THE APPEAL
25 Against this background, the Minister confined himself to four grounds of appeal. In summary, they are as follows:
(1) Ground 1:
(a) the primary judge erred in granting leave to amend the originating application;
(b) the primary judge erred in refusing the Minister an adjournment.
(2) Ground 2:
(a) the primary judge erred in admitting the article because it was irrelevant; and
(b) the primary judge erred in concluding that the article was evidence to which s 144 of the Evidence Act applied and that the primary judge failed to comply with s 144(4).
(3) Ground 3: the primary judge erred in finding as a fact that "the country and receiving country … [the subject of the IAA's review] … no longer exists" and that there is "[t]he new existence of a country being the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".
(4) Ground 4: the primary judge erred in holding that:
(a) the "existence of the country" is a jurisdictional fact;
(b) the decision of the IAA was affected by jurisdictional error in that it was legally unreasonable by reason of the primary judge's findings about the existence of Afghanistan.
26 For the reasons which follow, the appeal should be upheld on Grounds 2(a), 3 and 4. It is not necessary to address the remaining grounds.
27 The task on judicial review may be simply stated. It is to determine, on the grounds of judicial review advanced, whether the judicial review applicant has discharged the onus of showing that the decision under review was not made in accordance with the authority conferred by the relevant statute. In MZAPC v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2021) 95 ALJR 441; [2021] HCA 17 at [29] and [30], Kiefel CJ, Gageler, Keane and Gleeson JJ explained (footnotes omitted):
[29] The constitutionally entrenched jurisdiction of a court to engage in judicial review of the decision, where that jurisdiction is regularly invoked, is no more and no less than to ensure that the decision-maker stays within the limits of the decision-making authority conferred by the statute through declaration and enforcement of the law that sets those limits. To say that the decision is affected by jurisdictional error is to say no more and no less than that the decision-maker exceeded the limits of the decision-making authority conferred by the statute in making the decision. The decision for that reason lacks statutory force. Because the decision lacks statutory force, the decision is invalid without need for any court to have determined that the decision is invalid.
[30] The statutory limits of the decision-making authority conferred by a statute are determined as an exercise in statutory interpretation informed by evolving common law principles of statutory interpretation. Non-compliance with an express or implied statutory condition of a conferral of statutory decision-making authority can, but need not, result in a decision that exceeds the limits of the decision-making authority conferred by statute. Whether, and if so in what circumstances, non-compliance results in a decision that exceeds the limits of the decision-making authority conferred by the statute is itself a question of statutory interpretation.
28 The question whether the IAA's decision was made in accordance with the authority conferred by the statute, or whether it exceeded the limits of the decision-making authority, or whether it failed to comply with an express or implied condition of conferral of statutory decision-making authority, is answered by reference to the circumstances as they existed at the time the decision-making authority was exercised. The question is not answered by reference to circumstances which did not exist at the time of the decision. This point was made by Steward J in Plaintiff B65/2020 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2021] HCA Trans 118:
In judicial review proceedings, the issue before the Court concerns the legality of an exercise of power or the performance of a duty. The question to be posed is whether the decision maker has stayed within the limits of the decision-making authority conferred by an Act of Parliament. Events which take place after an exercise of power can play no part in assessing whether that decision contained an error (or errors) when it was made
and by Mortimer J in Parker v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2016] FCAFC 185; (2016) 247 FCR 500 at [77] (see also at [60] per Griffiths and Perry JJ):
The appellant's submission that the "outcome" of the Minister's cancellation decision is, after the annulment, legally unreasonable misunderstands the Court's function on judicial review. The question for the Court is whether the exercise of power, at the time of its exercise, exceeded jurisdiction, or was an actual or constructive failure to exercise jurisdiction. Those matters may be proven by evidence that is adduced after the making of the impugned decision (for example, expert evidence, in some particular cases), but the relevant question is whether the exercise of power miscarried at the time of its exercise. In the current circumstances, with the 2014 conviction in effect at the time of the Minister's decision, that could not be the case.
This aspect of the decision in Parker was, unlike other aspects of the decision, not doubted by the High Court in Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Makasa [2021] HCA 1; 95 ALJR 117; 386 ALR 200, see in particular at [59].
29 The situation in Afghanistan, or whether Afghanistan existed in some and if so what form, at the time of the court's hearing was irrelevant to the question before the primary judge as to whether the IAA had erred in a way going to jurisdiction. It follows that the primary judge erred in concluding that the article had any relevance, within the meaning of s 55 of the Evidence Act, to any issue which the primary judge had to determine. Ground 2(a) must be upheld. It also follows that Ground 4(b) must be upheld.
