HS & Sons Pty Ltd (Migration)

HS & Sons Pty Ltd (Migration) concerned an application for judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to cancel the applicant's approval as a standard business sponsor and temporary activities sponsor for a period of four years. The cancellation was based on the AAT's finding that the applicant had breached its sponsorship obligations by failing to pay sponsored workers via electronic funds transfer (EFT).

The central legal issue before the court was whether the AAT had erred in law by finding that the applicant had breached its sponsorship obligations. Specifically, the court had to determine if the failure to pay salaries by EFT constituted a breach of the relevant sponsorship obligations, notwithstanding that the sponsored workers had received their salaries in accordance with their respective awards and were employed as claimed. The court also considered whether the power to take action under section 140M of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) arose in these circumstances.

The court reasoned that the sponsorship obligation in question required payment of salary by EFT, but it also acknowledged that the sponsored workers had received their salaries as recorded and in accordance with their respective awards. The Tribunal had accepted that the sponsored workers were employed as cooks in the business as claimed. The court concluded that the power to take action under section 140M did not arise because the essential elements of a breach of sponsorship obligation, as contemplated by the legislation, were not met in this instance.

Consequently, the court set aside the decision under review.