Salapo v Minister for Home Affairs

In the Federal Court of Australia, Salapo has filed an application for judicial review of a decision made by the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. The decision in question was made pursuant to section 501CA(4) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and concerns the cancellation of Salapo's Special Category (Class TY) visa. Salapo's visa was cancelled under section 501(3A) of the Act on 14 December 2015, and Salapo has now filed an application for review 77 days outside the time allowed by section 477A(1) of the Act. Salapo seeks an extension of time to file his application for review and argues that the decision should be overturned on the basis that the Minister failed to consider the best interests of Salapo's four children.

The central issue before the court was whether the Minister failed to consider the best interests of Salapo's four children when he made the decision to cancel Salapo's visa. The court considered the submissions made by Salapo and found that although the Minister had taken into account the applicant's background of offending and his recidivism, he had given only very limited weight to the applicant's current submissions that he has learned his lesson, benefited from rehabilitative training, has employment available to him, and will not reoffend. The court held that the Minister did not fail to consider the best interests of Salapo's children when he made the decision to cancel Salapo's visa.

The court found that the Minister's decision to cancel Salapo's visa was reasonable, and dismissed Salapo's application for judicial review. The court ordered that Salapo pay the respondent's costs. The court also noted that Salapo's visa cancellation decision was made pursuant to section 501(3A) of the Act, and that the delegate was satisfied that Salapo did not pass the character test because of the operation of section 501(6)(a) of the Act on the basis of section 501(7), and because Salapo was serving a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more for a criminal offence.