CWZ18 v Minister for Home Affairs

CWZ18 (the applicant) sought judicial review of a decision by the Immigration Assessment Authority (the Authority) to refuse an application for a Safe Haven Enterprise visa. The applicant contended that the Authority had acted unreasonably in failing to exercise its powers under s 473DC of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and that the adverse findings made by the Authority were tainted by doubt and lacked an evident and intelligible justification.

The central legal issues before the Federal Court were whether the Authority's decision was legally unreasonable, specifically in its failure to invoke s 473DC, and whether the adverse findings against the applicant were vitiated by doubt or lacked a rational basis. The applicant argued that these failures constituted jurisdictional error.

Justice Street found that the applicant had not made out an arguable case of jurisdictional error. The Court reasoned that the Authority's decision-making process, including its adverse findings, was not demonstrably unreasonable or lacking in justification. The applicant's arguments regarding the Authority's failure to exercise its powers under s 473DC were not persuasive, as the Authority was entitled to reach its conclusions based on the evidence before it.

Consequently, the amended application for judicial review was dismissed.