Judge says Peter Dutton could be found in contempt if he defies orders in immigration case.

Extract from The Guardian

Peter Dutton

Australia’s home affairs minister has failed to comply with an order to make a decision on whether to grant an Iranian man a protection visa

Ben Butler

Wed 17 Jun 2020 17.29 AEST Last modified on Wed 17 Jun 2020 20.22 AEST

A judge has said Peter Dutton is persisting in decision-making that is contrary to the law in the case of an Iranian man’s visa application. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

A federal court judge has said he is open to finding Peter Dutton in contempt, the penalties for which could include jail, if the home affairs minister continues to ignore court orders in an immigration case.
In a judgment handed down on Wednesday, Geoffrey Flick blasted Dutton for failing to comply with an order made last week requiring the minister to make a decision on whether to grant a man from Iran a protection visa.
Flick said Dutton and the minister for immigration “were unlawfully and repeatedly persisting in pursuing a course of decision-making contrary” to the law before last week’s ruling.

“That course of decision-making, regrettably, is continuing,” he said.
Alan Tudge is currently acting as immigration minister while David Coleman is on personal leave.

Flick said that after he ruled on the long-running case last week, lawyers for the ministers told the Iranian man they would not rule on his visa application because Dutton was appealing the judgment.
The lawyers claimed that “Flick was in error in finding that the delay in making such a decision was unreasonable” and said Dutton would not make a decision before the appeal was resolved because doing so “would render the appeal moot”.
“Regrettably, by that email ‘the minister’ has intentionally opted not to comply with the law,” Flick said.
“An order is thus necessary to ensure that ‘the minister’ responsible for administering the Migration Act does so in accordance with law. The stance of ‘the minister’, expressed as it is, makes a mockery of any concept of the minister acting as a model litigant.
“It is, to say the least, regrettable that those responsible for administering the Migration Act in accordance with law have deliberately decided to administer that legislation in a manner contrary to law.”
He said he had the power to fine or jail people found in contempt of court.
“In the absence of argument, there is no self-evident reason why even a minister of the crown should not comply with orders made by this court and, if found guilty of contempt, liable to the same penalties as any other litigant,” he said.
Dutton’s office has been contacted for comment.
The Iranian man at the centre of the case arrived in Australia by boat in July 2013. After a stint in immigration detention, he was given a bridging visa in August that year.
However, the immigration department cancelled his visa in December 2016 and put him back in detention.

Since then, his application for a new visa has been crawling through the system.
In November 2018, the administrative appeals tribunal found that he passed the character test in the Migration Act, making him eligible for a protection visa.
But for more than a year the department failed to process his application, prompting the man to apply to the court in December for a ruling that there had been an unreasonable delay.
In response, Dutton set aside the AAT’s ruling and refused the man a visa.

That decision was itself overturned by the court.