Kaye and Minister for Foreign Affairs

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2007] AATA 1995

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No A 2007/00033

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION		)
Re		JONATHAN KAYE

Applicant

And MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Mr A Sweidan, Senior Member

Date29 November 2007

PlacePerth

Decision The Tribunal affirms the decision under review.  

..........(Sgd. A Sweidan)......................

Senior Member

(d)On 7 February 2007, the respondent decided to:

(i)cancel the applicant's passport in accordance with s 22(2)(d) of the Australian Passports Act; and

(ii)refuse to issue a subsequent passport to the applicant under s14 (2) of that Act.

The legislative scheme

(i)        The decision to cancel or refuse a passport

3.      The principal object of the Australian Passports Act 2005 (the Act) is to provide for the issue and administration of Australian passports, to be used as evidence of identity and citizenship by Australian citizens who are travelling internationally: s 3.

4.      Part 2 of the Act deals with the issue of Australian travel documents, including Australian passports.  By s 7,

(1)       An Australian citizen is entitled, on application to the Minister, to be issued with an Australian passport by the Minister.

(2)       An Australian citizen’s entitlement to be issued with an Australian passport is affected by section 8 (relating to satisfaction as to identity) and by Division 2.”

5.      These proceedings relate to the application of Division 2 of the Act and in particular Subdivision B thereof under which the Minister may refuse to issue an Australian passport for reasons relating to law enforcement and security. In each case, under that subdivision, the power of the Minister to cancel or to refuse to issue an Australian passport arises on a “refusal/cancellation request” by a competent authority. A competent authority is defined in each of ss 12, 13 and 14 for the purposes of each section.

6.By s 14:

(1)If a competent authority suspects on reasonable grounds that:

(a)if an Australian passport were issued to a person, the person would be likely to engage in conduct that:

(i)might prejudice the security of Australia or a foreign country; or

(ii)might endanger the health or physical safety of other persons (whether in Australia or a foreign country); or

(iii)might interfere with the rights or freedoms of other persons (whether in Australia or a foreign country) set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; or

(iv)might constitute an indictable offence against this Act; or

(v)might constitute an indictable offence against a law of the Commonwealth, being an offence specified in a Minister’s determination; and

(b)the person should be refused an Australian passport in order to prevent the person from engaging in the conduct;

the competent authority may make a refusal/cancellation request in relation to the person.

(2)If a competent authority makes a request under subsection (1), the Minister may refuse to issue the person an Australian passport.

(3)In this section:

competent authority:

(a)in relation to a circumstance mentioned in subsection (1) that relates to Australia, means:

(i)a person who has…