Ground 1
20 The applicant accepts that the respondent took into account the harm that might result if he re-offended. However, the applicant submitted that the respondent did not assess and take into account the risk that he might re-offend.
21 The applicant relied on a number of matters in support of that contention. First, he drew attention to the Issues Paper that the respondent took into account. He submits that it did not contain any material from which a conclusion about the risk that the applicant might re-offend could be assessed and taken into account. Secondly, he submitted that the respondent's reasons do not contain any finding concerning the risk that the applicant might re-offend. The applicant submitted that the closest the respondent came to making a finding about the risk of re-offending was an observation that it was too soon to be confident that the applicant will be able to refrain from alcohol use in the future. The applicant submitted that that was not a finding about the matter.
22 The absence in the reasons of a finding on a matter is likely to lead to the conclusion that a finding was not made as to that matter, and may lead to the conclusion that the decision-maker did not consider that the matter was a relevant one: Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Yusuf (2001) 206 CLR 323, at 330-331, [5] per Gleeson CJ; 338, [34]-[35] per Gaudron J; and 346, [69] per McHugh, Gummow and Hayne JJ.
23 The applicant submitted that the risk that he would re-offend was a mandatory relevant consideration so that the respondent's failure to take it into account amounted to a jurisdictional error. The applicant submitted that the power in s 501(1) is not to be used to impose an additional punishment for the offence which engaged the section. As I understood the applicant's submission, it was that the risk of re-offending must be assessed and taken into account, otherwise the inexorable, or perhaps invariable, inference will be that the power to refuse an application has been used to punish, rather than for the purposes of the section. In the context of this submission, the applicant referred to the following observations of Buchanan J in NBMZ v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2014) 307 ALR 49 ("NBMZ"), at 86-87, [192]:
If the minister's decision was to avoid the charge that he was intent on some form of punishment (normally the preserve of the courts) then his assessment of whether the applicant should be granted a visa should also have been directed to some assessment of the consequences for the Australian community if the applicant was granted a visa. Normally, there should be an attempt to assess the likelihood of similar, or other, criminal conduct of the kind which had aroused the minister's displeasure and provoked the censorious conclusion that the applicant had demonstrated a fundamental disrespect for Australian laws, standards and authorities. That is because the discretion to be exercised under s 501 is fundamentally forward, rather than backward, looking. It concerns the future, not the past.
24 In dealing with Ground 1 of the applicant's application for judicial review, the respondent put his submissions in reverse order to the way in which the applicant had put his submissions. He submitted that he was not required to assess and take into account the risk that the applicant might re-offend. He submitted that the discretion under s 501(1) is a very broad one and that he is not required to consider the risk of re-offending of a visa applicant who has a substantial criminal record as defined in s 501(7). In support of this submission, the respondent referred to Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs v Huynh (2004) 139 FCR 505 ("Huynh") at 523, [72]-[74] per Kiefel and Bennett JJ, and Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs v Nystrom (2006) 228 CLR 566 ("Nystrom"), at 606-607, [126]-[129] per Heydon and Crennan JJ.
25 The respondent submitted that, in any event, he did assess and take into account the risk that the applicant might re-offend.
26 The above is a summary of the submissions of the parties.
27 I do not need to decide whether the Minister is bound to take into account the risk a visa applicant who has a substantial criminal record might re-offend because, in this matter, I think that the respondent did assess that matter and take it into account. However, I will address the issue because, on the view I take of the issue, it provides an alternative ground for rejecting Ground 1. It is convenient to deal with it first.
28 Section 501(1) does not set out any criteria to be applied in the exercise of the discretion to refuse to grant a visa once the decision-maker has reached the point of not being satisfied that the person passes the character test. It is largely left to the Minister to determine what matters are relevant and what weight is to be accorded to such matters. At the same time, it is also well established that considerations relevant or irrelevant to the exercise of a statutory discretion may be identified by reference to the nature, scope, and purpose of the power, understood in its context in the Act (Sean Investments Pty Ltd v MacKellar (1981) 38 ALR 363 ("Sean Investments"), at 375 per Deane J; Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission (New South Wales) v Browning (1947) 74 CLR 492, at 505 per Dixon J (as his Honour then was); and NBMZ, at 51, [6] per Allsop CJ and Katzmann J). The object of the Act is to regulate, in the national interest, the coming into, and presence in, Australia of non-citizens (s 4(1)).