30 As noted, the primary judge concluded that one country had ceased to exist (Afghanistan) and a different one had come into existence (Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan). This conclusion was not one about which judicial notice could be taken and nor was it based on findings of fact of which judicial notice could be taken. The conclusion was not open on the basis of the evidence before the Court, even if that evidence included the wrongly admitted evidence. A change in governance of a country, even if secured through activity which does not conform to the laws of the country, does not inexorably lead to a conclusion that the country has ceased to exist as the primary judge appears to have assumed. Nor, obviously, does a change in name. Ground 3 must be upheld.
31 As noted earlier, the primary judge concluded that the power vested in the IAA was "conditioned upon the existence of the country and the receiving country of which the applicant is found to be a national" and that the existence or otherwise of the country and receiving country was a jurisdictional fact. These conclusions are incorrect. Part 7AA of the Migration Act is engaged where a decision has been made to refuse to grant a protection visa to a fast track applicant. The relevant decision forms the subject matter of the IAA's review: s 473CC. There must be a decision to which Part 7AA applies, even if it be one which is legally ineffective: Plaintiff M174/2016 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2018) 264 CLR 217; [2018] HCA 16 at [52] per Gageler, Keane and Nettle JJ. The existence of such a decision is a jurisdictional fact. The existence or otherwise of a decision engaging Part 7AA could be the subject of evidence on judicial review.
32 Further, the IAA's exercise of the decision-making power depends on the existence of a jurisdictional fact, namely the reaching of a state of satisfaction or non-satisfaction by the IAA as to the refugee and complementary protection criteria in s 36(2)(a) and s 36(2)(aa) of the Migration Act at the time that the decision was made: Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs v SGLB (2004) 78 ALJR 992, 207 ALR 12, [2004] HCA 32 at [37]-[38] (Gummow and Hayne JJ); BWO19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2020] FCAFC 181 at [8]-[13] (Rangiah, SC Derrington and Abraham JJ). The Migration Act has a binary structure in this respect; if a non-citizen can make a valid application for a visa, the Minister must decide either to grant (s 65(1)(a)) or refuse to grant (s 65(1)(b)) that application according to whether the Minister is satisfied that the requirements stated within the Act or regulations are met: Plaintiff M47/2012 v Director General of Security [2012] HCA 46; (2012) 251 CLR 1; 86 ALJR 1372 at [176] (Hayne J); Plaintiff M76/2013 v Minister for Immigration, Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship [2013] HCA 53; (2012) 251 CLR 322; 88 ALJR 324 at [116] (Hayne J). The various factual matters which the decision-maker must address in reaching a state of satisfaction, including whether the visa applicant has met relevant visa criteria, are not themselves jurisdictional facts simply because those facts necessarily need to be addressed in reaching the state of satisfaction leading to the grant or refusal of the visa.
33 The IAA's power is not conditioned expressly on the existence of the relevant country of nationality or the objective existence of the receiving country the subject of the decision being reviewed and nor is any such condition implied. That is not to deny that in any given case there might not be factual issues in connection with the relevant country, including perhaps its geographical boundaries, the regime in power or the recognition by other countries, including Australia, of the State or its government or those in power. It is only to say that the existence or otherwise of the receiving country is not a jurisdictional fact in the sense of a fact the objective existence of which is a precondition to the exercise of the power.
34 EGZ17 relied upon what was said by the Full Court in FER17 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2019] FCAFC 106 at [85] (Kerr, White and Charlesworth JJ). In FER17, the IAA proceeded on the basis that the visa applicant was a Sri Lankan national when in fact he was not a citizen of Sri Lanka (although he was entitled to become one). In his cross-appeal, the Minister contended that the IAA did not err in determining the applicant's nationality and that any such error was not jurisdictional: FER17 at [25]. In rejecting the argument, the Full Court said at [85]:
The Court rejects the proposition that applying the wrong law with respect to a person's nationality when determining his or her application for a protection visa is not a failure to comply with a statutory precondition or condition. The correct characterisation of a person's nationality is fundamental. The IAA's decision thereby lacked an essential characteristic necessary for that decision to be given force and effect by the statute pursuant to which the decision-maker purported to make it.
35 EGZ17 contended that the Full Court in FER17 concluded, by what it said in the first sentence, that the continued existence of the receiving country is a statutory precondition to valid exercise of the power. The first sentence of [85] must be read in context. The principal question before the Full Court which had been raised by the Minister was whether any error concerning nationality was jurisdictional. The Full Court cannot be understood as having intended to conclude that the identification of the receiving country was a statutory precondition to the exercise of the review function.
36 Ground 4(a) must be upheld. It might also be observed that, even if the primary judge had been correct and the IAA's power was conditioned in the way the primary judge erroneously thought, that would not have been a basis for disturbing the IAA's decision. There was no dispute that Afghanistan existed at the time of the IAA's decision.