Forrest v WA (No 2) [2024] FCA 729
Jackson J (at [139-140]) comments on how we are to apply ‘rules of construction’ under our system of interpretation3. We tend to assume parliament is some perfect machine and that the legislation it produces is also perfect. This is a false starting point, however, and not how things work out in practice.
Reality intrudes in the form of ‘cumbersome, labyrinthine and frequently amended’ statutes. Rules of construction which assume a ‘rigorous linguistic logic and consistency’ are always to be applied with caution4. The reality of modern statutes ‘often of byzantine complexity’ means that arguments based on rules of construction are ‘often perilous’.
This principle is from Episode 113 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
3 Here, expressio unius – express mention of one thing excludes others.
4 Dollisson [2020] NSWCA 58 [47-48], O’Sullivan (1989) 168 CLR 210 (215).