Hillman-McLean v Minister for Immigration (No.3)

In *Hillman-McLean v Minister for Immigration (No.3)*, Judge Kendall of the Federal Circuit Court considered a dispute concerning the cancellation of the applicant's Special Category visa. The applicant sought to challenge the Minister's decision that his representations regarding the revocation of the cancellation were made outside the legislative time limit. The central contention was whether the applicant had effectively made these representations within the prescribed period.

The court was required to determine whether the applicant's alleged act of handing representations to a "prison officer" constituted making representations to the Minister within the statutory timeframe. This involved considering whether a prison officer could be considered a proxy for the Minister and whether such an officer had an express or implied duty to transmit documents to the Minister. The court also had to assess whether the applicant's subsequent email, sent almost two years after receiving the cancellation notice, could be considered a valid representation within the time limit.

Judge Kendall reasoned that the legislative framework required representations to be made in accordance with the instructions provided, which specified a 28-day timeframe for lodging a completed Revocation Request Form. The court found that the applicant's claim of handing documents to a prison officer did not satisfy the requirements for making representations to the Minister. There was no evidence that the prison officer was a Ministerial proxy or had a duty to transmit such documents. Furthermore, the applicant's email, sent well outside the 28-day period, was not a valid representation for the purpose of revoking the cancellation decision. Consequently, the court concluded that no jurisdictional error had occurred.