Do you remember I wrote a few days ago that the barista of the coffee shop was going to be deported on Thursday? It is Thursday today. I gave him a farewell hug yesterday. Then, I met him at the coffee shop today!! It seems that the Property forgot to undertake the discharge process for him last night and when they realised it this morning, it was too late for the plane!!! Another botched deportation. No wonder the tax of this country is horrendously high...
A botched deportation reminds me of the interesting story I read a few days ago. It is about the Immigration's conduct which could potentially lead to mass botched deportation. It is easy to understand even for a non-lawyer so you might want to read the article by yourself.
http://migrationalliance.com.a
Funny? It is (!) although, unlike the author of this article, I am not sure that the Immigration should withdraw all the cancellation decision hurriedly because it would be futile to withdraw those decisions if the same notice and reasons are to be signed by another (lawful) decision maker immediately.
Leaving the issues of how to fix this problem aside, this story is particularly interesting to me because I had (quite?) a bit of argument about the delegation with one of the Assistant Secretaries of the Immigration in April this year. What happened is this.
In November last year, since I satisfied the conditions of the grant of a visa except for the Commonwealth debts and the character assessment, I started negotiating the debts repayment plan. The Assistant Director of the debts management insisted that she would not approve the plan unless I pay the huge sum which I was unable to afford. So at the end of January this year, I decided to apply for a judicial review of her decision in the Federal Court. Then, in order to bring an action, I demanded her to furnish the reasons for her decision in accordance with the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 and also asked her to clarify that she was the delegate of the Minister for Finance for the purpose of deciding the repayment plan. She could not answer. In March, I made the demand for the reasons under the Act and then the Assistant Secretary replied to me at the beginning of April.
The Assistant Secretary showed me the Finance Minister's delegation. It actually proved that the Secretary of the Immigration was the delegate. The Assistant Secretary explained that the Assistant Director who insisted the huge sum was subdelegated the task by the Secretary. I don't know whether it was lawful. But the delegation the Assitant Secretary showed me included the directions by the Finance Minister. The Minister directed that the delegate must have regard to the capacity of the repayment of a person! So the delegate should not insist the huge sum I cannot afford. From there, the Assistant Secretary and I had arguments for more than a month to reach the agreement for the repayment plan.
Anyway, the Assistant Secretary is an accountant. She is not a lawyer. I do not think she knew the delegation so she must have asked the legal section, probably in March this year. I am wondering whether the Assistant Secretary is the person who triggered the Department to check all the delegation within the Department that caused the discovery of huge numbers of decisions made without the authority. I think she is.