austlii:cth/FedCFamC2G/2025/391
General information, not legal advice.
FedCFamC2G
2025-03-21
Original judgment source is linked above.
The second respondent filed a submitting appearance save as to costs.
FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA (DIVISION 2)
MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court's records.
Note: The Court may vary or set aside a judgment or order to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 17.05(2)(g) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (General Federal Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 17.05 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (General Federal Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).
Application for a visa and the delegate's decision
Application for review to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
(a) He had been arrested and charged by police for smuggling cigarettes in 2016 and had been fined by a court;
(b) That to pay the fine he had approached an unregistered moneylender because he was not eligible for an authorised loan. He received two cash payments. The transaction was not documented but he believes the total he received was 500,000 Malaysian ringgits. The Tribunal observed that this was different to the amount of 150,000 ringgits claimed in the visa application;
(c) After paying the court fine, he had a surplus which he used to start paying the monthly instalments. He believed that he paid 15,000 ringgits and perhaps another 5,000 or 10,000 ringgits from his own money;
(d) He stopped paying the instalments shortly afterwards in 2017 because he had no funds to do so. He was harassed by the moneylender and three gangsters in about June 2018 who approached him at his home, punched him and warned him to repay the money. They came to his home three more times, but he managed to avoid them by running away and he sent his wife and children to live with his wife's mother;
(e) Because he could not pay the instalments he decided to "run away" to Australia;
(f) He intends to save money from working in Australia to repay the moneylender but had no idea how long that may take and assumes the debt is now larger as he has made no payments since 2017;
(g) He fears that if he returns to Malaysia the moneylender will be able to locate him and harm him if he does not pay;
(h) He has made no report to the police and sought no help in Malaysia before he left;
(i) He has no information about the moneylender since 2020 when his neighbours in his village told him that some people had come looking for him;
(j) He speaks to his wife two or three times a week and she has not made any complaints of being harassed;
(k) He believes the police can be reasonably effective in protecting people but there are too many cases for them to handle and they could not protect him "24/7".
Prejudice, impact on the public and the applicant
Ground One:
No Guarantee will not happen to me in the future and should or can be referred to in the context of assessing the risk of harm from loan shark in any form in every way.
Ground Two:
Hardship in an economic context, is not excessive if a member refers and gives an opportunity to my case in significant economic hardship that threatens the person's capacity to subsist is without limiting what serious harm for the purpose.
Ground Three:
Member denies all forms of harms from the loan shark which can lead my live in danger.
Ground Four:
As far been reported that Loan shark cases is more likely that some of them got Involved in uniform authority which mean they got back up form black hands.
I certify that the preceding seventy-two (72) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment of Judge Coulthard.
FXT24
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [2025] FedCFamC2G 391
(2015) 242 FCR 585
(2022) 276 CLR 579