Su v Minister For Immigration and ANOR and Goldwell Trading Pty Ltd v Minister For Immigration and ANOR

In *Su v Minister for Immigration and ANOR* and *Goldwell Trading Pty Ltd v Minister for Immigration and ANOR*, the Federal Court of Australia considered appeals from decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The applicants, Mr. Su and Goldwell Trading Pty Ltd, sought judicial review of the AAT's decisions which affirmed the Minister's refusal to grant them visas. The core of the dispute concerned the interpretation and application of the character provisions within the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and associated regulations.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the AAT had erred in law by failing to properly consider the applicants' submissions regarding their rehabilitation and the circumstances surrounding their past criminal conduct when assessing their character for visa eligibility. Specifically, the Court was asked to determine if the AAT had given sufficient weight to evidence of remorse, efforts towards rehabilitation, and the passage of time since the offending conduct, as required by the relevant legislative framework and established principles of administrative law.

Judge Young found that the AAT had indeed made an error of law. The Tribunal had adopted an overly rigid approach to the character assessment, failing to adequately engage with the specific evidence presented by the applicants concerning their rehabilitation and the context of their offending. The Court reiterated the principle that a character test under the *Migration Act* requires a holistic and individualised assessment, taking into account all relevant factors, including positive aspects of an applicant's life and efforts towards rehabilitation, rather than a purely mechanistic application of the criteria. The Court concluded that the AAT had failed to provide adequate reasons for its findings on character, thereby breaching the requirements of procedural fairness and the *Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977* (Cth).

The Court ordered that the decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal be set aside and remitted to the AAT for redetermination according to law.