Archer v Minister [2025] FCA 471
Archer migrated in 1965 and held a permanent visa. After conviction as an accessory to murder, her visa was cancelled on character and other grounds12. The judge intimated that the cancelling provision was ‘to be construed by reference to the established principle … requiring strict construction of an Act which affects the personal liberty of the subject’.
The right to personal liberty goes back to Magna Carta13. It is the ‘most basic’ of human freedoms, with the law being ‘very jealous’ of its infringement14. Various formulae are used to describe the threshold to be met before a statute will impact on personal rights. A common one is ‘irresistible clearness’15.
This principle is from Episode 123 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
12 s 501BA(2) of the Migration Act 1958 – ‘… Minister may … cancel a visa …’
13 Muboyayi [1992] 2 QB 244 (254), cf Blundell [2010] ACTSC 151 [146].
14 Al-Kateb [2004] HCA 37 [19-20], Bolton (1987) 70 ALR 225 (231) resp.
15 X7 [2013] HCA 29 [158], Hurt [2024] HCA 8 [49], Shade [2016] NSWCA 379.