Tribunal blocks Dutton’s attempt to cancel visa for deadly boob job nurse

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has come under plenty of fire for some of its decisions, including a recent one to allow a lying, criminal, welfare-dependent drug abuser to remain in Australia. And now a new decision that has allowed a woman facing manslaughter charges to retain her Australian student visa has attracted attention.

Last September, the case of Jean Huang, who died during an unlicensed breast enhancement procedure, put the spotlight on the two women involved in the deadly operation: Yueqiong Fu, who allegedly administered the anaesthetic to Huang, and Jie Shao, who is accused of injecting Huang with sedatives as well as the fillers in her breasts. 

Beauty salon owner Huang, 35, suffered a heart attack during the procedure and died days later in hospital.

Chinese Shao, who was in Australia on a tourist visa and was unqualified to conduct any medical procedures in this country, was charged with manslaughter and administering poison, while Fu, a Chinese graduate nurse who was in Australia on a student visa, was charged with manslaughter, using poison so as to endanger life, and hindering an investigation into an indictable offence.

Once Fu was granted bail in October, a delegate for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cancelled the 30-year-old’s student visa and placed her in immigration detention, on the grounds that she posed a risk to the Australian community as evidenced by the fact that she faced serious criminal charges.

But Fu appealed to the AAT, arguing that she was acting only under Huang and Shao’s instructions – because she is not a registered nurse, Fu was not licensed to administer medication, but believed Shao was a doctor – and that she intended to deny the charges against her. 

The AAT has now published a decision on the case, which it does on occasion where there is public interest in a case. The document shows that the tribunal overturned the minister’s attempt to cancel Fu’s visa – effectively freeing Fu from detention – and questioned whether the charges brought by New South Wales Police against the nurse over the botched boob job were fair.

“It can be inferred the Police had some basis for laying the charges but it cannot be concluded, simply on the basis of the charges, that the basis for the charges are reasonable,” the decision by AAT panellist Jan Redfern said.

Redfern went on to say that the charges Fu faced were serious, with manslaughter going “to the heart of what would be considered a risk to the safety of the Australian community”, and that “the fact that she administered an anaesthetic is a matter of serious concern which is highly relevant to the question of whether the applicant’s continued presence in Australia may be a risk to the health, or safety of the Australian community”.

“The patient died and, given the applicant’s training, it is reasonable to infer that she must have known, or at least been reckless or negligent in respect of, the potential risks,” the document goes on.

But Redfern also said that there was no evidence Fu was violent or that she was likely to continue the type of conduct that resulted in her being charged, and that she had been granted bail by the court, which indicated she wasn’t considered a risk to the public. As a result, Dutton’s decision to scrap her student visa on risk grounds was unwarranted, the tribunal panellist found.

Dutton now has until April 18, when Fu’s student visa runs out, to decide whether to grant her a criminal justice visa. If he declines to do so, she will have to return to immigration detention until her trial. She’s not yet entered a plea on the charges.

Does this seem like the right decision to you? Do you generally agree with the AAT’s decisions or disagree with them?