FSDH and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application for review of a delegate of the Minister's decision to refuse the Applicant Australian citizenship. The Applicant had entered Australia in the 1970s as a permanent resident. He had lodged citizenship applications in 1978 and 1983, neither of which were finalised due to outstanding requirements. The Applicant had a history of convictions, including serious sexual offences committed against a minor, which led to the cancellation of his permanent visa in 2004. He was subsequently detained as an unlawful non-citizen upon his release from prison in 2013. The delegate refused the 1983 citizenship application in December 2017, which the Applicant sought to have reviewed by the Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it had jurisdiction to review the Minister's decision to refuse the Applicant's citizenship application. The Respondent contended that the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction on two grounds: firstly, that the Applicant did not meet, and could not meet, the requirement of being a permanent resident at the time of his application and the decision; and secondly, that section 52(2) of the *Citizenship Act* specifically precluded the Applicant from applying for review as he was not a permanent resident. The Respondent also submitted that the Applicant was unlikely to satisfy the good character requirement, though accepted it was open for the Tribunal to reach a different conclusion on that point.

The Tribunal determined that the question of jurisdiction was a threshold issue. Applying section 52(2) of the *Citizenship Act*, the Tribunal found that it had no jurisdiction to hear the application for review of a decision to refuse citizenship if the applicant was not a permanent resident. As the Tribunal concluded that the Applicant was not a permanent resident, it held that it lacked jurisdiction to proceed with the review. Consequently, the Tribunal dismissed the application under section 42A(4) of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth).