Alan Tudge criticism ‘unjustified’: Federal Court

The Federal Court has voted to overturn a decision against Alan Tudge in which he was accused of ‘criminal’ conduct.

Alan Tudge during Question Time in the House of Representatives in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

The Federal Court has unanimously voted to overturn a decision against MP Alan Tudge in which a judge had described his detention of an asylum seeker as “criminal”.
The court found the criticism of the Minister by Justice Geoffrey Flick was “unjustified” because the court found Mr Tudge and his office had played no role in the decision making.
The judgement also found that it was likely Justice Flick had confused Mr Tudge with the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton.
Mr Tudge released a statement on Thursday afternoon saying he welcomed the court’s decision.
“The court found that my delegates at the time (being officials within the Department of Home Affairs), had acted “conscientiously on legal advice received” and “at no time was the Minister consulted in relation to these issues,” he said.
“The court found also that I was not afforded procedural fairness.”
In March this year the 34-year-old Afghani man, known as PDWL, was awarded a protection visa by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal after appealing an earlier Department of Home Affairs decision.
The Minister opposed the man’s application for a visa on character grounds because of a criminal conviction and immediately appealed the decision.
Despite the AAT’s finding, PDWL was kept in detention at Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre in Western Australia from March 11 to March 17.
He was eventually released after the minister was ordered by the federal court.
In the original ruling last October, Justice Geoffrey Flick said that while the Administrative Appeals Tribunal made the incorrect decision to award PDWL the visa, he concluded: “the minister has acted unlawfully. His actions have unlawfully deprived a person of his liberty.”
Justice Flick also said: “The conduct of the Minister in this case, on just about any view, has been disgraceful.”
At the time a spokeswoman for Mr Tudge said that he: “strongly rejects any suggestion of improper conduct in these proceedings”.