court reasoned that a fundamental aspect of procedural fairness requires an administrative decision-maker to afford a person the opportunity to know and respond to adverse information that is likely to influence the outcome of a decision. In this instance, the Authority had relied on information that was not disclosed to the applicant, and which was material to the assessment of his claims for protection. The Court held that this failure vitiated the decision of the Authority.

The Court made orders setting aside the decision of the Immigration Assessment Authority and remitting the matter to the Authority for redetermination according to law.