Ghanem v Australian Research Council

The case of Ghanem v Australian Research Council involves the applicant, Dr Ghanem, challenging the decision of the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Minister for Education and Science to not fund his application under the Future Fellowship scheme. The respondents to the proceeding were the ARC and the Minister. The Federal Court was required to determine whether the proceeding should be summarily dismissed. The legal issues were whether Dr Ghanem had a reasonable prospect of success in his challenge and whether there was a reasonable cause of action in respect of his allegation that the General Assessors acted in bad faith.

The court considered the principles for summary dismissal and whether Dr Ghanem had a reasonable prospect of success in his challenge. The court found that Dr Ghanem’s argument that the ARC and the Minister committed an error of law by acting upon Professor Byrne’s recommendations in circumstances where those recommendations had not been supported by adequate reasons was precluded by binding High Court authority and thus fell within the last sentence of [25] in Spencer v Commonwealth. The court also considered whether there was a reasonable cause of action in respect of Dr Ghanem’s allegation that the General Assessors acted in bad faith. The court found that there was no reasonable cause of action in this respect.

The court determined that the proceeding should be summarily dismissed as Dr Ghanem had no reasonable prospect of successfully prosecuting the proceeding and there was no reasonable cause of action in respect of his allegation that the General Assessors acted in bad faith.