Oakwood Sydney Pty Ltd v Minister for Immigration & Anor and Goo & Ors v Minister for Immigration

Oakwood Sydney Pty Ltd and Goo & Ors were applicants seeking judicial review of decisions made by the Minister for Immigration. The dispute concerned the Minister's refusal to grant certain visas to the applicants, who were seeking to enter Australia for the purpose of undertaking employment. The matter came before Street J of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the Minister's decisions to refuse the visa applications were affected by jurisdictional error. Specifically, the applicants contended that the Minister had failed to take into account relevant considerations and had taken into account irrelevant considerations when making the decisions, thereby vitiating the lawfulness of those decisions.

Street J considered the principles of administrative law, particularly the grounds for judicial review based on jurisdictional error. His Honour examined the evidence before the Minister and the reasons provided for the refusal. The Court applied the established legal principles that an administrative decision-maker must consider all relevant factors and disregard all irrelevant factors when exercising their statutory power. If a decision-maker fails to do so, their decision may be deemed to be affected by jurisdictional error.

The Court found that the Minister had indeed failed to consider relevant factors in assessing the applications, leading to a jurisdictional error. Consequently, the decisions to refuse the visas were set aside.