WAAU v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT BLACK CJ: 1 All the judges have read the papers in this case and heard what the appellant has said, through an interpreter. For myself I am unable to find any error in what French J has said in his reasons for judgment. In a case like this, particularly where a person is not represented by a lawyer, the Court looks again at the decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal. We read it with care. Then we read the decision of the judge to whom you appealed, French J. Then we read any written material that you have given us, which happened in this case. Then we listen to you in court here today. 2 After that we apply to your case the law of Australia, as we know it to be. Now, the way in which the law works in Australia in refugee cases is that the decisions about what happened, the facts of the matter, are made by the Refugee Review Tribunal. That is the fundamental point. The decisions about the facts are not made by a judge at all. The Tribunal makes the decision about what the facts are. The role of the Court is to see whether there is any legal mistake in the application of the law to what the Tribunal has done. 3 French J, the judge from whom you are appealing, looked at the Tribunal's reasons, knowing that you were unhappy with them, to see if there was any legal mistake in what the Tribunal had done. Now, having read all the papers myself I am compelled to the conclusion that French J was right in concluding there was no legal mistake in what the Tribunal had done. For those reasons the appeal should be dismissed. I certify that the preceding three (3) numbered paragraphs is a true copy of the reasons for judgment herein of the Honourable Chief Justice Black.