Chris Honnery

‘A sentence of death.’ The title of Edelman J’s dissenting judgment in Plaintiff M1/2021 v Minister for Home Affairs (M1) captures the stakes of visa cancellation matters in which a former visa holder claims to face serious harm in their country of origin.

In M1, the High Court addressed whether a decision maker is required to consider claims that raise a potential breach of Australia's international nonrefoulement obligations when determining if there is ‘another reason’ to revoke a mandatory visa cancellation under s 501CA of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (the Act). By majority, the High Court held that it is permissible to ‘defer’ consideration of non-refoulement claims raised in a request to revoke a visa cancellation on the basis that these claims will be assessed in a protection visa application.

Paul Daly

Before situating the Kerr Report in what I consider to be its historical context, let me begin with a quibble. The Kerr Report considered comparative materials in some detail. This must have taken considerable effort in days where information from the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand …