ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - unreasonable delay in making a decision - Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth), ss 7(1), 16(3) - where the Act requires the Minister to either approve or refuse to approve an application for citizenship - where the Act does not specify a time limit for performance of the duty - whether "unreasonable delay in making the decision" within meaning of s 7 ADJR Act; relevant question is whether by reference to the statutory scheme in which the decision-making power is found there has been, in all of the circumstances, delay in making the decision which is not justified - where delay arises out of periods of inactivity the Minister has the onus of providing a meaningful explanation for the inactivity - where only part of a fourteen-month period of inactivity is satisfactorily explained - whether balance of unexplained inactivity amounts to unreasonable delay - unreasonable delay made out
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - legal unreasonableness - Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth), ss 5(2)(g), 16(1) - where applicant failed to respond to an invitation to provide further identity documentation within the 35 days specified by the delegate - where the delegate made a decision to refuse the application on the 36th day without recourse to the applicant or his legal representatives - whether the delegate's exercise of discretion to finalise the decision was legally unreasonable - whether such legal unreasonableness amounted to a jurisdictional error - whether the delegate's failure to make inquiries of the applicant's legal representatives amounted to legal unreasonableness and/or a constructive failure to exercise jurisdiction or a breach of procedural fairness - the delegate's failure to make inquiries amounts to jurisdictional error - whether jurisdictional error rendered the decision nugatory for all purposes and to be regarded as no decision at all
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - procedural fairness - Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth), ss 5(1)(a), 16(1) - whether statutory scheme evinces an intention to curtail the content of procedural fairness - whether applicant given opportunity to respond to issues critical to the decision - whether the identification of an issue at a high level of generality is sufficient - whether applicant given opportunity to respond to adverse information - whether opportunity should have been afforded for applicant to respond to what delegate regarded as prior inconsistent statements - the delegate failed to afford procedural fairness - whether relief should be refused on the basis of the rule in Stead - no basis for considering that affording procedural fairness would have been futile
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - discretion to exercise jurisdiction and grant relief - Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth), ss 10(2)(b)(ii), 16(1) - where a decision is made which had been the subject of an application for failure to make a decision - whether there remains any utility in the proceeding - where the purported decision has been found to have been vitiated by jurisdictional error -- where another law makes adequate provision for review of the decision - whether an applicant must show special circumstances to persuade Court to exercise its jurisdiction - where Court proceeding sufficiently advanced - no cause to refuse to exercise jurisdiction and/or grant relief
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