Jahnke v Cassowary Coast Regional Council (Formerly Johnstone Shire Council) (No. 2)

Jahnke v Cassowary Coast Regional Council (Formerly Johnstone Shire Council) (No. 2) involved a dispute concerning a development application for a subdivision in a rural area. The case was heard in the Queensland Land Court, where the applicant, Jahnke, sought relief under section 4.1.5A of the Integrated Planning Act 1997, which provides for a correction of procedural irregularities in the processing of a development application. Jahnke argued that the council's handling of the application was flawed due to inadequate public notification and limited access to referral agency reports.

The legal issues before the court included whether the public notification period complied with the statutory requirements and whether the exclusion of referral agency reports was justified. The court had to determine if the discrepancies in the application process were significant enough to warrant relief under section 4.1.5A of the Act. This involved assessing whether the public notification period was appropriately aligned with the 30 business days prescribed by the Act and whether the exclusion of referral agency information hindered public scrutiny.

In its reasoning, the court found that the public notification period allowed was far shorter than the 30 business days required by the Act. Additionally, the exclusion of referral agency reports significantly limited the information available for public scrutiny. Despite acknowledging that the council's errors were not minor, the court concluded that the statutory requirements were not met to the extent that relief under section 4.1.5A was warranted. Consequently, the application for relief was refused, and the development application was to be returned to the acknowledgement stage.