Nguyen and Vu Publishers Pty Ltd v Minister for Immigration and Anor

Nguyen and Vu Publishers Pty Ltd (the applicant) sought judicial review of a decision by the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (the first respondent) to refuse to grant a visa. The second respondent was the Commonwealth of Australia. The applicant contended that the decision was affected by jurisdictional error.

The primary legal issue before the Federal Court was whether the delegate of the Minister had failed to consider relevant considerations and had taken into account irrelevant considerations when assessing the applicant's eligibility for the visa. Specifically, the applicant argued that the delegate had failed to properly consider the applicant's submissions regarding their business activities and their contribution to the Australian economy, and had instead placed undue weight on information obtained from third-party sources that was not disclosed to the applicant.

Judge Burchardt found that the delegate had indeed committed jurisdictional error. The Court reasoned that the delegate's assessment had been based on a misunderstanding of the applicant's business structure and had failed to engage with the evidence provided by the applicant. The principle applied was that a decision-maker must genuinely consider all relevant material placed before them and must not rely on information that has not been disclosed to the applicant, particularly when that information is adverse to the applicant's case. The delegate's failure to provide the applicant with an opportunity to respond to the adverse information constituted a breach of procedural fairness and rendered the decision invalid.

The Court ordered that the decision of the Minister to refuse the visa be set aside and remitted to the Minister for reconsideration according to law.