Ground 1
23 The appellant contends that the primary judge erred by failing to find that the decision of the Tribunal was affected by jurisdictional error because the Tribunal failed to exercise its jurisdiction, failed to carry out its statutory task, and/or failed to afford the appellant procedural fairness by not appropriately considering relevant information.
24 The appellant's submissions in relation to this ground are focused on the extent to which the Tribunal had regard to the statutory declaration. It is submitted that:
(a) the Tribunal's reasons and the purported errors within those reasons raise the question of whether the Tribunal in fact read the statutory declaration and that the reasons demonstrate a "failure to actively intellectually engage with the content" of the statutory declaration;
(b) the appellant's statutory declaration is a core document that provided a foundational outline to the appellant's claims and was summarised in the delegate's written reasons;
(c) a number of factors, considered individually and cumulatively, demonstrate a failure of the Tribunal to engage with the statutory declaration including:
(i) the failure to include the statutory declaration in the original court book provided by the respondent at the hearing before the primary judge, which raises the question of whether it was before the Tribunal;
(ii) the absence of any reference to the statutory declaration in the Tribunal's reasons where the Tribunal otherwise referred to the appellant's "written claims" being "illogical and vague", without explaining the reference to "written claims" and where the Tribunal ultimately made adverse credibility findings against the appellant based at least in part on "inconsistencies" within the appellant's claims;
(iii) the "obvious factual errors in the Tribunal's reasons" which, it is said, would not have been made if the Tribunal had engaged with the statutory declaration; in particular the Tribunal's finding at [37] of its reasons that the appellant introduced claims to have received a second beating for the first time in the second hearing before the Tribunal despite having five previous opportunities to do so, a matter which it is said was factually incorrect as it was "clearly and explicitly" described in the statutory declaration; and
(iv) what are said to be the unsubstantiated and unjustified conclusions within the Tribunal's reasons.
25 In relation to the submission that there was an "obvious factual error" in the Tribunal's reasons, the appellant submits that the Tribunal concluded that a second beating was only raised at the second oral hearing because it did not read the statutory declaration, or if it did, it failed actively to engage intellectually with it. The appellant contends that the primary judge acknowledged the reference to two beatings in the statutory declaration but attempted to explain this as merely a minor error on the part of the Tribunal, and in doing so effectively re-drafted the Tribunal's reasons in a way which amounted to merits review by engaging in fact finding which did not reflect the facts found by the Tribunal.
26 The appellant also contends in this connection that the primary judge's reasoning is flawed because:
(a) his Honour's use of the phrase "third or another" is at least a partial misnomer because his Honour had accepted there were two beatings as claimed in the statutory declaration;
(b) his Honour made findings of fact not made by the Tribunal which the Tribunal could have made and that even if these findings of fact were permissible for a supervisory court to make, there was no evidentiary basis for such findings, or they were contradictory to the Tribunal's findings; and
(c) his Honour's reasoning was circular in relation to the Tribunal's awareness of the content of the statutory declaration.
27 The appellant submits that the Tribunal's finding that his written claims were illogical and vague was unsubstantiated by reference to the statutory declaration itself given that it included specific details. He contends that the Tribunal's "perfunctory adverse finding" demonstrates a lack of active intellectual engagement with, or the ignoring of, this centrally relevant material. It is the appellant's position that consideration of the statutory declaration was critical to the Tribunal's statutory task and the document bore significantly on the key issue of the appellant's credibility. It is said that the purported failure to engage with the document demonstrates a failure by the Tribunal to exercise its jurisdiction and, or alternatively, a failure to carry out its statutory task such as to amount to jurisdictional error.
28 I do not consider that the criticisms which are made by the appellant of the Tribunal's treatment of the statutory declaration and, correspondingly, of the primary judge's analysis of the Tribunal's treatment of the statutory declaration, are well founded. In the present case the Tribunal was required to assess whether the appellants satisfied the criteria for a protection visa under s 36 of the Act. In determining whether the appellant had a well founded fear of persecution (or met any other criteria for a protection visa), the Tribunal was required to resolve questions of credit, attribute weight to particular evidence, and consider the inherent probability or improbability of claimed events: Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Wu Shan Liang (1996) 185 CLR 259 at 281-282 (Brennan CJ, Toohey, McHugh and Gummow JJ).
