Case: Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v Le [2007] FCA 1318 , 164 FCR 151
Outcome: cited
may be accepted that circumstances may arise where the Tribunal may be exposed to a duty to make further enquiries: eg., Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v Le [2007] FCA 1318 at [77] to [79], [2007] FCA 1318 ; 164 FCR 151 at 178 to 179 per Kenny J. But no such duty arose in the present case. The Tribunal in the present proceeding inspected the documents placed before it by the now Appellant. Its inspection of those documents occasioned it to have reservations as to the authenticity of the documents. The Tribunal's reasons thus record as follows its observations in respect to the document ostensibly emanating from the police and the manner in which the Tribunal resolved those reservations: [42] The Tribunal drew the Applicant's attention to the fact that the photocopy clearly displayed an area where the original typed text "Accuses" gave way to an area obscured by a cut-out piece of white paper over which four names including his own were handwritten in pen. The Tribunal showed the Applicant that the interpolations by pen made a deep enough impression in the paper for them to be discernible through the paper both to the eye and to touch. The Tribunal noted that the blank space created by the obscuring white cut-out ended just above the typed text stating the offence and a space provided within that typed text for the date of the offence. The Tribunal showed the Applicant where the blank cut-out obscured part of the date, and put to the Applicant that all these features indicated that the part of the document linking him to the police and to the purported offence and charge appeared very clearly to be falsified. In respect to the posters, the Tribunal similarly recorded the procedural course it pursued in respect to these documents and its conclusions as follows: [44] The Tribunal looked at the posters the Applicant brought to the hearing. Both of these purported to be notices calling people to come and hear BNP officials speak on issues of the day. Both included photographs of a number of purported BNP officials including the Applicant. The Tribunal put to the Applicant that the font appearing under his photograph in each of the two posters was not consistent with the font under the photographs of the others. The Tribunal put to the Applicant that [if] it found that it could not rely on the other two documents as being genuine reliable documents it would have good reason to give no weight to these posters. The Applicant insisted the posters were genuine and said they had lain in his office a long time. The Tribunal then asked the Applicant why the font under his image was slightly larger than the font under the other pictures, and he said that because the poster was for use in his own area, his name was given prominence. The Tribunal considered this, but was not impressed on sight as to any conscious effort to highlight the Applicant's name, the difference in font was so marginal as to look more like the product of oversight than a deliberate intention to highlight. No challenge could be made as to the fairness of the procedure pursued by the Tribunal. It brought to the now Appellant's attention its concerns and did indeed make further enquiries of him. He was given an opportunity by the Tribunal to respond to those concerns. He was given a further opportunity this morning to make any further submissions he saw fit as to the genuineness of the documents in issue. He confirmed that the Tribunal had made enquiries of him and that there was nothing further he wished to add, other than his submission that further enquiries should have been made overseas.