Parties' Submissions
9 In the appellant's written submission, the grounds of appeal were formulated slightly differently to include an additional claim that the Federal Magistrate had erred in failing to identify jurisdictional error in the Tribunal's finding of implausibility and incoherence in relation to her account of the authorities' knowledge of the location of her house.
10 The appellant submitted that the Federal Magistrate had erred in failing to impute jurisdictional error to the Tribunal in finding that the appellant's claim relating to items stored at her house lacked coherence. It was also contended that there was no factual basis for the Tribunal's findings that the applicant's answers as to the assistance she had rendered the LTTE lacked clarity, that her account of the authorities' knowledge of the location of her house was incoherent and her assertion that the LTTE had prior knowledge of the Sri Lankan army's intention to search her home. In the appellant's submission, the answers which she had given at the Tribunal hearing were merely a development of her initial claims.
11 Counsel for the appellant referred to [26] of the Federal Magistrate's reasons set out at [7] above where his Honour held that there was no basis upon which the Tribunal could have concluded that it was implausible that the LTTE had prior knowledge of the search and that there were similar problems with the Tribunal's reasoning (at [29]-[30] also reproduced at [7] above) as to the authorities' awareness of the location of the appellant's house. The appellant acknowledged, however, that the Federal Magistrate had found that there was a basis for the Tribunal's findings in relation to the storage of items.
12 In the appellant's submission, but for the unwarranted rejection of the claims about the LTTE's prior knowledge of the search and the authorities awareness of the location of her house, the Tribunal would have been required to consider whether, in the context of her past experience, the appellant would face a real chance of persecution were she now to return to Sri Lanka. It was submitted that the Tribunal would have had to consider her future safety given that she had stored certain items on behalf of the LTTE and had come to the attention of the authorities who had located and searched her house.
13 It was further contended that by basing its decision on matters such as the lack of difficulty the appellant encountered in leaving Sri Lanka and the changes to the country as a result of the ceasefire, the Tribunal had erred. That was an error which the learned Federal Magistrate had failed to identify when he held that there was "ultimately a sufficient basis upon which the RRT could reach a decision reasonably open to it"; (see [33] of the reasons below reproduced at [7] above). In support of this argument, the appellant relied on SFGB v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2003) FCAFC 231, W70/2001 v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2001) FCA 1159 and W148/00 v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (2001) 185 ALR 703 to each of which the Federal Magistrate had referred in his reasons for decision. There was also reliance upon another decision of a Full Court of this Court in SCAT v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2003] FCAFC 80 in support of the submission that the Tribunal had committed a jurisdictional error. Finally, it was contended that if it be found that jurisdictional error had occurred, it would be inappropriate in the present circumstances for the Court's discretion to be exercised by denying the relief sought by the appellant.
The first respondent's submissions
14 Ms Riley of Counsel for the Minister submitted that the appellant was seeking to challenge the Tribunal's findings of fact which are not reviewable, except in limited circumstances, as the merits of a matter are for the Tribunal to determine. She referred in this context to Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Eshetu (1999) 197 CLR 611. As well, it was pointed out on behalf of the Minister that the learned Federal Magistrate had accepted at [29] of his decision (see [7] above) that it had been open to the Tribunal to find, as it did, that the appellant's account of how the authorities' came to know of the location of her house was incoherent.
15 In the Minister's submission the assessment of whether something is plausible is the function par excellence of the Tribunal: Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Ex Parte Durairajasingham (2000) 74 ALJR 405 at [67]. It was submitted that such an assessment is based on the Tribunal's understanding of the ways of the world for which the Court should not substitute its own views.
16 W148/00A v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2001) 185 ALR 703 which had been relied on by the appellant, was said by Counsel for the Minister to have been decided under the statutory regime which existed before the introduction of the privative clause in s 474 of the Act and did not assist in identifying jurisdictional error. Moreover, according to the Minister, Tamberlin and RD Nicholson JJ considered in W148/00A at [69] that, in isolation, some of the matters identified by the Tribunal would not have warranted a conclusion that the appellant's evidence should not be accepted. It was submitted, however, that their Honours had regarded the cumulative weight of the matters relied on by the Tribunal as sufficient to justify its conclusion. Similarly, in the present case, that the Tribunal's findings about the alleged storage of weapons were said to have been clearly justified by the material before the Tribunal. In any event, the fundamental principle remained that enunciated in Eshetu, that the merits are for the Tribunal to determine, not the Court.
