Polat and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application for review of a decision by the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection to refuse citizenship to the applicant, Mr Polat. The central dispute revolved around whether Mr Polat was of good character at the time the Minister made the decision, as required by section 21(2)(h) of the *Citizenship Act 1948* (Cth). The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) heard the application for review.

The legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if the applicant possessed the requisite good character for citizenship purposes as of 25 January 2018. This required the Tribunal to consider the applicant's criminal history, specifically his convictions for common assault in circumstances of aggravation or racial aggravation and unlawful wounding in circumstances of aggravation, and assess how these offences weighed against his claim of good character. The Tribunal also had to consider the applicant's submissions and character references in light of the seriousness of the offences.

The Tribunal reasoned that domestic violence offences are considered extremely serious by the Commonwealth government, citing previous AAT decisions and a government media release that underscored the devastating impact of such violence. The Tribunal noted that there would need to be compelling evidence and extremely good reasons to overcome the presumption that a person convicted of a domestic violence offence is not of good character. While the applicant provided character references, including from his wife, asserting his good character and stating he had not reoffended, the Tribunal found that these did not provide sufficient compelling evidence to negate the seriousness of his prior convictions. The Tribunal concluded that the applicant's convictions for serious aggravated offences weighed heavily against him and that he was not of good character at the relevant time.

The Tribunal affirmed the Minister's decision to refuse citizenship.