Mouflih v Minister for Home Affairs

In Mouflih v Minister for Home Affairs, the Federal Court of Australia considered an application for judicial review of a decision by the Minister for Home Affairs not to revoke the cancellation of the applicant’s visa. The applicant, a citizen of Morocco, had been granted a Partner (Provisional) visa in 2014. However, in August 2017, he was convicted of assault occasioning bodily harm against his wife, who is an Australian citizen. Following this conviction, the Minister cancelled the applicant’s visa and invited him to make representations for revocation. The applicant’s wife submitted additional documents to the Department of Home Affairs in support of the revocation request, which were allegedly not considered by the Minister.

The court had to determine whether the Minister failed to consider several documents sent by the applicant’s wife, and if such failure constituted a jurisdictional error that would warrant quashing the decision. The applicant argued that the Minister’s oversight of these documents was material to the outcome of the decision. The Minister contended that the documents were never posted or received by the Department.

The court found that the documents in question were indeed part of the bundle sent by the applicant’s wife and were received by the Department. However, the Minister’s failure to consider these documents did not amount to jurisdictional error because they were not material to the decision. The court concluded that the Minister had sufficiently considered the relevant factors and that the documents, even if considered, would not have led to a different outcome.

Consequently, the court extended the time for the applicant to seek judicial review, quashed the Minister’s decision, and ordered the Minister to reconsider the application according to law. Additionally, the court ordered the Minister to pay the applicant’s costs of the application.