Legal Research
Cases
High Court Bulletin

High Court Bulletin

Link copied

Case Copied 15 October 2021 43 min read

Contents

On this page

High Court Bulletin

Produced by the Legal Research Officer,
High Court of Australia Library

[2021] HCAB 8 (15 October 2021)

A record of recent High Court of Australia cases: decided, reserved for judgment, awaiting hearing in the Court’s original jurisdiction, granted special leave to appeal, refused special leave to appeal and not proceeding or vacated

1: Summary of New Entries
2: Cases Handed Down
3: Cases Reserved
4: Original Jurisdiction
5: Section 40 Removal
6: Special Leave Granted
7: Cases Not Proceeding or Vacated
8: Special Leave Refused

1: Summary of New Entries

2: Cases Handed Down

Case	Title
Palmer v The State of Western Australia	Constitutional Law
Mineralogy Pty Ltd & Anor v State of Western Australia	Constitutional Law
Edwards v The Queen	Criminal Law
Charisteas v Charisteas & Ors	Family Law
Ridd v James Cook University	Industrial Law

3: Cases Reserved

Case	Title
Hobart International Airport Pty Ltd v Clarence City Council & Anor; Australia Pacific Airports (Launceston) Pty Ltd v Northern Midlands Council & Anor	Contracts
Walton & Anor v ACN 004 410 833 Ltd (formerly Arrium Ltd) (in liquidation) & Ors	Corporations
Bell v State of Tasmania	Criminal Law
Stubbings v Jams 2 Pty Ltd & Ors	Equity
H. Lundbeck A/S & Anor v Sandoz Pty Ltd; CNS Pharma Pty Ltd v Sandoz Pty Ltd	Patents
Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Huang	Practice and Procedure

4: Original Jurisdiction

Case	Title
Farm Transparency International Ltd & Anor v State of New South Wales	Constitutional Law

5: Section 40 Removal

Case	Title
Montgomery v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs & Anor	Constitutional Law
Thoms v Commonwealth of Australia	Constitutional Law

6: Special Leave Granted

Case	Title
Nathanson v Minister for Home Affairs & Anor	Administrative Law
Fairbairn v Radecki	Family Law

7: Cases Not Proceeding or Vacated

8: Special Leave Refused

2: Cases Handed Down

The following cases were handed down by the High Court of Australia during the October 2021 sittings.

Constitutional Law

Palmer v The State of Western Australia

B52/2020: [2021] HCA 31

Judgment delivered: 13 October 2021

Coram: Kiefel CJ, Gageler, Keane, Gordon, Edelman, Steward and Gleeson JJ

Catchwords:

Constitutional law
– State Parliament – Legislative power – Where State of Western Australia entered into agreement concerning mining projects in Pilbara region with Mineralogy Pty Ltd and other parties ("co-proponents") including International Minerals Pty Ltd – Where plaintiff controller and beneficial owner of Mineralogy Pty Ltd and director of both Mineralogy Pty Ltd and International Minerals Pty Ltd – Where agreement and 2008 variation set out in schedules to, and thereby formed part of, Iron Ore Processing (Mineralogy Pty Ltd) Agreement Act 2002 (WA) ("State Act") – Where agreement provided that Mineralogy Pty Ltd, alone or with co-proponent, could submit proposals to relevant Minister regarding projects – Where Mineralogy Pty Ltd and International Minerals Pty Ltd submitted proposals to Minister in 2012 and 2013 – Where disputes in relation to 2012 proposal referred to arbitration, resulting in arbitral awards in…

Grounds of appeal

[14] The appellant contends that the primary judge erred in finding that the respondent had discharged the onus of establishing the matters required under the relevant provision.

[15] It was submitted that his Honour failed to give adequate weight to the evidence of the second witness, and that the findings of fact were not reasonably open on the material before the Court.

[16] The respondent, for its part, submits that no error is disclosed, and that the conclusions reached were well within the range of outcomes available to the primary judge.

Consideration

[17] It is convenient to deal first with the question of construction, as the resolution of that issue informs the remaining grounds advanced by the appellant.

[18] For the reasons that follow, we are of the view that the appeal should be allowed in part and the matter remitted for further determination.

Keep reading for free

Create a free CaseChat account to read High Court Bulletin and more:

Read every judgment in full
Ask AI and get answers linked to paragraphs
See how each paragraph was cited in later cases
Download judgments as PDF or Word

Continue with Google

One click creates your free account or signs you in.

By continuing you agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.

Details

Case: [2021] HCAB 8
Decision Date

CaseChat Overview and Summary

The High Court of Australia heard and delivered decisions in several cases during the October 2021 sittings. In Palmer v The State of Western Australia, the Court held that the Iron Ore Processing (Mineralogy Pty Ltd) Agreement Amendment Act 2020 (WA) was not invalid on the basis that it amounted to an exercise of adjudicative authority or constituted a bill of pains and penalties. In Mineralogy Pty Ltd & Anor v State of Western Australia, the Court found that the manner of enactment of the Amending Act did not contravene s 6 of the Australia Act 1986 (Cth) and that the provisions of the State Act were not incompatible with Chapter III of the Constitution. In Edwards v The Queen, the Court found that the prosecution had not failed to give full and proper pre-trial disclosure and that there was no miscarriage of justice. In Charisteas v Charisteas & Ors, the Court allowed the appeal and set aside the orders of the Family Court of Western Australia on the basis that the trial judge might reasonably have been apprehended of bias. In Ridd v James Cook University, the Court dismissed the appeal and held that the exercise of intellectual freedom was subject to constraints in the Code of Conduct and the obligations of confidentiality in the Enterprise Agreement.

Orders