Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Guo Wei Rong

The Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (the Minister) appealed to the Full Federal Court against a decision of a single judge of that Court, which had quashed a decision of the Minister to refuse Mr Guo Wei Rong (the applicant) a visa. The applicant had sought to enter Australia as a business migrant.

The central legal issue before the Full Federal Court was whether the Minister, in making the decision to refuse the visa, had failed to afford the applicant procedural fairness. Specifically, the Court considered whether the Minister was obliged to inform the applicant of adverse information that had come to the Minister's attention and which was likely to be the basis of the refusal, and to provide an opportunity for the applicant to respond to that information.

The Court reasoned that the principles of procedural fairness, as established in cases such as *Kiao v Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs* and *Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh*, required that a person be given a reasonable opportunity to present their case before a decision is made that is adverse to their interests. In this instance, the Minister had received a report from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) which contained adverse information concerning the applicant. The Court held that this adverse information was of such a nature that it was likely to be determinative of the visa application, and therefore the applicant ought to have been given notice of the substance of the adverse information and an opportunity to comment on it before the Minister made the decision to refuse the visa.

The appeal was dismissed, and the order of the single judge quashing the Minister's decision was affirmed.