Carne v Crime and Corruption Commission No 2

The parties involved in this case were Carne, the applicant, and the Crime and Corruption Commission No 2, the respondent. The dispute was centered on a report prepared by the respondent that the applicant sought declarations about. The case was heard in the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. The applicant, Carne, argued that the report contained defamatory content and sought declarations to address this, among other things. The respondent, however, contended that the applicant's complaints were non-justiciable due to parliamentary privilege.

The primary legal issue the court had to resolve was whether the applicant's complaints were justiciable or if they were rendered non-justiciable by parliamentary privilege. Additionally, the court needed to decide whether the respondent should be awarded costs for the application, and if there were exceptional circumstances that would prevent costs from following the event. The court considered the public interest in having the interpretation of the Crime and Corruption Act 2001 clarified, as well as the principle that costs should generally follow the event.

The court found that the applicant's complaints were indeed non-justiciable due to parliamentary privilege, albeit on different grounds than initially argued by the respondent. The court also noted that there was a public interest in having the construction of the Act decided. The court ruled that costs should not follow the event in this instance because there were exceptional reasons that warranted such a decision. Consequently, no order was made regarding the costs of the application.