Ham and Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application by Mr Ham to import a vehicle into Australia. Mr Ham, a permanent resident of Australia, had been on an overseas assignment in the UK from August 2013 to August 2015. During this period, he purchased a used Audi RS4 in November 2014. Upon his return to Australia in August 2015, he sought to import the vehicle. His application was refused by the delegate of the Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether Mr Ham met the requirements of regulation 13 of the Motor Vehicle Standards Regulations 1989 (Cth) for the grant of an approval to import the vehicle. If regulation 13 was not satisfied, the Tribunal had to consider whether to exercise its discretion under regulation 11 of the Regulations to grant approval. The primary contention was whether Mr Ham had owned the vehicle for the requisite 12-month period immediately prior to his return to Australia for the purpose of remaining in Australia indefinitely, as required by regulation 13(1)(ac).

The Tribunal found that Mr Ham did not satisfy the requirements of regulation 13, specifically regarding the 12-month ownership period. However, the Tribunal considered the circumstances of the case to be sufficiently unusual to warrant the exercise of discretion under regulation 11. The Tribunal noted that Mr Ham had made multiple applications and had mistakenly believed he met the requirements.

Consequently, the Tribunal set aside the original decision to refuse the application. In substitution, the Tribunal approved Mr Ham's application for permission to import the vehicle pursuant to regulation 11 of the Regulations.