The pleaded grounds of appeal
15 On 8 March 2021, Mr Tran filed a notice of appeal from the primary judge's decision. It contains grounds and particulars that are, on their face, largely incomprehensible, at least in relation to this proceeding, including before the Tribunal and before the primary judge. The Minister's submissions identify why that is so: the pleaded grounds in the notice of appeal are a direct and almost verbatim copy paste of the grounds reproduced in Hovhannisyan v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2021] FCA 176 at [2], save that the name of the applicant in that case has been replaced with Mr Tran's name.
16 The Minister's written submissions endeavour to make sense of what is alleged and then address each allegation. What follows is drawn from the Minister's submissions, which have been carefully examined and evaluated. I have included some additional detail as part of the consideration of what is raised in order to discharge the onus for summary dismissal of this appeal.
17 Ground 1 asserts jurisdictional error on the part of the Tribunal by failing to find that the Minister (necessarily via his delegate) had denied the appellant procedural fairness. As the Minister's submissions point out, this misconceives the role of the Tribunal, which is not to function in an appeal capacity determining any question of error on the part of the delegate, but rather to conduct a full merits review in the shoes of the delegate. As such, this ground is incapable of establishing any error on the part of the Tribunal, and therefore incapable of establishing any error on the part of the primary judge. No denial of procedural fairness on the part of the Tribunal is referred to, let alone properly identified or established. As such, this ground of appeal cannot possibly succeed.
18 Ground 2 alleges that there has been an error of law, which for present purposes can be taken to be an allegation of an error of law on the part of the Tribunal that was not detected by the primary judge, and/or an error of law by her Honour. That ground has set out particulars (a) to (h) as follows.
19 Particular (a) asserts that there was a finding that Mr Tran had disregard for judicial orders and that this finding should have been put to him. This is what occurred in Stowers v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2018] FCAFC 174; 265 FCR 177, a case that is neither cited nor referred to except by the Minister. However, there was no such finding by either the Tribunal or the primary judge in this case.
20 Mr Tran was arrested for driving while disqualified and for possessing drugs, and committed the same offences both the next day and four weeks later. This was raised in the Minister's statement of facts, issues and contentions before the Tribunal as going to the question of recidivism. Mr Tran had ignored judicial warnings in the past, but this too was in the Minister's statement of facts, issues and contentions before the Tribunal. The pleaded particular is not referrable to what in fact happened in this case.
21 Particular (b) appears to mirror part of the ultimately successful allegation made in Stowers. That allegation was to the effect that an invitation to comment on a national police certificate recording convictions had involved a denial of procedural fairness because the decision-maker had drawn conclusions from the certificate to the effect that the revocation applicant in that case had displayed a disregard for judicial orders. Procedural unfairness was said to arise because that conclusion was not obvious or reasonably apparent on the face of the certificate and not drawn to the revocation applicant's attention in seeking his comments. By contrast, in this case, Mr Tran was provided with a copy of his national police certificate, and Minister's statement of facts, issues and contentions before the Tribunal contained a detailed summary of its effect. The Tribunal reasons did include a summary of his convictions, and this was obvious information on the face of the certificate. Again, the pleaded particular is not referrable to what in fact happened in this case.
22 Particular (c) raises the question of whether the primary judge erred in finding there was no procedural unfairness and whether Mr Tran was given practical, direct or non-misleading advice as to how material disclosed to him might be used by the "Assistant Minister". Putting to one side the fact that the decision-maker was the Tribunal, not the Minister or any Assistant Minister, in this case, as already noted, Mr Tran was provided with a detailed statement of facts, issues and contentions detailing the relevance of the material before the Tribunal. Without there being any complaint about any specific information or the like, no error of the kind asserted is capable of being shown to exist in this case.
23 Particular (d) asserts that the Minister failed to put Mr Tran on notice of the potential adverse effect of the national police certificate. Even treating this as a reference to the Tribunal, as noted above, the allegation is not referrable to what in fact happened in this case, because such notice was given in considerable detail.
24 Particular (e) states that "the Minister relied expressly on 'convictions of serious nature of judicial orders and non-custodial dispositions' in causing him to 'pause in accepting unquestioningly that Mr Tran will not re-offend if returned to the community' ". Even treating this as a reference to the Tribunal, no such findings were made, such that again the allegation is not referrable to what in fact happened in this case.
25 Particular (f) is a statement as to the purpose of providing notice or disclosure as an aspect of procedural fairness, and does not contain any allegation of error.
26 Particular (g) refers to observations which are said to highlight the materiality of Mr Tran's loss of an opportunity to comment on matters significant to the "Assistant Minister's" decision. Even taking this to be a reference to the Tribunal, it does not identify what observations or matters are being referred to, such that there is no means of comprehending the ground, let alone any asserted error. Given the detail in the Minister's statement of facts, issues and contentions before the Tribunal, there would need to be a clear identification of anything taken into account of which the appellant was not on notice. Having read the Tribunal's reasons and the Minister's statement of facts, issues and contentions before the Tribunal, it is not apparent to me that there is any basis for asserting that has taken place.
27 Particular (h) contains various asserted errors by way of the Tribunal in some unspecified way acting beyond its responsibilities and having an improper purpose. Those asserted errors were that "this law violates the constitution", that there was non-compliance with the rules of natural justice, that there was insufficient evidence or no evidence to support findings made by the Tribunal and the Minister, and that they denied him procedural fairness. Without any particulars these allegations cannot be comprehended, much less established, and there is no evident foundation for any of these allegations.
28 It follows that neither ground 2 itself nor any of the particulars pleaded can possibly succeed.
29 The appellant's presently pleaded appeal cannot succeed. That would have been sufficient for the purposes of the common law, let alone the lower bar for impugning a pleading under s 31A of the Federal Court of Australia Act.