Whitebull HTL Pty Ltd v ILGA [2023] NSWSC 588
Specific powers in a statute exclude access to more general ones15. ILGA purported to exercise general powers under one statute to limit gaming machine numbers. Whitebull challenged this, arguing that a second statute set out exclusively, and more precisely, how numbers were to be regulated.
McNaughton J surveyed the authorities (at [123-134]) and agreed (at [153]) with Whitebull. The judge noted that the second statute ‘provides a predictable, certain and transparent way of keeping, transferring and leasing gaming machines’. iTip – This case is an example of the general principle applying to powers found in different statutes.
This principle is from Episode 98 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
15 Anthony Hordern (1932) 47 CLR 1 (at 7), Pearce 9th Edition (at [4.47]).