Latest Judgments

Judgments are generally published within 24 hours of being made available by Judges' staff, often earlier. In cases of high media interest, we endeavour to publish judgments within 1 hour of being delivered by the Court.

• Published today
• Published this week
• Published in the last thirty days

---

Migration
Kearney v Migration Agents Registration Authority [2026] FCA 1615
MIGRATION – appeal on questions of law from decision of Administrative Appeals Tribunal – where decision affirmed decision of Migration Agents Registration Authority to cancel applicant’s registration as a migration agent pursuant to s 303(1)(a) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) – where applicant lodged nomination applications on behalf of sponsoring businesses – where sponsoring businesses had no knowledge of the nomination applications – where Tribunal satisfied applicant breached clauses of the Code of Conduct for registered migration agents in Sch 2 to the Migration Agents Regulations 1998 (Cth) – where Tribunal satisfied applicant not a fit and proper person to give immigration assistance – whether Tribunal erred by finding the sponsoring businesses were the applicant’s ‘clients’ – whether Tribunal erred by finding the applicant provided ‘immigration assistance’ to the sponsoring businesses – meaning of ‘client’ in reg 3(1) of the Regulations – meaning of ‘immigration assistance’ in s 276(2) of the Act – whether client/migration agent relationship vitiated by fraudulent conduct of third parties Held: appeal dismissed
28 Oct 2026 |  DOWLING J

Industrial Law
ECA Training Pty Limited v Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia [2026] FCAFC 138
INDUSTRIAL LAW – alleged contraventions of ss 501 and 502 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FW Act) – where permit holders sought entry to relevant premises pursuant to s 484 of the FW Act – where the primary judge found that officials believed that apprentices engaged in paid employment undertaking off-the-job training at the premises of the second appellant were performing work at the premises for the purposes of s 484 of the FW Act – whether right of entry conditioned by subjective state of mind – whether apprentice training tasks constitute performance of work – appeal dismissed
28 Oct 2026 |  RANGIAH, SNADEN AND HATCHER JJ

Costs
TLAS Pty Ltd as trustee for the TLAS Trust v Arrowes Roading Safety Pty Ltd (Costs) [2026] FCA 1621
COSTS – where the applicant was only partly successful at trial – broad brush approach to costs assessment
28 Oct 2026 |  HESPE J

Migration
Jamdar v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship [2026] FCA 1620
MIGRATION – extension of time to appeal from decision of Administrative Review Tribunal – appeal on question of law under ss 172 and 174 of the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 (Cth) – application for Australian citizenship by conferral – good character requirement – operation of Pt VIIC of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) – findings of guilt recorded without conviction – operation of s 85ZR(2)(b) of the Crimes Act – whether Tribunal impermissibly took account of non-conviction offending – procedural fairness – legal unreasonableness – finding that applicant deliberately withheld information concerning criminal offending – alleged misunderstanding of witness evidence – materiality – no appellable error established
28 Oct 2026 |  ROFE J

Practice and Procedure
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v eToro Aus Capital Limited (No 3) [2026] FCA 1604
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – application for final suppression and non-publication orders under s 37AF of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) – where interim orders made for suppression and non-publication – where commercially sensitive information not available in the public domain – where information sought to be protected includes product complaints – whether orders necessary to prevent prejudice to the proper administration of justice –– application granted with some exceptions
28 Oct 2026 |  STELLIOS J

Corporations Law
Jahani v Qiu, in the matter of Ralan Property Services Pty Ltd (receivers and managers appointed) (in liq) (non-party application) [2026] FCA 1619
CORPORATIONS – application by non-party creditor for leave to be heard or otherwise participate in proceeding – r  2.13 of the Federal Court (Corporations) Rules 2000 (Cth) – proposed reliance on findings made in other proceedings – s 91 of the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) – proposed material would not assist in determination of issues arising on the pleadings. Held: application refused – no order as to costs.
28 Oct 2026 |  CHEESEMAN J

Corporations Law
Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre v The Star Pty Limited [2026] FCA 1606
CORPORATIONS – contraventions of s 81(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) – whether respondents provided designated services to customers without compliant program to manage risk of money laundering and terrorism financing – whether ‘purpose’ in s 85(2)(a) requires objective inquiry into whether program is, by its design, capable of identifying, mitigating and managing risk of money laundering or terrorism financing – whether program compliant with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules Instrument 2007 (No 1) (Cth) CORPORATIONS – contraventions of s 36(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) – where respondents failed to monitor customers in relation to provision of designated services with a view to managing risk of money laundering or terrorism financing – whether failure to monitor constitutes a separate contravention for each designated service provided to each customer, or a separate contravention for each customer – whether common cause of failures gives rise to relevant course of conduct CORPORATIONS – pecuniary penalty – quantum of penalty contested – factors relevant to penalty – relevance of prior penalty decisions including agreed penalties – relevance of contraveners’ alleged inability to pay – whether deliberate contraventions – where large number of serious contraventions arising from systemic failure to comply – where contraventions caused significant harm – where contraveners enjoyed financial benefit from contraventions – relevance of other penalties for same conduct – where significant steps taken to improve compliance – whether penalty should be payable in instalments
28 Oct 2026 |  MOORE J

Practice and Procedure
Moses v Commonwealth of Australia [2026] FCA 1607
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – pleadings – where defendants seek to strike out paragraphs of amended statement of claim on the basis of inconsistency with s 16 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 (Cth) – where plaintiff disclosed information about activities of Hillsong to parliamentarian to obtain benefit of parliamentary privilege – where plaintiff contends another parliamentarian caused the first parliamentarian not to proceed with disclosure – whether tabling a document forms part of business of Parliament – where communications for the purpose of, or incidental to, a decision whether to table documents protected by parliamentary privilege – where bare facts exception not engaged – where no relevant repetition and adoption of alleged conduct – application allowed in part – paragraphs of amended statement of claim struck out but leave to file amended pleadings granted – application otherwise dismissed
28 Oct 2026 |  HALLEY J