Jaber and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application for citizenship by conferral that was refused by the Minister's delegate on the grounds that the applicant was not of good character. The applicant sought review of this decision before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether it was satisfied that the applicant was of good character for the purposes of paragraph 21(2)(h) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 1948* (Cth). This involved considering the definition of "good character" as interpreted by the Citizenship Procedural Instruction 15 and relevant case law, which focuses on the enduring moral qualities of a person, distinguishing right from wrong, and conforming to the rules and values of Australian society.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's criminal history, which included a common assault conviction in 2006 involving domestic violence, and several traffic offences between 2014 and 2020. While the applicant claimed remorse and stated he had completed anger management and counselling, the Tribunal found that he lacked insight into the gravity of his offending, particularly the domestic violence offence. The Tribunal noted that domestic violence is considered a serious offence, fundamentally inconsistent with the behaviour expected by the Australian community, and requires compelling evidence to negate the presumption that a person convicted of such an offence is not of good character. The Tribunal concluded that the applicant had not demonstrated an enduring pattern of good conduct, and therefore was not satisfied that he met the good character requirement.