Ministerial Intervention Under Section 351: What It Actually Is (and Isn't)

What Section 351 Actually Does

Section 351(1) of the Migration Act provides: if the Minister thinks that it is in the public interest to do so, the Minister may substitute for a decision of the ART another decision, being a decision that is more favourable to the applicant, whether or not the ART had the power to make that other decision. In plain terms, this is a power that sits above and outside the ART's own decision — the Minister can personally step in and replace the outcome with a better one for the applicant, if the Minister decides it's in the public interest to do so.

Section 417 Is Repealed — Here's the Proof

A large amount of published material online — including, as at this session's research, a majority of the guides available — still describes 'section 417 ministerial intervention' as a separate power for protection-visa and refugee matters. That provision no longer exists as an operative part of the law. The current Migration Regulations confirm this directly: regulation 4.31C(1)(b) refers to 'the Minister, under section 351 or repealed section 417 of the Act' — the word 'repealed' appearing in the regulation's own current text. Where the Act once had a dual structure (section 351 for migration decisions, section 417 for protection decisions), it now has one unified provision. Section 351(1A) confirms this by listing the specific ART decisions the power covers, spanning both migration and protection matters.

There's No Legal Right to Intervention

This is the single most important fact to understand before relying on this pathway. Section 351(7) states: the Minister does not have a duty to consider whether to exercise the power under subsection (1) in respect of any decision, whether he or she is requested to do so by the applicant or by any other person, or in any other circumstances. There is no legal right to intervention, and no right to a reason if the Minister declines even to look at your request. A section 351 request is a plea to discretion, not an appeal — and content or advice that treats it as a reliable fallback is not describing the law accurately.

Personal Power Only — It Cannot Be Delegated

Section 351(3) confirms the power may only be exercised by the Minister personally. It cannot be delegated to a departmental officer or anyone else acting on the Minister's behalf. Every decision to intervene, or not to, is the Minister's own.

No Deadline to Request It — Which Is Not the Same as Good News

There is no statutory time limit fixed in the Act for requesting ministerial intervention. That absence isn't a relief valve, though: a section 351 request does not stay removal action, and it does not extend any other deadline running in your matter — the ART deadline, a judicial review deadline, or a revocation-request deadline all keep running regardless of whether you've also made a section 351 request. Departmental Guidelines are commonly referenced as informing when a request is likely to be forwarded to the Minister, but this article was not able to verify those Guidelines against a primary source, so no specific process detail beyond the Act's own text is asserted here.

What Happens If the Minister Does Intervene

Any exercise of the section 351 power triggers a parliamentary tabling requirement — the Minister must table a statement about the decision in Parliament under section 351(4)–(6). For protection-visa cases specifically, section 351(5A) provides for identity-protection redactions in that tabled statement, reflecting the sensitivity of protection matters.

How Often Is It Actually Used?

This is deliberately not going to give you a percentage. Some material describes ministerial intervention as exercised in only a small proportion of requests, but this research could not verify a specific rate against a primary source, and the underlying research explicitly flagged this figure as unconfirmed. Be sceptical of any specific statistic you see quoted elsewhere on this — including anywhere on this site. What is confirmed, directly from the Act's own text, is that there's no entitlement to a favourable outcome and no duty on the Minister to engage with a request at all.

'417' Confusion: The Working Holiday Visa Is a Different Thing Entirely

If you've searched for '417 visa' expecting information about ministerial intervention, note that 417 is also the subclass number of the Working Holiday visa — a completely unrelated visa category. This article is about the repealed section 417 of the Migration Act, the old ministerial intervention provision for protection matters. If you were actually looking for the Working Holiday visa, this isn't the right page.

Does a Registered Agent Help Here?

Only marginally, and honestly so. An agent can help draft a request that engages with the public-interest factors the Minister is more likely to weigh, aligned with published guidance where it exists — but no agent, however experienced, can create a legal right that the Act itself doesn't provide. If you're weighing whether to pursue this alongside another pathway, the honest starting point is that section 351 is not a reliable substitute for a merits appeal or judicial review; it sits alongside those pathways as a discretionary, uncertain option, not in place of them.

What to Do While You Wait

Because there is no duty on the Minister to respond and no deadline governing the request, a section 351 request on its own is not a plan — it's an additional, uncertain avenue that runs in parallel with whatever else is available to you. If a judicial review deadline (see our guide on the 35-day judicial review window) or another statutory deadline is still open, that clock does not pause while you wait to hear back on a ministerial intervention request.

Is section 417 still the ministerial intervention power for protection visas?

No. Section 417 has been repealed. The Migration Regulations' own current text refers to it as 'repealed section 417.' Section 351 alone now covers substitution of a more favourable decision for both migration and protection ART decisions.

Does the Minister have to respond to my ministerial intervention request?

No. Section 351(7) states explicitly that the Minister has no duty to consider whether to exercise the power, whether requested by the applicant or anyone else, or in any other circumstances.

Is there a deadline to apply for ministerial intervention?

There's no statutory deadline fixed in the Act for making the request itself. But a section 351 request doesn't pause or extend any other deadline running in your matter, so don't treat the absence of a deadline here as reason to let another clock lapse.

Can I request ministerial intervention while a judicial review application is still open?

This wasn't something this research was able to confirm one way or the other against a primary source. Section 351 and judicial review are separate, differently structured processes; get specific advice before assuming how pursuing one affects the other.

What's the difference between section 351 and a section 501CA revocation request?

They're different powers entirely. Section 351 lets the Minister substitute a more favourable decision for certain ART outcomes. Section 501CA is the process for requesting revocation of a mandatory character cancellation, with its own 28-day and 9-day deadlines — see our guide on those deadlines specifically.

Does '417 visa' mean something else?

Yes — 417 is also the subclass number of the Working Holiday visa, an entirely unrelated visa category. This article covers the repealed section 417 ministerial intervention provision, not the Working Holiday visa.