Hawkins and Minister for Home Affairs (Migration)

This matter concerned an application to revoke the cancellation of the Applicant's visa, which had been cancelled due to the Applicant failing the character test. The Applicant had committed over 180 offences over a 28-year period. The decision-maker was required to consider whether there was "another reason" to revoke the cancellation of the visa, taking into account primary and other considerations.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were to assess the nature and seriousness of the Applicant's conduct, specifically the frequency and cumulative effect of his offending, and to weigh this against other considerations, such as his family ties to Australia and the potential impact of revocation. The Tribunal was required to determine if these other considerations were sufficient to outweigh the significant weight of the primary consideration concerning the protection of the Australian community from criminal conduct.

The Tribunal considered the Applicant's extensive criminal history, which included over 180 offences between 1989 and 2017, with numerous convictions for drug possession. Despite the Applicant's claims of being drug-free for a period, the Tribunal found no concrete reason preventing relapse, noting that his efforts to cease drug use appeared to be primarily motivated by the prospect of deportation. The Tribunal concluded that the sheer frequency and cumulative effect of the Applicant's offending over nearly three decades were very serious, outweighing his family ties and any potential impact on Australian business interests. The Tribunal found that the Applicant would face little impediment to living in the UK and ultimately determined that there was no other reason to revoke the cancellation of his visa.