Koranteng v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection

Koranteng v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection concerned an application for judicial review of a decision by the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection not to revoke a mandatory cancellation of the applicant’s visa under s 501(3A) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). The applicant argued that the Assistant Minister’s decision was affected by jurisdictional error, namely that the Assistant Minister had failed to consider relevant material and had erred in his assessment of the applicant’s remorse. The primary legal issues the court had to decide were whether the Assistant Minister’s decision was legally unreasonable and whether it was affected by jurisdictional error.

The court examined the principles of legal unreasonableness and jurisdictional error as outlined in relevant authorities, such as Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v Li and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Eden. The court found that the applicant’s arguments did not establish any grounds for judicial review or jurisdictional error. While the Assistant Minister had considered the applicant’s 2 June 2016 statement and his limited mention of the victim, this did not amount to legal unreasonableness. The applicant’s recent apology to the victim by way of social media was not before the Assistant Minister and therefore not relevant to the application for judicial review. The court concluded that the Assistant Minister’s decision was within the bounds of legal reasonableness and did not suffer from jurisdictional error.

The court dismissed the application for judicial review and ordered that the applicant pay the respondent’s costs of the proceeding, to be taxed if not agreed.