Wong and Minister for Health

The applicant, Mr. Wong, sought judicial review of a decision made by the Minister for Health. The dispute concerned the timeliness of Mr. Wong's application for review, which was lodged electronically to a national email address on the day following a State public holiday. The matter came before Deputy President S A Forgie of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether Mr. Wong's application for review had been lodged within the prescribed time limit. This involved determining the 'time of receipt' for an electronically lodged document and calculating the prescribed time by reference to the location of the Melbourne Registry, given its closest relationship to the underlying transaction.

Deputy President Forgie reasoned that for the purposes of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth), the application was taken to have been lodged at the place of business of the Tribunal that had the closest relationship with the underlying transaction, which was identified as the Melbourne Registry. The prescribed time for lodgement was therefore calculated by reference to the time in Melbourne. As the prescribed time ended on a State public holiday, the lodgement on the following day was permitted. Consequently, the application was found to be within time.