The Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs has several powers to cancel visas held by non-citizens under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). The most common powers of cancellation are:

There are also cancellation powers specific to particular categories of visas (for example, s 137J which allows for automatic cancellation of a student visa where the visa holder is not complying with their study requirements).

Some visa cancellations, or refusals, can be reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal (formerly the Administrative Appeals Tribunal).

Ministerial Intervention requests

Applicants who are unsuccessful in the Administrative Review Tribunal can apply to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to intervene and substitute a new decision that is more favourable to them [s 351].

However, the Minister will only exercise this power if it is in the public interest for them to do so [s 351(1)]. Not many decisions will warrant intervention by the Minister – usually an applicant must demonstrate unique or exceptional circumstances and anyone seeking Ministerial Intervention should consider whether they meet the Ministerial Intervention guidelines before lodging their request.

This power is also non-compellable which means that the Minister is not legally obligated to exercise the power and can choose not to do so.

Further information is available at the Department of Home Affairs website, in particular the Status Resolution Service webpage.

In deciding whether to intervene, the Minister must exercise this power personally and cannot delegate to another person, as was previously the case under departmental guidelines. These guidelines allowed delegated decision-makers to make decisions about whether requests were “unique and exceptional”. In the April 2023 High Court decision of Davis v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs; DCM20 v Secretary of Department of Home Affairs [2023] HCA 10, the High Court ruled that this decision cannot be delegated, as only the Minister for Immigration can make such an assessment given it is a necessary step in determining whether a matter is in the public interest.