See DVO16 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2021] HCA 12; 95 ALJR 375 at [12].
Tag: new information
The IAA’s ‘visual impression’ that it forms based on observations in an interview is ‘new information’, and so should impressions based on reviews of audio or video recordings
If the IAA interviews an applicant, it might them form an impression of the demeanour of the applicant. This impression is ‘new information’ and attracts the obligation to invite comment, under s 473DE. In ABT17 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2020] HCA 34 at [16] the plurality said:
... The Authority's own visual impression of the referred applicant's appearance during such an interview would necessarily constitute new information within the power of the Authority to get because it would communicate knowledge of an evidentiary nature which would be open to be considered by the Authority to have the potential to bear on the Authority's assessment of the referred applicant's credibility[27] and which was not before the Minister when the delegate made the referred decision[28].
See also [17]:
Were some aspect of the referred applicant's appearance during the interview to end up being so glaringly undermining of the referred applicant's credibility as to lead the Authority to consider in advance of reasoning on the facts that the appearance of itself "would", as distinct from "might", be the reason or part of the reason for affirming the decision of the delegate[31], the Authority would come under an obligation to explain that to the referred applicant and to invite the referred applicant to comment[32]. ...
By parity of reasoning, the IAA’s impression it forms based on observations it makes from listening to or watching a recording should also be ‘new information’, because these impressions are also ‘knowledge of an evidentiary nature’.
Hence, it is unreasonable if the IAA ([25]):
... without good reason, ... does not invite a referred applicant to an interview in order to gauge his or her demeanour for itself before it decides to reject an account given by the referred applicant in an audio recorded interview which the delegate accepted in making the referred decision wholly or substantially on the basis of its own assessment of the manner in which that account was given.
New information obtained under s 473DC must necessarily mean there are exceptional circumstances
One would have thought this was obvious, despite attempts to constrain the meaning and operation of s 473DD and excessively defer to the IAA. The High Court has now confirmed that proposition. In ABT17 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2020] HCA 34 at [16] the plurality said:
.. The new information so got by the Authority would then meet the preconditions to its consideration by the Authority on the basis that it was not and could not have been before the Minister when the delegate made the referred decision[29] and on the basis of the Authority's satisfaction that the existence of any informational gap is sufficiently aberrant within the scheme of de novo review for which Pt 7AA provides to make existence of the informational gap in the particular review alone enough to constitute "exceptional circumstances" justifying its consideration irrespective of how frequently such an informational gap might arise in practice[30].
Whether a document can be ‘constructively’ before a delegate such that it is not ‘new information’
In DTK17 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2018] FCAFC 170 there was discussion of whether a particular document was constructively before the delegate so as to render it not ‘new information’ for the purposes of the IAA. The impugned document was an ‘issues paper’ concerning Hazaras in Afghanistan. The Full Court held that such a document was not ‘before the Minister’ (or a s 65 delegate) such that it was ‘new information’ for the purposes of the IAA.
There appears not to have been any argument about the significance of s 499 (if the document was such a document which a s 499 direction required the delegate to consider). If the document was required to be considered pursuant to a direction made under s 499, the answer as to whether the document was ‘new information’ may be different (unless the test is confined to a document which is literally before the person, which appears to be what the Full Court intimated: [38]).
The Full Court’s rejection of the argument also does not answer the question of whether a document incorporated by reference in another document that was actually before the delegate, is itself constructively ‘before the Minister’ for the purposes of s 473DC.
‘Exceptional circumstances’ is not limited to whether the applicant could have provided the information earlier
BVZ16 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2017] FCA 958 concerned the IAA’s exclusion of information on the sole basis that the applicant could have but did not provide it to the delegate. White J said at [46]-[47] this was an unduly narrow interpretation of ‘exceptional circumstances’.
His Honour stated:
[41] Generally, consideration of whether exceptional circumstances exist will require consideration of all the relevant circumstances. That is because even though no one factor may be exceptional, in combination the circumstances may be such as reasonably to be regarded as exceptional…
…
[43] … exceptional circumstances will be those which are out of the ordinary course and which will justify the new information being considered even though it had not been provided to the Minister at the time of the s 65 decision. A variety of matters may be capable of bearing upon those circumstances. (emphasis added)
His Honour also observed at [34]-[35] that the requirements in s 473DD(a) and (b) overlap, so that even though they are cumulative, the fact that information could have been provided to the delegate earlier but was not cannot be decisive. Thus, information that could have been provided earlier but was not (s 473DD(b)(i)) might nonetheless be personal information that had it been known, would have affected the decision (s 473DD(b)(ii)), and in light of that significance (or otherwise), there was an ‘exceptional’ circumstance (s 473DD(a)).
His Honour’s reasoning was endorsed in Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v BBS16 [2017] FCAFC 176 at [102]-[112].
The Full Court left open the possibility that the IAA failing to consider a particular piece of information in deciding whether there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ may constitute jurisdictional error: [114].