The appeal
27 At the hearing of the appeal, leave was granted to rely upon an amended originating application for review of a migration decision dated 31 August 2018. Whilst that document identified three grounds of appeal, the solicitor appearing for the applicant indicated that ground 1 was no longer pressed.
28 There was substantial overlap between grounds 2 and 3 and it is accordingly convenient to deal with them together.
29 Ground 2 of the amended application was:
The Tribunal failed to give any, or any real consideration, to an integer of the Applicant's claim.
PARTICULARS
a. The Tribunal failed to treat the best interest of the Applicant's child as a primary consideration by failing to make a finding of what the best interests of the child were.
b. The Tribunal failed to give any or an appropriate weight to this primary consideration.
30 Ground 2 was to the effect that the Tribunal failed to treat the best interests of the applicant's child as a primary consideration by failing to make a finding of what the best interests of the child were, and that it failed to give any or any appropriate weight to this primary consideration.
31 In support of ground 2, the applicant submitted:
The Tribunal fell into error in not finding that positive steps taken by the applicant in reforming his behaviour and the best interests of the minor child of the applicant clearly weighed in favour of the applicant.
32 The applicant further submitted:
The Tribunal's assessment and balancing of the primary and other considerations was flawed and unreasonable. The assessment and balancing exercise was undertaken without considering the weight of the best interests of the applicant's child, the remedial and reformative steps taken by the applicant to change his life and behaviour, ignoring that the wife and the minor child of the applicant were also part of the Australian community.
33 Ground 3 was in the following form:
The Tribunal's assessment and balancing of the primary and other considerations was flawed and unreasonable.
PARTICULARS
a. The tribunal failed to consider the weight of the best interest of the applicant's child towards the overall assessment of the issue before it.
b. The Tribunal ignored the remedial and reformative steps taken by the applicant to change his life and behaviour.
c. The Tribunal while assessing the expectations of Australian Community completely ignored that the wife and the minor child of the applicant were also part of the Australian community and as such did not take their expectations into account.
d. The Tribunal erred in not assessing the expectation of the Australian community with respect to the family life.
e. The Tribunal erred in not assessing the expectation of the Australian community with respect to the best interests of the minor child of the applicant.
34 The substance of ground 3, as it emerged in oral submissions, was to the effect that the assessment and balancing of the primary and other considerations was unreasonable because the Tribunal failed to consider the weight to be given to the best interests of the applicant's child in the overall assessment of the applicant's case, and that the Tribunal ignored the remedial and reformative steps taken by the applicant to change his life and behaviour.
35 A feature of the applicant's submissions with respect to both grounds 2 and 3 was the contention that the Tribunal was required to determine what the content of the primary considerations was, and to do so by reference to the particular (remedial and reformative) steps which had been taken by the applicant. For example, paragraph 11.3(1) of the Direction provided:
The Australian community expects non-citizens to obey Australian laws while in Australia. Where a non-citizen has breached, or where there is an unacceptable risk that they will breach this trust or where the non-citizen has been convicted of offences in Australia or elsewhere, it may be appropriate to refuse the visa application of such a person. Visa refusal may be appropriate simply because the nature of the character concerns or offences are such that the Australian community would expect that the person should not be granted a visa. Decision-makers should have due regard to the Government's views in this respect.
36 The applicant submitted:
It is not denied that a visa applicant committing the acts of driving under influence of alcohol and domestic violence is expected to have his or her visa refused. However, at the same time it is also expected that any such person who takes steps to redress and reform his or her behaviour is expected to be given a second chance. The assessment of the Tribunal in this respect was flawed as it failed to properly take into consideration the relevant facts in the form of the applicant successfully completing the Traffic offenders' intervention programme and relationship counselling.
