Grounds 1 and 2
31 Consistently with the approach of both parties, I will consider these two grounds together.
32 The appellant's submissions in support of grounds 1 and 2 can be summarised as follows:
(a) The appellant claimed that in 2007 he was involved in an altercation with local police. He claimed that, the day after the melee, he received a summons to attend the local police station. Both of these claims were accepted: Tribunal decision at [42]-[43]. The appellant also claimed that others involved in the altercation were "beaten up", placed in custody or sent to a re-education camp. That claim was rejected: Tribunal decision at [44].
(b) The Tribunal went on to find that no person involved in the altercation was charged or convicted because "were that the case then the [appellant], his father and the [appellant's] friends would have known and this would have appeared in his statements": Tribunal decision at [44].
(c) At first instance, the appellant alleged that the Tribunal erred in making this finding, because it was not open to the Tribunal to infer that no harm came to those who responded to the summons in the absence of any evidence to this effect. The Federal Circuit Court found that the Tribunal did not err when it made that finding: at [19]. The appellant submits that this finding was in error.
(d) The Tribunal accepted that the appellant had been in an altercation with local police and that he had been summonsed to attend the local police station as a consequence. Central to the appellant's claim to protection was his fear of the consequences that would befall him if he attended the police station in response to the summons: Tribunal decision at [38]. The task before the Tribunal was to determine whether that fear was well-founded.
(e) Having rejected the appellant's positive evidence about what happened to the other persons who attended in response to the summons, the Tribunal was required to make findings of fact about whether, nonetheless, the appellant's fear of harm if he attended the police station in response to the summons was well-founded. As part of its process of reasoning, the Tribunal member stated at [44]:
While some may have been detained, I do not accept that any were charged and convicted because were that the case then the applicant, his father and the applicant's friends would have known and this would have appeared in his statements.
(f) That is, the Tribunal reasoned from the lack of any evidence that no harm had befallen those that attended the police station in response to a summons. That finding was not open to the Tribunal. The Tribunal having rejected the appellant's evidence of what did in fact befall the other protestors, there was no evidence at all of the fate of those persons. There was, in fact, a complete absence of evidence.
(g) The Tribunal reasoned that if anyone had been charged or convicted, it would have been known to the appellant and the appellant would have referred to those events in his statements. That overlooks that the appellant did give positive evidence of what occurred to those who presented in response to the summons, and that evidence was rejected. In such circumstances, it was not permissible to conclude that there were no adverse consequences for those involved.
(h) In considering this claim, the Federal Circuit Court held that if "there were no evidence of adverse consequences in circumstances where one would reasonably expect him to be aware of them, the inference is open that no adverse consequences came to pass": at [18]. The Federal Circuit Court erred in failing to hold that the Tribunal's reasoning was illogical, or unreasonable.
(i) Further, the question of whether the appellant's fear of harm from the local police was well-founded is not to be answered solely by reference to the appellant's knowledge of what occurred to other protestors who were summonsed to attend the police station. What befell others who attended the police station may inform the question of whether the appellant's fears were well-founded, but it does not answer that question. The fate of others is one consideration bearing on the question. Other matters, such as country evidence, will be relevant to the enquiry. The Tribunal failed to take any other considerations into account.
(j) The conclusion of the primary judge at [19] of the reasons was in error. The point was that the Tribunal had to make positive findings about whether the appellant was at risk of harm. That question could not be answered solely by reference to the question of whether anyone else had suffered harm. All the relevant circumstances were to be looked at, including the relevant country information about the behaviour and conduct of the local police. As such, the primary judge's conclusion that it "was sufficient that the Tribunal was not satisfied that harm befell others to undermine the basis of the claim of fear of attending on the police" was in error.
