Editors --- "Procedural Fairness In Relation to 'Dob-In' Letters" [2004] AdminRw 15; (2004) 56 Admin Review 65

• Procedural fairness in relation to ‘dob-in’ letters

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Procedural fairness in relation to ‘dob-in’ letters

In Applicant VEAL of 2002 v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs^[1] the Refugee Review Tribunal disavowed any reliance on a letter that had been forwarded to it claiming to be from someone having a personal association with the applicants. The Tribunal’s reasoning was that it was unable to test the veracity of the letter’s contents. The letter had been sent to the Department ‘in confidence’. The Tribunal decided to regard the letter as ‘non-disclosable information’ under s. 424A of the Migration Act 1958 and did not provide a copy to the applicants.

Merkel J held that the Tribunal’s disavowal of reliance on the letter was not sufficient to justify the failure to provide the applicants with any information about the letter’s contents, which were prejudicial to the applicants. The letter was apparently credible and related to matters that were relevant and significant. Even where information was provided in confidence, procedural fairness might require that the substance of the information be disclosed.

His Honour also held that, even if the statutory scheme did not require the information to be disclosed, it did not actually prohibit disclosure, except in narrow circumstances that were not relevant to the case. Any natural justice or procedural fairness obligations had not been ousted by the statutory scheme as it then stood.

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^[1] [2003] FCA 437.