119 Nevertheless, senior counsel for the Commonwealth challenged ASF17’s affidavit proof that he believed that he would face torture or dying at the hands of Iranian authorities. ASF17 said that he knew that he would “face torture or death by the hands of Iranian authorities” if he were returned to Iran, because of his sexuality. 118 ASF17 was cross-examined on his affidavit proof. But there was no problem to his affidavit proof that he was bisexual. Nor was there any problem to his affidavit evidence that he had not disclosed his sexuality to any authorities in Australia attributable to “fear and stigma related to such … conduct in Iran”. It was put to ASF17 that he did not concern hurt as a consequence of his bisexuality if he had been returned to Iran. He said that he was genuinely fearful that if anybody in the detention centre “found out about my bisexuality (generally known as ‘Hamjinsgar’ in Iran), which they consider against the law against God and is punishable by loss of life in Iran, they may harm me”.
And during the course of cross-examination, senior counsel for the Commonwealth correctly conceded that sexual intercourse between males is illegitimate in Iran and can attract the death penalty. 106 On this attraction, the Commonwealth relied heavily on the reasoning of the joint judgment in Lim, concerning what was then s 54P of the Migration Act, by which the validity of the legislative scheme was preserved as a result of “it all the time lies within the facility of a chosen person to convey his or her detention in custody to an end by requesting to be removed from Australia”. Instead, the primary requirement ought to solely be applied where the tip sought to be achieved by a regulation is punitive in the strict sense of punishment, quite than the free sense during which the time period was used in Lim as which means a disproportionate means to realize a authentic end. In other words, it is a distinct question from that of legitimacy of objective to ask whether or not the means by which a legislation implements Parliament’s purpose are proportionate, including where the aim is contradicted or pissed off in some of its applications.
This objective remained reputable although Gageler J also recognised that the means adopted to attain this respectable purpose might not permit some third-social gathering campaigners “meaningfully to compete on the playing area”. Or, as on this case, in the administrative process for considering a protection visa software an applicant might not elevate the problem upon which they may arguably have a effectively-founded concern of persecution. For instance, the circumstances in another country that give rise to a nicely-based worry of persecution may arise after the protection visa application has been finally decided. Alternatively, an inference that the true goal of a legislation is to permit govt punishment might arguably be drawn if, within the absence of provisions within the Migration Act comparable to ss 197C and 198(5A), the govt had the facility or responsibility to remove an alien who had committed an offence to a spot the place the alien had been discovered to have (or was awaiting a finding regarding) a need for safety. Ultimately, it’s unnecessary to deal with this concern in the absence of any submissions on it and in mild of the conclusion that I attain on ASF17’s collateral problem to the administrative finding. There was also no problem to his evidence, repeated in cross-examination, that he had had intercourse with three men in immigration detention and that, before these proceedings, these men had been the one people who had been conscious of ASF17’s sexual interest in males.
Anthropology professor Roger Lancaster has called the restrictions “tantamount to practices of banishment” that he deems disproportional, noting that registries embody not simply the “worst of the worst”, but additionally “adults who equipped pornography to teenage minors; young schoolteachers who foolishly fell in love with certainly one of their students; males who urinated in public, or were caught having intercourse in distant areas of public parks after dark.” In many situations, people have pleaded guilty to an offense like urinating in public decades ago, not realizing the result would be their placement on a intercourse offender registry, and all the restrictions that include it. He was cross-examined on the implausibility of his account about having intercourse with one other man in his home in Iran. These activities include not solely sleepwalking, however eating, making telephone calls, having intercourse and driving — yes, driving. Restrictions and constraints of the intercourse offender registry vary by tier, with tier one being the least restrictive and tier three being essentially the most. The proper query is whether or not the applying of the regulation imposing the detention is fairly able to being seen as crucial for the purpose of elimination of classes of aliens from Australia.