Galuak and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application by Mr Galuak to review the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection's decision to revoke his Australian citizenship by conferral. The dispute centred on whether the Minister was satisfied that Mr Galuak would not be rendered stateless by the revocation, and whether the revocation was otherwise contrary to the public interest. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was required to determine these issues.

The primary legal questions before the Tribunal were whether the Minister had correctly concluded that Mr Galuak would not be rendered stateless, and whether the Minister's discretion to revoke citizenship under section 34(2) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth) had been properly exercised. The applicant argued that the Minister had not taken sufficient steps to ascertain Mr Galuak's nationality status with South Sudan, and that there was a real risk of statelessness given the ongoing civil unrest and lack of documentation.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's submissions regarding his birth in South Sudan and his family's subsequent flight from conflict. However, it found that the seriousness of Mr Galuak's offending, which commenced before his citizenship was conferred but was not fully disclosed at that time, and the sustained pattern of his criminal behaviour, along with a substantial risk of re-offending, weighed heavily in favour of revocation. The Tribunal was satisfied that it was preferable to exercise the discretion to revoke Mr Galuak's citizenship.

Accordingly, the Tribunal affirmed the Minister's decision of 22 June 2017 to revoke Mr Galuak's citizenship.