Migration Act s 422B — Exhaustive statement of natural justice (RRT)
Text of provision
Refer to the current compilation of the Migration Act 1958 on the Federal Register of Legislation for verbatim text.
Plain English
Section 422B provides that Division 4 of Part 7 of the Migration Act is an exhaustive statement of the requirements of the natural justice hearing rule in relation to the review of protection visa decisions by the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT). The common law natural justice hearing rule does not apply — only the statutory requirements set out in Division 4 govern the Tribunal's procedural fairness obligations.
Note: The RRT was merged into the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in 2015. The AAT's migration and refugee review functions were transferred to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) in October 2024. Section 422B is now of historical significance, but cases decided under it remain relevant to understanding the scope of natural justice in merits review of protection decisions.
Practical effect
Section 422B was the protection visa counterpart to s 357A (MRT) and s 363A (Migration Review in offshore decisions). Together these provisions formed a statutory code excluding common law natural justice in migration tribunal proceedings.
The High Court's decision in SAAP v Minister for Immigration (2005) 228 CLR 294 confirmed that while common law natural justice was excluded by s 422B, a failure to comply with the statutory procedures (such as s 424A) still constituted jurisdictional error. This decision had major practical consequences: it meant that RRT decisions which failed to give applicants written notice of adverse information under s 424A were vitiated by jurisdictional error and could be quashed by the Federal Court.