It is telling how often Project Blue Sky (PBS) guides the resolution of difficult issues, as the recent decision in MZAPC illustrates1. An officer had the duty to remove an unlawful non-citizen ‘as soon as reasonably practicable’ after refusal of a visa2. The officer declined to refer a request for a different visa to the minister, …
EIX20 v WA (No 2) [2025] FCA 28
A man was detained in a youth correction facility, often in isolation. He sought to amend discrimination claims against WA to cover denial of educational access because of his aboriginality. The issue became whether the man had been denied ‘services’4.
Banks-Smith J allowed the amendment. The definition of ‘services’ was …
McTye v Chang [2025] NSWCA 3
A young boy riding on a bike with his mother was hit by a public bus and had his foot amputated. Liability was admitted, and the issue became under which scheme damages arose. Was this a ‘motor vehicle accident’7 (less damages) or a ‘public transport accident’8 (more damages)? On the basis a …
PD v DPP (NSW) [2025] NSWSC 16
E117 commented on the allegedly ‘repellent’ nature of statutory language. Another view is that, with codification, the law would ‘become an object of pleasant and satisfactory study to lawyers and laymen alike’11. This is not always the experience.
The issue here was whether the Children’s Court had power to impose a …
Queensland v Mr Stradford [2025] HCA 3
The High Court has held that immunity from civil suit ‘is the same for judges of all courts’ 13. After Judge Vasta in the Federal Circuit Court (FCC) jailed Mr S for contempt, Mr S sued for false imprisonment.
One issue was whether the FCC was ‘any court’ for Criminal …
An academic wrote that a ‘statute is probably the most repellent form of written expression known to man’1. That was in 1958 when statutes were just starting their takeover of the common law world. Now, there’s hardly a corner of human life unregulated by big complex statutes. It is the rare person who does not prefer reading cases …
Breen v Clough [2024] NSWCA 316
Courts often caution against reliance on dictionaries to resolve meaning. B and C were neighbours on steep land above a river accessed by an inclinator5. An ‘easement for services’ over C’s land permitted services ‘to or from each lot benefited’6. B installed a ‘closed system’ CCTV camera on C’s land …
Salameh v R [2024] NSWCCA 239
S supplied what he said he believed was cocaine to a sex worker who was later hospitalised. The drug was fentanyl, a commercial quantity of which was found at his home. S was convicted of supplying ‘an amount of a prohibited drug which is not less than the commercial quantity applicable …’8 …
Australian Rail Track v ARTBIU [2024] FCAFC 170
Legislative history is often significant in working out the ‘purpose or object’ in order to apply s 15AA11.
After approval of an enterprise agreement, unions sought determination of various matters still in dispute. This depended on representatives having ‘not settled all of the matters that were in dispute during bargaining …
Ibrahim v Greater Bendigo CC [2025] VSC 6
E115 reported a case where ‘or’ took an ‘ambulatory and cumulative’ operation14. This case involved an application to extend time for starting work under a planning permit. The statute allowed review of (a) a decision to refuse an extension of time ‘or’ (b) a failure to extend time within a …
