Australian Immigration Daily News

Well, I thought this was going to be a whole lot easier than it has turned out to be! 

On 30 November I was scrolling through the cases on Austlii and came across a case, Singh v Minister for Immigration & Anor (2018) FCCA 3427 (27 November 2018) where it seemed that a judge of the Federal Circuit Court had followed the recent decision of Justice Greenwood in Brown v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection where it was held that the AAT does in fact have discretion to hear an application for merits review even if it is filed after the statutory filing deadline. 

While that is indeed essentially the holding in Singh, and it does now seem clear that the courts will recognise that the AAT filing deadline can be extender under certain, very likely very limited circumstances, the procedural history of the case was as convoluted as it gets and had many twists and turns. 

As noted on my post on this blog on 19 November, there was a crucially important decision by Justice Greenwood of the Federal Court in Queensland in the case of Brown v Minister for Home Affairs (No. 2) where it was held that the AAT does in fact have power to extend the deadline for the filing of applications for merits review.

This decision literally shattered commonly held assumptions and wisdom that it was "settled law" that the filing deadling is absolutely rigid and inflexible and cannot be extended for any reason whatsoever.

The Brown  decsion is more than of  "casual"  or "passing"  interest - it is potentially of great significance to anyone who has had an applicaiton for review dismissed on the basis that it was filed past the filing deadline.

How many times have you been told: “The deadline for filing an application for merits review to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal is absolutely fixed, rigid and inflexible! There is no way to get the deadline extended under any circumstances. The Tribunal simply does not have the power to grant an extension of the deadline, even if it were inclined to do so.”

The principle that “the filing deadline cannot be extended” is undoubtedly something that is taught in every course that Registered Migration Agents must take to be eligible for registration with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority.  I even recall that this was something that was taught when I took a course sponsored by the Migration Institute of Australia, a short three-day course on “introduction to migration law for lawyers”.

So it has been an “article of faith” that the filing deadline cannot be extended, no matter what.

How can you know whether the Tribunal has committed jurisdictional error in carrying out its review of the refusal of a Partner visa?

Is this task as difficult and challenging as figuring out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Or counting how many jelly beans are in a jar on the counter of a candy store?

The media are reporting that Peter Dutton has resigned his position as Minister for the Department of Home Affairs following his unsuccessful challenge earlier today to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Dutton lost the leadership "spill" by a vote of 48 - 35 and will now move to the backbench.

The details are available in this article from the Sydney Morning Herald at this link.