37 In my view, this submission is inconsistent with the general scheme of the Direction and the way the primary considerations operate. These parts of the Direction are statements as to what the expectations of the Australian community are for the purposes of determining whether the visa should be refused. It is not for the Tribunal to determine the expectations of the Australian community by reference to the applicant's circumstances or evidence as to what the expectations of the Australian community are. The Direction requires a decision-maker to assess each of the primary considerations as they apply to the circumstances of the applicant's case, and to weigh the various considerations against each other in order to reach a conclusion as to how the discretion should be exercised.
38 Certain primary considerations will, by their nature, weigh in favour of refusal in most cases, and may or may not be outweighed by one or more countervailing primary considerations. This was relevantly explained by the Full Court in Nigam v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2017) 254 FCR 295 at [44]. It was also described in YNQY v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2017] FCA 1466 by Mortimer J in a different context (namely, with respect to paragraph 13.3 of the Direction) in the following way (at [76]-[77]):
76. In substance this consideration is adverse to any applicant. As the Minister submits, it is inextricably linked to the other primary consideration of protection of the Australian community. In particular, the last two sentences of para 13.3 of the Direction suggest the "expectations" about which it speaks are expectations adverse to the position of any applicant who has failed the character test and been convicted of serious crimes. In this primary consideration as expressed (and despite the references earlier in the Direction to "tolerance") the Australian community's "expectations" are defined only in one particular way: namely, that the Australian community "expects" non-revocation where a person has been convicted of serious crimes of a certain nature. That is, this is not a consideration dealing with any objective, or ascertainable expectations of the Australian community. It is a kind of deeming provision by the Minister about how he or she, and the executive government of which he or she is member, wish to articulate community expectations, whether or not there is any objective basis for that belief. That is the structure of this part of the Direction.
77. I do not consider that even if the applicant is correct to submit that the Tribunal did not undertake the task required of it by the Direction in relation to this consideration, he was deprived of a different outcome because of that failure. It was inevitable that this consideration would weigh against revocation: that is what it is intended to do (see Uelese [2016] FCA 348; 248 FCR 296 at [64]-[66]).
39 I understood the applicant to argue that the best interests of minor children were not taken into consideration either at all or sufficiently. The applicant submitted that the consideration was "totally ignored". The best interests of the minor child were certainly not totally ignored. It is clear from T[65] that the Tribunal found the best interests of the applicant's then-four-year-old son lay in granting the applicant a visa. It is also clear that the Tribunal had regard to the Direction, having referred to it in several parts of its decision and having expressly recognised that it was bound by its terms.
40 Where a decision-maker is required by statute to consider a matter, the decision-maker is to engage in an active intellectual process directed to the matter: Carrascalao v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2017) 252 FCR 352 at [45]. That principle, in my view, is applicable to the Direction, which sets out considerations the Tribunal had to consider by force of s 499(2A) of the Act. The principle does not, however, require a decision-maker to refer in its reasons to every piece of evidence or every contention made. In addition, the principle does not permit the decision-maker's reasons to be scrutinised minutely with an eye keenly attuned to the perception of error - see: Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Wu Shan Liang (1996) 185 CLR 259 at [30]; Carrascalao at [45]. A conclusion that the decision-maker has not engaged in the intellectual process contemplated "will not lightly be made and must be supported by clear evidence, bearing in mind that the judicial review applicants carry the onus of proof": Carrascalao at [48].
41 In my view, reading the decision of the Tribunal consistently with the principles in Wu Shan Liang, it is clear that the Tribunal directed its mind to the best interests of the minor child as required by paragraph 11.2 of the Direction and found that the best interests of the child lay in favour of granting the applicant the visa. It was not necessary for the Tribunal to refer specifically in its reasons to each of the factors mentioned in paragraph 11.2(4) of the Direction as ones which must be considered. The fact that the Tribunal did not refer to them specifically in this case does not establish that it failed to consider those matters. It did not err in failing to make an express finding as to what the best interests of the minor child were. The Tribunal considered that the "relationship between parent and child is of deep significance and consequence, especially to the child": at T[65].
