Chief Commissioner of State Revenue v Hayson Group of Companies Pty Ltd

The Chief Commissioner of State Revenue appealed to the Court of Appeal of New South Wales against a decision of the Appeal Panel of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal. The dispute concerned the liability of Hayson Group of Companies Pty Ltd to pay the Parking Space Levy under the *Parking Space Levy Act 1992* (NSW) for parking spaces that did not physically exist on 1 July of the relevant year.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was the proper construction of the *Parking Space Levy Act 1992* (NSW), specifically whether the levy was payable in respect of parking spaces that were planned or intended to be created but had not yet been physically constructed or provided on the prescribed date of 1 July. The court had to determine whether the Act imposed a liability based on the existence of a right to use a parking space or on the physical provision of a parking space.

Hodgson JA, with whom Tobias JA and Basten JA agreed, reasoned that the Act imposed the levy on the provision of a parking space. His Honour concluded that the Act required a parking space to be physically provided on 1 July for the levy to be payable. The mere existence of a right to use a parking space, or an intention to provide one, was insufficient to trigger the liability. The court applied principles of statutory interpretation, focusing on the plain meaning of the words used in the legislation and the evident purpose of the Act.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, setting aside the decision of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal's Appeal Panel. In its place, the court ordered that the Tribunal's earlier decision, which had set aside the Chief Commissioner's determination to disallow the objection, be set aside. Consequently, Hayson Group of Companies Pty Ltd was ordered to pay the Chief Commissioner's costs of the appeal.