17 Counsel for the Minister pointed also to the Tribunal's finding that, as the appellant had been able to leave Sri Lanka on her own passport, there was no real chance that she was wanted by the Sri Lankan authorities. It was submitted, as well, that the Tribunal had found, as a separate matter, that the ceasefire in Sri Lanka meant that the appellant did not face any real chance of harm. These matters, according to the Minister, provide support for the Tribunal's decision independently of the findings of fact which have been challenged by the appellant.
18 In the Minister's submission, therefore, the appeal should be dismissed with costs.
Resolution of Issues
19 The learned Federal Magistrate found that there was no basis upon which the Tribunal could have reached certain of its conclusions. In particular, he found that there was no basis for the Tribunal's conclusions that the appellant's account of the assistance she had rendered the LTTE and that her responses in relation to the items stored at her house lacked clarity and that her assertion that the LTTE had prior knowledge of the Sri Lankan army's intention to search her home was without factual basis.
20 However, his Honour dismissed the application because he considered that Tribunal's ultimate conclusion was justified having been independently based upon certain other factors, including the implausibility of the appellant's evidence of the authorities' knowledge of the location of her house, the lack of difficulty experienced by her in leaving Sri Lanka on her own passport and the latest country information.
21 In Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Eshetu (supra), Gleeson CJ and McHugh J, after identifying, at 627, the question as being "whether the Tribunal was satisfied that Mr Eshetu's fear of persecution was well-founded," continued, at 629;
'… The Tribunal concentrated its attention on Mr Eshetu's explanation of his fears. Having rejected that explanation, it did not embark upon a search for some alternative explanation which he did not advance. Once again, different minds could form different views about the reasonableness of that approach. However, it involves no error of law. The ultimate question was whether the Tribunal was satisfied about something. The approach adopted by the Tribunal does not manifest a legally erroneous view as to what it was about which it needed to be satisfied. For the Tribunal to conclude that, although it was satisfied that Mr Eshetu feared persecution, an examination of the reasons he advanced as to why he held that fear failed to satisfy the Tribunal that the fear was well-founded, does not reflect any misunderstanding as to the meaning of the concept of a well-founded fear.'
22 That passage makes it clear, I consider, that it is not a legal or jurisdictional error for the Tribunal, in evaluating the assertions of fact relied on by an applicant as giving rise to a well-founded fear of persecution, to reject one or more of those assertions as "unclear", "incoherent" or "implausible". That is so even if there is no identifiable piece of evidence which tends against acceptance of the relevant assertion. As Gleeson CJ and McHugh J indicated, in the passage just quoted, different minds may form different views about issues which arise for determination on the way to resolving the ultimate question. The fact that a reviewing Court might disagree, even strongly, with a conclusion reached by the Tribunal on a question on the way to determining the ultimate question does not import jurisdictional error on the part of the Tribunal.
23 It is true that in SFGB v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2003) FCAFC 231 a Full Court of this Court observed, at [19];
' … If the Tribunal makes a finding and that finding is a critical step in its ultimate conclusion and there is no evidence to support that finding then this may well constitute a jurisdictional error: see Australian Broadcasting Tribunal v Bond(1990) 170 CLR 321 at 355-357. If the decision of the Tribunal was "Wednesbury" unreasonable or if the material on which the Tribunal relied was so inadequate that the only inference was that the Tribunal applied the wrong test or was not, in reality, satisfied in respect of the correct test, then there would also be jurisdictional error: see Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Ex parte Applicant S20/2002 (2003) 198 ALR 59 ('S20') at 62, 67, 76, 90-91.'
