Heaki and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs (Migration)

The applicant, a New Zealand citizen who arrived in Australia in February 2018, sought to have his visa cancellation revoked. The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs opposed the revocation. The matter came before the Hon. Dennis Cowdroy AO KC, Deputy President, of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The central legal issue was whether there was "another reason" why the applicant's visa cancellation, made due to failure to pass the character test, should be revoked. This required the Tribunal to consider the criteria set out in Ministerial Direction No. 90, which includes primary considerations such as the protection of the Australian community, the best interests of minor children, and the expectations of the Australian community, as well as other considerations including impediments to removal and links to the Australian community.

The Tribunal's reasoning involved weighing the various considerations under Ministerial Direction No. 90. It found that Primary Considerations A (protection of the Australian community), B (family violence, though not explicitly detailed in the provided text, it is listed as a primary consideration), and D (expectations of the Australian community) weighed against revocation. Primary Consideration C (best interests of minor children) weighed slightly in favour. Among the secondary considerations, impediments to removal and links to the Australian community were found to weigh only minimally in favour of revocation.

Ultimately, the Tribunal concluded that when all considerations were weighed in totality, they weighed against revocation. Consequently, the Tribunal was unable to find that there was another reason why the original decision to cancel the applicant's visa should be revoked, and therefore affirmed the decision under review.