29 In Huynh, Kiefel and Bennett JJ, in considering the scope of the Minister's power to cancel a visa under s 501(2) of the Act, said (at 523, [74]):
A reference to those matters confirms the breadth of the Minister's discretion. The object of the Act is to regulate, in the national interest, the coming into, and presence in, Australia of non-citizens: s 4(1). To advance that object provision is made for the removal or deportation from Australia of non-citizens whose presence is not permitted by the Act: s 4(4). If the Minister were able, consistent with the object of the Act, to consider a matter as broad as the national interest, in determining whether a person ought to be permitted to remain in Australia, it does not seem possible to imply some obligation on the Minister's part to consider specific factors, personal to the visa holder, such as the circumstances surrounding the offences they have committed. By way of illustration, the Minister may consider that the national interest requires that the commission of a particular type of offence will inevitably result in the cancellation of a visa, where there has been a sentence to imprisonment for the requisite term. To construe the section as requiring the Minister to consider factors such as the level of involvement of the visa holder in the offences would cut across that broad discretion. It follows in our view that the obligation of which his Honour the primary judge spoke cannot be read into s 501.
(Emphasis added.)
30 In Huynh, the Court was concerned with a decision to cancel a visa under s 501(2) of the Act and the significance to that decision of the visa holder's level of involvement in the offences constituting the "substantial criminal record" as defined in s 501(7). In this case, I am considering a decision to refuse an application for a visa and the significance to that decision of the risk that the applicant might re-offend. Neither of those matters mean that the observations of Kiefel and Bennett JJ are not applicable to the circumstances of this case.
31 In Nystrom, Heydon and Crennan JJ (with whom Gleeson CJ agreed on this point), after referring with approval to Sean Investments and the reasons for judgment of Kiefel and Bennett JJ in Huynh, said (at 606, [128]):
Parliament has left it to the Minister to decide the matters which are relevant to whether a person who fails the character test should be permitted to remain in Australia. Considerations relevant to the exercise of the power depend on the nature, scope and purpose of the power, understood in its context in the Act. As Ministerial Direction No 21 makes clear, the Minister considers that two of the factors relevant to the exercise of the discretion are related to the protection of the Australian community and the expectations of the community.
32 I do not think that the passage in Buchanan J's reasons in NBMZ is to the contrary. His Honour was not saying that the risk of re-offending was a relevant mandatory consideration. As I read his Honour's reasons, all he was saying was that the failure to assess and take into account the risk of re-offending might, in a particular case, lead to the conclusion that the Minister had exercised his power for the purpose of punishment. In any event, Allsop CJ and Katzmann J did not, in that case, base their decision on this ground.
33 In any event, as I have said, I think the respondent did assess and take into account the risk that the applicant might re-offend.
34 The respondent referred to the sentencing judge's remark that the applicant had reasonable prospects of rehabilitation. Despite what the respondent said in his reasons, it was not the sentencing judge who expressed the view that the applicant represented a low risk of re-offending. That was a view expressed some 20 months later (i.e., December 2013) by a Probation and Parole Officer, and was referred to in a Compliance Report of the Northern Territory Department of Correctional Services. The Compliance Report was an annexure to the Issues Paper that was before the respondent. The respondent seems to have erred, as a matter of fact, in attributing the opinion that the applicant represented a low risk of re-offending to the sentencing judge. However, that error does not advance the applicant's case.
35 The sentencing judge said that the applicant had reasonable prospects of rehabilitation, and that means that there were reasonable prospects that he would not re-offend. The respondent was entitled to accept that view and to act on it. He was also entitled to accept the view that the applicant represented a low risk of re-offending and to act on it. Furthermore, he was entitled to add to those views his own view that alcohol had been a feature of the applicant's offending in the past and that it was too soon to be confident that he would refrain from alcohol use in the future.
36 The applicant accepted that the respondent was not required to reach a view about the risk that the applicant would re-offend which could be expressed in percentage terms. I have no doubt that that is correct, but I would go further and say that, in many cases, it is notoriously difficult to be at all precise as to the risk of re-offending. The respondent assessed the risk that the applicant would re-offend as low, or on the low side, and he proceeded on that basis.
37 Ground 1 of the applicant's application must be rejected.