Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v SZSSJ

Migration – Refugees – Protection visas – Procedural fairness – Where SZSSJ and SZTZI ("respondents") applied for protection visas – Where respondents' personal information published on Department of Immigration and Border Protection website and accessed from 104 unique IP addresses – Where IP addresses known to Department – Where Department conducted International Treaties Obligations Assessments ("ITOAs") to determine impact of publication on non-refoulement obligations – Where ITOAs conducted in accordance with publicly available "Procedures Advice Manual" – Where Department notified respondents of ITOAs and instructed officers conducting ITOAs to assume personal information may have been accessed by authorities in countries where respondents feared persecution or other relevant harm – Where Department neither disclosed IP addresses nor provided unabridged report relating to disclosure of personal information – Whether obligation to afford procedural fairness applied to ITOA processes – Whether ITOA processes procedurally fair.

Courts and judges – Jurisdiction – Federal Circuit Court of Australia – Whether respondents' claims to relief engaged jurisdiction of Court – Whether jurisdiction excluded by s 476(2)(d) of Migration Act 1958 (Cth).

Words and phrases – "conduct preparatory to the making of a decision", "International Treaties Obligations Assessment", "privative clause decision", "procedural decision to consider whether to grant a visa or to lift the bar", "substantive decision to grant a visa or to lift the bar".

Migration Act 1958 (Cth) – ss 48B, 195A, 417, 474, 476.