3.2 Ground one: the failure to give weight to the letter
25 The first ground challenges the finding by the Tribunal that it could give no weight to the purported letter from the BNP. Specifically at [177] the Tribunal found that:
As the applicant has no affiliation with the BNP, and given country information before the Tribunal indicating that fraudulent documentation from Bangladesh is readily available, it gives the purported letter from the BNP no weight. It notes that the letter contains spelling errors and its content is inaccurate and inconsistent with the applicant's own claims. In relation to there being an outstanding charge against the applicant, the Tribunal gives this claim no weight, noting its finding above that the applicant is not affiliated with the BNP.
26 As is apparent from [177], it is not the case that the Tribunal overlooked the letter, as the appellant submits. Rather it determined that it could afford the letter no weight.
27 Nor, in my view, is any error is apparent in the finding by the primary judge that it was open to the Tribunal to give no weight to the letter and thereby effectively exclude the letter from its consideration.
28 First, the Minister rightly submits that a primary decision-maker is not required to accept uncritically the claims made by an applicant. As Kirby J observed in Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Guo (1997) 191 CLR 559 at 596:
…the mere fact that a person claims fear of persecution for reasons of political opinion does not establish either the genuineness of the asserted fear or the that it is 'well founded' or that it is for reasons of political opinion. It remains for the Minister in the first place to be satisfied … and where that decision is adverse and a review is sought, for the applicant to persuade the reviewing decision-maker that all of the statutory elements are made out.
29 Further, in determining whether to accept an applicant's claims, findings on whether an applicant should be believed in his claims have been described as "the function of the primary decision maker par excellence.": Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; ex parte Durairajasingham (2000) 168 ALR 407 at 423 [67] (McHugh J). In other words, such findings are an integral and necessary aspect of the task entrusted to the Tribunal on review in deciding what is the correct and preferable decision on the evidence at the time it makes its decision. Conversely, findings as to credit are beyond the jurisdiction of the Court to review absent, for example, the lack of a logical or intelligible justification for the findings. As I indicated earlier, it is not the function of a court on judicial review to assess for itself the merits of the Tribunal's decision, but only its legality. As such, it is not sufficient merely to establish that another decision-maker might have reached a different conclusion based upon the evidence.
30 Secondly, in the present case, in my view, it was open to the Tribunal to attach no weight to the letter. It is apparent from the Tribunal's reasoning at [177] that its finding that it could give the letter no weight took into account not only the content of the letter and various deficiencies which cast doubt upon its genuineness, but also the Tribunal's findings that the appellant was not affiliated with the BNP due to inconsistencies in his evidence and country information. I accept in this regard the Minister's submission that the Tribunal's approach accords with the "poisoned well approach" articulated by McHugh and Gummow JJ in Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Ex Parte Applicant S20/2002 (2003) 198 ALR 59 at [49], namely:
… [I]t is not unknown for a party's credibility to have been so weakened in cross-examination that the tribunal of fact may well treat what is proffered as corroborative evidence as of no weight because the well has been poisoned beyond redemption.
31 The same may equally be said where the party's credibility has been so weakened by questioning, as here, in an inquisitorial hearing by an administrative tribunal.
32 There was therefore a logical and intelligible justification given for the decision not to accord the letter any weight.
33 Thirdly, I do not accept the appellant's submission that, in deciding to give the letter no weight, the Tribunal was impermissibly influenced by the country information about the ready availability of fraudulent documentation in Bangladesh, including the allegation that the Tribunal was "seriously bias[ed]" by that information. There is nothing which would preclude the Tribunal from taking into account country information being evidence from third parties such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and human rights organisations, about the state of affairs within a country relevant to a person's claims, be it for example the availability of fraudulent documents or alleged human rights abuses: Randhawa v Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs (1994) 52 FCR 437 (Randhawa) at 452 (Beaumont J, with whose reasons Whitlam J agreed). To the contrary, such evidence is typically highly relevant to the task entrusted to the Tribunal in determining the accuracy and credibility of an applicant's claims about the situation within her or his country of origin and the risks which she or he may face if returned. As the Full Court explained in NAHI v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2004] FCAFC 10 at [11]:
By s 420(2)(a) of the Migration Act, the Tribunal is not bound by the rules of evidence. By s 424(1), in conducting a review, the Tribunal may get any information that it considers relevant. There can be no objection in principle to the Tribunal relying on 'country information'. The weight that it gives to such information is a matter for the Tribunal itself, as part of its fact-finding function. Such information as the Tribunal obtains for itself is not restricted to 'guidance', as the appellants submitted. It may be used to assess the credibility of a claim of a well-founded fear of persecution. It is not, as the first appellant submitted, an error of law, or a jurisdictional error, for the Tribunal to base a decision on 'country information' that is not true. The question of the accuracy of the 'country information' is one for the Tribunal, not for the Court….
34 In so holding, the Full Court emphasised at [12] that:
The very function of the Tribunal was to assess the appellants' claims, both as to their inherent credibility and as to their consistency with other information known to the Tribunal about circumstances in the appellants' country of origin.
35 Nor is there anything in the Tribunal's reasons that indicates that it gave the country information determinative weight in deciding not to give the letter any weight or that it relied upon the country information in such a way as to abdicate (ie, fail to comply with) its responsibility to make findings for itself on the evidence: Randhawa at 452. As I have mentioned, in reaching that view, the Tribunal took into account also problems with the letter itself regarded as indicating that it was not genuine, such as spelling and other errors, and its earlier concerns about the appellant's own evidence.
36 It follows that I do not consider that ground one establishes any jurisdictional error on the part of the Tribunal.