29 In Plaintiff M1/2021 v the Minister for Home Affairs (2022) 96 ALJR 497 at 508-509 [24]-[26] (Kiefel CJ, Keane, Gordon and Steward JJ), the majority emphasised that the weight to be afforded to representations in relation to such matters is a matter for the decision maker, and that labels like "active intellectual process" and "proper, genuine and realistic consideration" have the danger of creating "a kind of general warrant, invoking language of indefinite and subjective application, in which the procedural and substantive merits of any [decision-maker's] decision can be scrutinised" (citing Ayoub v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2015) 231 FCR 513 at 520 [24], quoting Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Anthonypillai (2001) 106 FCR 426 at 442 [65]). That, as the majority observed, is not the correct approach and it is critical to bear constantly in mind the limited role of a court reviewing the exercise of an administrative discretion: Minister for Aboriginal Affairs v Peko-Wallsend Ltd (1986) 162 CLR 24 at 40 (Mason J).
30 I accept, as the Minister submits, that ground one of the appeal would require the Court to engage in the indefinite and subjective application of the Tribunal's reasons which Plaintiff M1/2021 cautions against. The Tribunal's reasons are not to be construed minutely and finely with an eye keenly attuned to the perception of error (as to which see Collector of Customs v Pozzolanic Enterprises Pty Ltd (1993) 43 FCR 280 at 287; Wu Shan Liang at 272; and CKL21 v Minister for Home Affairs (2022) 401 ALR 647 at 655 [27]); and the Tribunal's reasons should be viewed as a whole: AON15 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2019] FCAFC 48 at [56].
31 When the Tribunal's reasons are read in this way, I do not accept that the Tribunal overlooked the statutory declaration, especially given that there was no requirement for the Tribunal to make reference in its reasons to every piece of evidence and every contention made by the appellants: Applicant WAEE v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (2003) 236 FCR 593 at 604-605 [46]-[47].
32 I accept the force of the primary judge's conclusion at [16] that the Tribunal's reasons indicate that it was aware of the statutory declaration and its contents. As the Minister submits, the delegate summarised the claims advanced in the statutory declaration at pages 2-3 of the Protection Visa Assessment dated 4 July 2017 and the Tribunal set out the appellant's claims outlined in the statutory declaration and summarised the delegate's decision: see [15], [18]-[19], [20]-[23].
33 In any event, and as the Minister submits, even if the Tribunal overlooked the statutory declaration this would not of itself constitute jurisdictional error in circumstances where the Tribunal considered the appellant's claims which were either expressly made or arose squarely on the material before it: NABE v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (No 2) (2004) 144 FCR 1 at 18 [58].
34 Although it may be accepted that the Tribunal is required by s 430 of the Act to make a written statement which identifies its findings on material questions of fact and refer to the evidence on which such findings are based, an examination of the entirety of the Tribunal's reasons illustrates that the appellant's claims and his evidence were considered, even though the statutory declaration was not expressly mentioned. For example, at [23] of the Tribunal's reasons the Tribunal noted the appellant's claim of another beating in 2011 following the "red paint attack" at his girlfriend's house. At [28] and [37] the Tribunal noted the fact that this beating (described as the "second beating") in 2011 had not been raised prior to the second hearing despite the appellant having five previous opportunities to do so. Further, at [7] the Tribunal noted that at the first hearing the appellants were asked and declined to amend or add any information to their claims and responded in the affirmative when asked whether the Tribunal could proceed on the basis of the information before it.
35 In relation to the appellant's submission regarding the number of beatings that he claims occurred, I accept the primary judge's summary at [8]-[9] and [15] that the statutory declaration refers to two beatings that occurred in 2010 in quick succession, and that a further, third beating, that had not been previously mentioned, was raised in oral evidence by the appellant at the hearings before the Tribunal. It was open to the Tribunal to make an adverse credibility finding against the appellant in light of the late making of the 2011 beating claim (which formed part of that adverse credibility finding).
36 I also accept the Minister's submission that no jurisdictional error arises from any error on the part of the Tribunal as to the number of times the appellant claimed to have been beaten in circumstances where the Tribunal assessed the appellant's underlying claims: Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZNPG (2010) 115 ALD 303 at [28]; Chen v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship [2011] FCAFC 56 at [51]. As the Minister submits, the Tribunal asked the appellant at the hearing why he "had not raised the second beating he claims he received in 2011 prior to the second hearing with the Tribunal" and the appellant indicated that he had forgotten about it (see at [28] of the Tribunal's reasons). As much can be discerned in the transcript of the hearings in the Tribunal which the appellant sought to adduce at the commencement of the appeal hearing. The appellant did not say that he had raised that matter in his statutory declaration.
37 Finally, insofar as the appellant submits that the primary judge was making findings of fact in relation to the appellant's claimed beatings, I do not accept that this was so. The primary judge was doing no more than interpreting the Tribunal's decision and the associated findings of fact there made.
38 For these reasons, ground one fails.