TANG v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, Mr. Tang, sought judicial review of a decision by the Minister for Immigration to refuse his application for a partner visa. The dispute centred on whether the Minister had adequately considered all relevant information when making the refusal decision. The matter came before Judge Barnes of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the Minister's delegate had failed to take into account relevant considerations, specifically evidence relating to the applicant's alleged criminal conduct, when assessing the genuineness of the relationship for the purposes of the partner visa application. The applicant argued that the delegate had improperly relied on unsubstantiated allegations of criminal activity, which prejudiced the assessment of his relationship.

Judge Barnes reasoned that the delegate's decision-making process was flawed because it placed undue weight on unproven allegations of criminal conduct without properly assessing their relevance to the genuineness of the relationship. The Court applied the principle that administrative decision-makers must consider all relevant information and disregard irrelevant information. In this instance, the delegate had failed to properly balance the evidence of the relationship against the unsubstantiated allegations, thereby failing to undertake a proper assessment of the genuineness of the partnership as required by the *Migration Regulations 1994* (Cth).

The Court found that the delegate's decision was affected by jurisdictional error. Consequently, Judge Barnes set aside the decision of the Minister and remitted the application to the Minister for redetermination according to law.