The Australian Government prides itself to be a country of compassion and understanding and accordingly in many aspects of the law whether if it visa cancellations or ministerial intervention, the Minister considers whether it is in the public interest and in fact if the Australian public would see it reasonable and fair to be compassionate in a particular circumstance and grant a visa to an applicant who has been otherwise unsuccessful in satisfying the requirements of the Migration Act in having a visa granted by satisfying the criteria of the visa.
The provisions of the Migration Act under Section 351 and 417 enable an applicant, if unsuccessful after the hearing, determination by either the MRT (Section 351) of the RRT (Section 417) to apply to the Minister to intervene and substitute a more favourable decision by the granting of a visa without the necessity of further application to the Department or referral to the Courts.
The Minister under these sections has power to grant a visa if the Minister is satisfied that there is a public interest issue and further that there are compelling and compassionate circumstances associated with the case sufficient to warrant the grant of a visa.