24 However, by that passage I take their Honours to mean that a positive finding, in the absence of any supporting evidence, of the existence of a fact which is a critical step in deciding the ultimate matter as to which the Tribunal has to be satisfied, may signify jurisdictional error. This analysis is borne out by the passage from Australian Broadcasting Tribunal v Bond (1990) 170 CLR 321 cited by their Honours in the course of which Mason CJ pointed out, at 355;
'The question whether there is any evidence of a particular fact is a question of law: McPhee v S Bennett Ltd(1934) 52 WN (NSW) 8, at p 9; Australian Gas Light Co v Valuer-General (1940) 40 SR (NSW) 126, at pp 137-138. Likewise, the question whether a particular inference can be drawn from facts found or agreed is a question of law: Australian Gas Light(1940) 40 SR (NSW) 126, at pp 137-138; Hope v Bathurst City Council(1980) 144 CLR 1, at pp 8-9. This is because, before the inference is drawn, there is the preliminary question whether the evidence reasonably admits of different conclusions: Federal Commissioner of Taxation v Broken Hill South Ltd(1941) 65 CLR 150, at pp 155, 157, 160. So, in the context of judicial review, it has been accepted that the making of findings and the drawing of inferences in the absence of evidence is an error of law: Sinclair v MaryboroughMining Warden (1975) 132 CLR 473, at pp 481, 483.'
25 His Honour then noted that there is "no error of law simply in making a wrong finding of fact" and continued, at 356;
'Thus, at common law, according to the Australian authorities, want of logic is not synonymous with error of law. So long as there is some basis for an inference -- in other words, the particular inference is reasonably open -- even if that inference appears to have been drawn as a result of illogical reasoning, there is no place for judicial review because no error of law has taken place.' (original emphasis)
26 In the present case the impugned rejection by the Tribunal of certain of the appellant's assertions of fact about assistance rendered to the LTTE or the LTTE's knowledge of the Army's intention to search her home did not depend on any inference from other facts. It resulted merely from a failure to attain a state of satisfaction that the assistance had been rendered or that the LTTE had the prior knowledge imputed to it. The fact that the rejection may appear to a reviewing court to be illogical is not to the point. As the Full Court went on to observe, at [20] of the reasons in SFGB;
'On the other hand, if there is sufficient evidence or other information before the Tribunal on which it could reach the conclusion it did then it is for the Tribunal to determine what weight it gives to that evidence. Indeed, unless the relevant fact can be identified as a 'jurisdictional fact', there is no error of law, let alone a jurisdictional error, in the Tribunal making a wrong finding of fact: Attorney-General (NSW) v Quin(1990) 170 CLR 1 at 35-36. It is for the Tribunal to determine the merit of the claim. The line between merit review and jurisdictional error may not be a 'bright line', but it is nevertheless an essential one:Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Wu Shan Liang (1996) 185 CLR 259 at 272.' (emphasis added)
27 It follows that the impugned findings of fact, even if illogical or erroneous do not entail jurisdictional error in the sense in which that concept was explained by McHugh, Gummow and Hayne JJ in Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Yusuf (2001 206 CLR 323, where their Honours observed, at 351;
'"Jurisdictional error" can thus be seen to embrace a number of different kinds of error, the list of which, in the passage cited from Craig, is not exhaustive cf Re Refugee Review Tribunal; Ex parte Aala (2000) 204 CLR 82. Those different kinds of error may well overlap. The circumstances of a particular case may permit more than one characterisation of the error identified, for example, as the decision-maker both asking the wrong question and ignoring relevant material. What is important, however, is that identifying a wrong issue, asking a wrong question, ignoring relevant material or relying on irrelevant material in a way that affects the exercise of power is to make an error of law. Further, doing so results in the decision-maker exceeding the authority or powers given by the relevant statute. In other words, if an error of those types is made, the decision-maker did not have authority to make the decision that was made; he or she did not have jurisdiction to make it. Nothing in the Act suggests that the Tribunal is given authority to authoritatively determine questions of law or to make a decision otherwise than in accordance with the law Craig (1995) 184 CLR 163 at 179.'
28 It has been the failure of the appellant both at first instance and on appeal to identify an error of law by the Tribunal in that sense which compels the conclusion that her appeal must be dismissed. There will be an order that the appellant pay the Minister's costs of the appeal.
I certify that the preceding twenty-eight (28) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment herein of the Honourable Justice Ryan.