EMJ17 v Minister For Immigration and Anor (No.3)

This matter concerned an application for judicial review brought by EMJ17 against the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. The applicant sought to challenge the lawfulness of decisions made by the Minister concerning his immigration status, specifically relating to adverse security assessments. The proceedings were heard in the Federal Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the Minister's decision to refuse to revoke a prior adverse security assessment, and consequently refuse to grant a visa, was affected by jurisdictional error. This involved an examination of the scope of the Minister's obligations under the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and the *Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979* (Cth) when considering security assessments, and whether the applicant had been afforded procedural fairness in the decision-making process.

Judge Street found that the Minister's decision-making process, in relation to the refusal to revoke the adverse security assessment, had been vitiated by jurisdictional error. The Court determined that the Minister had failed to provide EMJ17 with adequate notice of the adverse information relied upon and had not afforded him a sufficient opportunity to respond to that information, thereby breaching the principles of procedural fairness. The Court also considered the interaction between the *Migration Act* and the *ASIO Act* in the context of security assessments and the Minister's obligations.

The Court made orders quashing the Minister's decision to refuse to revoke the adverse security assessment and remitting the matter to the Minister for reconsideration according to law.