Grice and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (Migration)

This matter concerned an application for the reinstatement of an application for review before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The applicant sought to reinstate his application for review of a delegate's decision not to revoke the cancellation of his visa. The original application for review had been withdrawn by the applicant.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant had withdrawn his application for review under a mistaken belief that he could not represent himself, and if so, whether this constituted an "error" for the purposes of section 42A(10) of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975 (Cth). The Tribunal was also required to consider whether, even if an error was established, the discretion to reinstate the application should be exercised, particularly in light of the timeliness of the original application for review.

Deputy President Boyle P found that the applicant was not under a mistaken belief that he could not represent himself when he instructed his lawyers to withdraw the application for review. Furthermore, even if such a misunderstanding had existed, it was not an "error" within the meaning of section 42A(10) of the AAT Act. Crucially, the Tribunal determined that the original application for review was destined to fail as it had not been lodged within the time prescribed by section 500(6B) of the Migration Act. Consequently, the application for reinstatement was refused.