Dyjecinska v Step-Up [2024] NSWSC 159
Harrison AJ held that an unsigned and undated building contract remained enforceable by the builder12. The Act, accepted as involving consumer protection, required a contract in writing which sufficiently described the work. But extrinsic materials and amendments confirmed the purpose of the provisions13 to be to ensure that contracts were not …
Secretary v Stewart [2024] NSWCA 59
The issue was whether absence from work due to incapacity while receiving compensation is a ‘period of unpaid leave’ under the Act?14 The court said ‘no’ on the basis this was too strained an interpretation.
The court made several important points. One, adopting a ‘broad’ construction to remedial provisions from the outset …
Edelman J stresses the importance of context, saying that trying to understand speech without context is like trying ‘to understand the meaning of a painting before the paint is applied to the canvas’4. But only in the last 50 years have extrinsic materials been seen as part of that context for interpretation purposes.
Edelman J referred to the …
Edelman J said that the fact that some extrinsic materials are weighty does not deny that others will have little influence. This is only natural. An EM, for instance, may be ‘an important and weighty extrinsic source of information’. Given the central role of ministers and departments in their drafting, it ‘invites the available implication that these materials are more …
Edelman J explains that s 15AB was enacted before the ‘modern approach’ had solidified9. Section 15AB regulates how extrinsic materials may be used by providing gateways, conditions and processes. But the differences between statutory and common law paths ‘should not be overstated’. There ‘will very rarely be a difference in practice’ between them10.
Each path …
This case confirms the potential of extrinsic materials under the ‘modern approach’ to influence meaning12.
What Edelman J said in Harvey is important for many reasons. (1) Access to extrinsic materials is driven by the contextual focus of our system. (2) The statutory and common law paths into those materials exist side-by-side13. (3) It will be …
Pritchard v M 6:8 Legal [2024] WASCA 4
The appeal court in this case makes an important point about the manner in which views of the court below on interpretation are to be approached. It was said (at [35]) – ‘This court applies the correctness standard in reaching its own view as to the proper construction of the provisions, without …
Munkara v Santos NA Barossa (No 3) [2024] FCA 9
This gas pipeline case was fought over the meaning of ‘significant new environmental impact’ in federal regulations. Charlesworth J (at [135]) said the regulation was to be read in accordance with the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 and ‘well established principles’, quoting SZTAL [2017] HCA 34 (at [14]) –
“The starting …
Harvey v Minister [2024] HCA 1
As the first case decided by the High Court this year, Harvey v Minister for Primary Industry & Resources makes important points about extrinsic materials and our ‘modern approach’ more generally.
The issue was whether a mineral lease involved a right to mine for the sole purpose of constructing an ‘infrastructure facility … associated …
Statutory Interpretation in Australia
Dennis Pearce has published the 10th edition of his classic text, a monumental achievement15. For half a century, this book has guided courts, academics and practitioners with authority, style and perspective. As LexisNexis says, it is the ‘most cited text on Australian law’. The slim volume which appeared in 1974 has grown in line …
