Joly Pty Ltd v Director-General, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water

Joly Pty Ltd (the applicant) appealed to the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales against decisions made by the Director-General, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water. The dispute concerned a direction issued by the Director-General requiring the applicant to undertake remediation works on its land, which the applicant argued constituted an acquisition of its land. Additionally, the applicant contended that a local environmental plan provided an exception to the consent requirement under section 12 of the *Native Vegetation Act 2003*.

The Court was required to determine two primary legal issues. Firstly, whether the remediation direction issued by the Director-General effectively prohibited the use of the applicant's land and, if so, whether this constituted an acquisition of land for the purposes of the *Just Terms Compensation Act 1991*. Secondly, the Court had to interpret the relevant local environmental plan to ascertain whether it provided an exception to the consent requirement for clearing native vegetation under section 12 of the *Native Vegetation Act 2003*.

In its reasoning, the Court of Appeal, comprising Bathurst CJ, Whealy JA, and McClellan CJ at CL, found that the remediation direction did not amount to an acquisition of land. The Court held that the direction was a regulatory measure aimed at addressing environmental damage and did not deprive the applicant of all beneficial use of its land. Regarding the second issue, the Court interpreted the local environmental plan and concluded that it did not provide the exception the applicant sought. Consequently, the appeal was dismissed with costs.