42 It is plain that the Tribunal considered the best interests of the child lay in the applicant not being refused a visa. It is also tolerably clear that the Tribunal treated the consideration as a primary consideration. The difficulty for the applicant is that the Tribunal found the best interests of the child were outweighed by other primary considerations (in particular, the risk to the Australian community).
43 It is not the role of this Court to enter into a consideration of the weight it would have given to the various primary considerations. The role of this Court is confined to judicial review; that is, the identification of sufficient error for it to be concluded that the Tribunal's decision was one which was not authorised by the terms of the legislation. In my view, the Tribunal approached its task in the correct way, finding that the best interests of the child lay with granting the applicant a visa. Reading the reasons as a whole, the applicant has not demonstrated jurisdictional error in the Tribunal's ultimate conclusion that the best interests of the applicant's son were outweighed by the countervailing primary considerations and other considerations which the Tribunal considered ultimately favoured refusal.
44 The applicant also submitted that the Tribunal ignored the remedial and reformative steps taken by the applicant to change his life and behaviour when making an assessment of the primary considerations. However, the Tribunal expressly referred to the relationship counselling and evidence in relation to the applicant's good character at T[28], and at T[38] accepted that the applicant had attended counselling. The reasons of the Tribunal are to be read as a whole. The fact that it did not refer to those steps when it came to consider the expectations or protection of the Australian community is not indicative of error. As Gleeson CJ said in Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Ex parte Applicant S20/2002 (2003) 77 ALJR 1165 at [14]:
Decision-makers commonly express their reasons sequentially; but that does not mean that they decide each factual issue in isolation from the others. Ordinarily they review the whole of the evidence, and consider all issues of fact, before they write anything. Expression of conclusions in a certain sequence does not indicate a failure to consider the evidence as a whole. I do not think that the Tribunal member intended to convey that she made up her mind about the evidence of the applicant/appellant before taking account of the evidence of the witness who was said to corroborate him.
45 It is clear that the Tribunal considered the applicant's evidence and arguments in relation to his having had relationship counselling and, indeed, in respect of the applicant's evidence in relation to good character. Nevertheless, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant presented an ongoing risk of committing further and serious offences largely on the basis of its findings in relation to domestic violence, the increasing severity of his drink driving offences, and its conclusion that the applicant had lied under oath (see paragraph [19] above).
46 Particular (c) of ground 3 asserts error on the part of the Tribunal in failing to take into account the fact that the applicant's wife and minor child were also a part of the Australian community, and in failing to take their expectations into account as required. As noted earlier, this particular reveals a misunderstanding as to how the primary considerations operate in the sense that the expectations of the applicant's wife and his minor child are not imported into the consideration of the expectations of the Australian community under paragraphs 11(1)(c) and 11.3(1) of the Direction - see paragraphs [35] to [38] above.
47 Paragraph 11.3(1) of the Direction states, in effect, the Minister's policy as to the expectation of the Australian community - see: YNQY at [76] per Mortimer J (extracted at paragraph [38] above). It is not the role of the Tribunal to make its own assessment of the expectations of the Australian community by taking into account the applicant's wife and minor child as parts of that community. That is not to say that the Tribunal was to ignore as irrelevant the interests of the applicant's wife and minor child. However, the Tribunal clearly did not ignore their interests in reaching its conclusion.
48 For equivalent reasons, particulars (d) and (e) of ground 3 are also not made out.
49 As Allsop CJ observed in Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v Stretton (2016) 237 FCR 1 at [11], to establish jurisdictional error on the basis of legal unreasonableness:
[T]he decision is to be evaluated, and a conclusion reached as to whether it has the character of being unreasonable, in sufficiently lacking rational foundation, or an evident or intelligible justification, or in being plainly unjust, arbitrary, capricious, or lacking common-sense having regard to the terms, scope and purpose of the statutory source of the power, such that it cannot be said to be within the range of possible lawful outcomes as an exercise of that power.
50 Ground 3 is not made out as the decision cannot be said to be unreasonable. I have set out earlier the reasons why, in my view, ground 2 is not made out.