XGBR and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) by the Applicant, who had been approved as an Australian citizen by descent. The Department of Home Affairs subsequently determined that the Applicant did not have an Australian citizen parent at the time of her birth and annotated departmental records to reflect that she had not become an Australian citizen by descent. The Applicant sought review of this annotation by the AAT.

The primary legal issue before Deputy J W Constance P was whether the AAT had jurisdiction to review the annotation made by the Department. This required the Court to consider the statutory basis for the AAT's jurisdiction, specifically section 25 of the *Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975* (Cth), and the relevant provisions of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth) that confer jurisdiction on the AAT to review decisions.

The Court reasoned that the AAT's jurisdiction is confined to that conferred by statute. Section 52(1) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* lists the specific decisions under that Act that are reviewable by the AAT. The Court found that the annotation made by the Department was not a decision listed in section 52(1) as being reviewable by the AAT. Therefore, the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to review the matter. The application was dismissed.