City of Gosnells v Reid

The City of Gosnells, as the appellant, brought a case before the Supreme Court of Western Australia to appeal against a decision by a lower court that had quashed its approval of a development application. The respondent, a resident of the area, had applied for judicial review to set aside the approval of the appellant's development application for a proposed Operations Centre and Waste Transfer Facility. The respondent argued that the development was not exempt from the requirements of the local planning scheme and that the classification of the 'uses' for the purposes of assessing the proposed development was a jurisdictional fact that the local government decision-maker had not properly considered.

The court needed to determine whether the proposed development was exempt from the operation of the local planning scheme and ordinary planning and development requirements under the 'public works' exemption in the Planning and Development Act 2005 (WA) and the Public Works Act 1902 (WA). Additionally, the court had to consider the effect of amendments to the Public Works Act 1902 (WA) made after the primary hearing. Another issue was whether it was necessary for the court to address the 'public works' exemption, and if the classification of 'uses' for the purposes of assessing a proposed development was a jurisdictional fact. The court also needed to determine the principles to be applied in determining the classification of 'uses' for a proposed development and how to identify the material constituting the development application and development approval in light of the statutory scheme.

The court held that the amendments to the Public Works Act 1902 (WA) made after the primary hearing meant that the 'public works' exemption no longer applied to the proposed development. As a result, the court did not need to address the 'public works' exemption. The court further held that the classification of 'uses' for the purposes of assessing a proposed development was not a jurisdictional fact, and it was sufficient to accept that the classification of 'uses' was open or reasonably open to the local government decision-maker. The court also held that the principles to be applied in determining the classification of 'uses' for a proposed development were those set out in the local planning scheme, and the material constituting the development application and development approval had to be identified having regard to the statutory scheme. The appeal was allowed, and the decision of the lower court was set aside.