33 There is no issue between the parties as to the applicable principles, which may be briefly stated as follows. The "no evidence" ground cannot be made out unless it is established that there was no evidence capable of supporting the impugned finding or inference. Even a skerrick of evidence will mean that an allegation of jurisdictional error premised on this basis will fail: MZZUG v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2015] FCA 1151 at [59]. Further, evidence to support a finding or inference need not be direct, but may be found in material that permitted the decision-maker reasonably to infer a particular matter: Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs v SGLB (2004) 207 ALR 12 at [39]-[41] per Gummow and Hayne JJ; see also Australian Broadcasting Tribunal v Bond (1990) 170 CLR 321 at 367 per Deane J.
34 While the Tribunal, at [44], simply did not accept that the other protestors had been beaten and sent to re-education camps, the Tribunal at other places in its decision appears to have made a positive finding to the effect that no harm had befallen the other protestors who had attended the police station: see, eg, [52] and [68] of the Tribunal's decision. These findings, at least arguably, formed part of the Tribunal's reasoning in rejecting the appellant's claim based on a fear that Vietnamese authorities were pursuing him for having participated in the violent melee in which he hit a policeman. Insofar as the Tribunal made such a positive finding, I consider that it was open to the Tribunal to make such a finding. The Tribunal reasoned that, had the other protestors who attended the police station been beaten and sent to re-education camps, this is likely to have been known by the appellant, and evidence to this effect is likely to have appeared in the appellant's statements submitted as part of the visa application and review process. However, in the appellant's statutory declaration accompanying his protection visa application, he did not mention anyone else being arrested, beaten or sent to a re-education camp: see the Tribunal decision at [44]. Further, in the appellant's second statutory declaration, which was submitted after the delegate's decision, he did not mention anyone else being arrested, beaten or sent to a re-education camp: see the Tribunal decision at [44]. In the appellant's representative's letter to the RRT hearing, which discussed the protest, there was no mention of arrests of other protestors and no statement that they were beaten or sent to re-education camps: see the Tribunal decision at [44]. At the hearing before the RRT, the appellant did not mention arrests of other protestors and did not state that they were beaten or sent to re-education camps: see Tribunal decision at [44]. In light of the matters referred to above, it was open to the Tribunal to find that no harm had befallen the other protestors who had attended the police station.
35 It is true that the appellant gave evidence to the Tribunal to the effect that the other protestors who attended the police station had been beaten and sent to re-education camps. However, the fact that the appellant gave this evidence does not make it illogical to reason in the way indicated above, namely to reason that if the other protestors who attended the police station had been beaten and sent to re-education camps this is likely to have been known by the appellant and evidence to this effect is likely to have appeared in his statements submitted as part of the visa application and RRT review process.
36 Further, although the Tribunal in some places (eg, [52] and [68]) appears to have made a positive finding as discussed above, there is a question whether, in substance, the Tribunal made a positive finding or merely did not accept that the other protestors who attended the police station had been beaten and sent to re-education camps. The most detailed treatment of this issue was at [44] of the Tribunal's decision. That paragraph is expressed in terms of non-acceptance of the evidence that the other protestors who attended the police station had been beaten and sent to re-education camps: see also [65]. It would seem to have been sufficient for the Tribunal to have not accepted the evidence that the other protestors who attended the police station had been treated in that way. Reading the decision as a whole, I incline to the view that, as a matter of substance, the Tribunal merely did not accept that the other protestors who attended the police station had been beaten and sent to re-education camps. On this further basis, I do not consider there to be any error in the way that the Tribunal considered the relevant claim at [65]-[70] of the decision. Contrary to the appellant's submissions, the Tribunal considered and made findings of fact about whether the appellant's fear of harm arising from the summons to attend the police station was well founded: see [65]-[70] of the decision.
37 It follows from the above, that I do not consider that the Tribunal reached a state of satisfaction that was illogical or not based on findings or inferences of fact supported by logical grounds in the sense discussed in Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZMDS (2010) 240 CLR 611.
38 For these reasons, no error is shown in the conclusions of the primary judge in relation to the corresponding ground below, and grounds 1 and 2 are not made out.