Insurer Report

The following case reinforces sections 6.3 and 6.4 of the Claims Management Performance Standards and Guidelines in that procedural fairness should be afforded to workers prior to the making of an adverse decision.

 

The Applicants were a Nepalese couple who unsuccessfully applied for protection visas claiming to be refugees to whom Australia owed protection obligations.  They left Nepal during a civil war and fled due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for his political opinion or membership of a particular social group.

 

The High Court held that an opportunity must be given to any person potentially adversely affected by a decision to respond to information that is credible, relevant and significant to the decision.  Further the decision-maker must consider that response and give 'proper, genuine and realistic consideration' to that response.  A failure to do so may amount to a denial of procedural fairness and jurisdictional error.

 

The courts should not look into the merits of administrative decisions on the ground that the decision-maker did not give 'proper, genuine and realistic consideration' to the evidence before it.  It is for the decision-maker to decide on the weight to be given to the evidence, and not a court exercising supervisory jurisdiction.

 

Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZJSS [2010] HCA 48