A statutory review board conducting merits review under s 152 of the Victoria Police Act 2013 is not confined to the accounts or hypotheses advanced by the parties but may investigate alternative possibilities arising from the evidence, including exculpatory hypotheses not raised by the person under review. A review board's refusal to allow supplementary evidence does not deny procedural fairness where the relevant issue was always 'in the ring' and the party had been given an earlier opportunity to call evidence. A person's categorical denial of an allegation does not preclude a review board from finding that an alternative explanation (such as inadvertent conduct) was open on the evidence, where the person could not have known of the alternative possibility.
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