Hunt and Department of Transport and Main Roads (Qld)

The applicant, Hunt, sought to be registered as an electrical contractor in Queensland by virtue of his existing registration in Queensland for traffic management design. The respondent was the Department of Transport and Main Roads (Qld). The matter came before Deputy President McDermott of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant was entitled to registration as an electrical contractor in Queensland under the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (Cth) by reason of his existing registration in a different occupation. This required the Tribunal to determine if the applicant's traffic management design registration qualified him for reciprocal registration as an electrical contractor, and if the relevant Queensland legislation provided for such a pathway.

Deputy President McDermott reasoned that the definition of a "local registration authority" under the Mutual Recognition Act 1992 (Cth) required the identification of a Queensland authority responsible for registering persons carrying on a specific occupation. The applicant failed to identify any Queensland legislation that linked his traffic management design registration to the registration of electrical contractors, nor did the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth) provide a relevant basis for the application. Consequently, the Tribunal found it lacked jurisdiction to determine the application.

The Tribunal decided that it had no jurisdiction to determine the application.