Relevant Law
10 Section 36(2) of the Act makes it a criterion for the grant of a protection visa that the applicant is a person to whom Australia has protection obligations under the Refugees Convention as amended by the Refugees Protocol ("the Convention"). Article 1(A)(2) of the Convention, in turn, defines a refugee as;
"any person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and Is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country;"
11 Section 45 of the Act requires a non-citizen to apply for a visa of a particular class. An application for a visa is, by force of s 46, valid if, and only if, amongst other things, it has been made in the way prescribed for the making of an application for a visa of the specified class. Section 47 of the Act provides;
"(1) The Minister is to consider a valid application for a visa.
(2) The requirement to consider an application for a visa continues until:
(a) the application is withdrawn; or
(b) the Minister grants or refuses to grant the visa; or
(c) the further consideration is prevented by section 39 (limiting number of visas) or 84 (suspension of consideration).
(3) To avoid doubt, the Minister is not to consider an application that is not a valid application.
(4) To avoid doubt, a decision by the Minister that an application is not valid and cannot be considered is not a decision to refuse to grant the visa."
12 A question has arisen in a number of cases in this Court whether an application for a visa, which was initially invalid because it was not made in the way prescribed by the Regulations, can be cured by the applicant's having filed supplementary material before a decision had been made in respect of his or her application; see eg. Nader v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (2000) 175 ALR 548; Li Wen Han v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [2000] FCA 421 and Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v A (1999) 91 FCR 435. However, it has been held by a majority of a Full Court of this Court in Yilmaz v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (2000) 100 FCR 495 (Spender and Gyles JJ; Marshall J dissenting) that an application which is initially invalid may be rendered valid if, after a delegate of the Minister has purported to refuse the application on the merits and before the Tribunal has determined an application for review of that refusal, the applicant has provided the additional information necessary to rectify the original defect. Yilmaz was later considered by another Full Court of this Court (Ryan, Sackville and Emmett JJ) in Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Li (2000) 103 FCR 486, where this observation was made, at 502;
"In both Yilmaz and Nader, the Court was concerned with a situation, either actual or hypothetical, where an applicant, who had lodged an incomplete Form 866 and who had promised additional information, subsequently forwarded a document containing that information to an office of Immigration (as defined by reg 1.03) before the decision making process had commenced. In these circumstances, the view has been taken that the two documents (the Form 866 and the document containing the promised information) can be read together. Accordingly, a valid application is taken to be lodged when the promised information is supplied." (original emphasis)
13 Under s 65(1) of the Act, if the Minister or his delegate concludes that an applicant satisfies the criteria laid out in the Act or the Regulations, then the visa must be granted. The Tribunal must review the decision of the Minister or the delegate, denying or cancelling a protection visa if a valid application is made under the Act; ss 411(1)(c) and 414(1).
14 Section 476(1) stipulates that application may be made to this Court for review of a judicially-reviewable decision of the Tribunal on the following, relevant, grounds;
"(a) that procedures that were required by this Act or the regulations to be observed in connection with the making of the decision were not observed;
(b) that the person who purported to make the decision did not have jurisdiction to make the decision;
(c) that the decision was not authorised by this Act or the regulations;
. . .
(e) that the decision involved an error of law, being an error involving an incorrect interpretation of the applicable law or an incorrect application of the law to the facts as found by the person who made the decision, whether or not the error appears on the record of the decision . . . ."
15 Counsel for the applicant relied on the judgment of a five-member Full Court of this Court in Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs v Singh (2000) 98 FCR 469, in which it was held that s 430 of the Act imposed on the Tribunal a duty to make, and set out, findings on all matters of fact that are objectively material to the decision it is required to make. The failure to perform that duty was, it was said, a non-observance within the meaning of s 476(1)(a) of a procedure required by the Act to be observed in connection with the making of a decision of the Tribunal. However, since the present case was argued, the High Court has made it clear in Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs v Yusuf (2001) 180 ALR 1, that the Tribunal is not obliged by s 430 of the Act to make and set out findings on all matters of fact that are objectively material to the decision required of it. In the joint judgment of McHugh, Gummow and Hayne JJ, it was observed, at 17 [68];
"Section 430 does not expressly impose such an obligation. In its terms, it requires no more than that the tribunal set out the findings which it did make. Neither expressly nor impliedly does this section require the tribunal to make, and then set out, some findings additional to those which it actually made. In Singh, significance was attached to the use of the word 'material' in s 430(1)(c). It was said that 'material' in the expression 'material questions of fact' must mean 'objectively material'. Even if that were right, it would by no means follow that the tribunal was bound to set out findings that it did not make. But it is not right to read 'material' as providing an objective or external standard of materiality. A requirement to set out findings and reasons focuses upon the subjective thought processes of the decision-maker. All that s 430(1)(c) obliged the tribunal to do is set out its findings on those questions of fact which it considered to be material to the decision which it made and to the reasons it had for reaching that decision." (original emphasis).