SZQGT v Minister for Immigration and Anor (No.2)

This matter came before Judge Cameron of the Federal Court of Australia following a successful appeal on a discrete issue, resulting in the proceeding being remitted for the making of final orders. The dispute concerned the review of a recommendation made by an independent merits reviewer, which had determined that the applicant, SZQGT, should not be recognised as a person to whom Australia owes protection obligations.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the merits reviewer's recommendation was affected by jurisdictional error. Specifically, the Court was required to determine if the merits reviewer had failed to afford SZQGT procedural fairness, thereby vitiating the recommendation. This involved an examination of whether SZQGT had been given adequate notice of, and opportunity to respond to, adverse information that was relied upon by the merits reviewer in reaching their conclusion.

Judge Cameron found that the merits reviewer had indeed committed a jurisdictional error by failing to provide SZQGT with procedural fairness. The Court reasoned that the reviewer had relied on adverse information that had not been disclosed to SZQGT, and that SZQGT had not been given a reasonable opportunity to address this information. Consequently, the merits reviewer's recommendation was vitiated by this error.

The Court ordered that the decision of the merits reviewer be set aside. The matter was remitted to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for redetermination according to law.