Mao, In the matter of an application for leave to issue or file

[2023] HCATrans 57

[2023] HCATrans 057

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry
  Sydney  No S29 of 2023

In the matter of -

an application by YOUHUA MAO for leave to issue or file

EDELMAN J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT CANBERRA ON THURSDAY, 11 MAY 2023, AT 9.30 AM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

HIS HONOUR:   By application filed on 5 April 2023, the applicant seeks leave to issue or file a writ of summons.  For the reasons that I now publish, I would dismiss the application.  The orders are:

1.The application for leave to issue or file a writ of summons, filed on 5 April 2023, be dismissed.

I publish those orders.  I direct that the reasons as published be incorporated into the transcript.

On 20 March 2023, Jagot J, acting under r 6.07.2 of the High Court Rules 2004 (Cth), directed that the Registrar of this Court refuse to issue or file a proposed writ of summons, seeking various relief against the Commonwealth of Australia, without first obtaining the leave of a Justice of this Court. The applicant now applies under r 6.07.3 for that leave.

The relief sought against the Commonwealth in the applicant’s proposed writ of summons is:  damages; exemplary damages; specific performance requiring that the Commonwealth “set up an Australian workers superannuation compensation system”, that “[t]he Guardian of the Land of Peace be appointed to oversee, administer, dispense compensation for Australian workers” and that the applicant “be appointed as the first Guardian of the Land of Peace”; various declarations as to the content of the “Land of Peace Charter”; further or other orders; and costs.

The basis upon which the applicant seeks that relief, as best discerned from the proposed writ and supporting affidavit, involves complaints and allegations about the nature of the superannuation scheme in Australia, including her ability to access funds under that scheme.  The applicant deposes to circumstances that suggest deep and enduring suffering and great sadness from losing a loved one (Land of Peace) and she describes circumstances related to the scheme that she sees as related to her loss.  But nothing in the applicant’s proposed writ or supporting affidavit provides any basis for rational legal argument that could support the relief sought; the claims advanced in the proposed writ and supporting affidavit are manifestly hopeless and it would be an abuse of process if those documents were filed[1].  They should not be issued or filed[2]. There is no possibility that any oral submissions in this Court could further advance the application for leave to issue or file the proposed writ and supporting affidavit. The application for leave to issue or file should be dismissed on the papers without listing it for an oral hearing under r 13.03.1 of the High Court Rules.

[1]Citta Hobart Pty Ltd v Cawthorn (2022) 96 ALJR 476 at 486-487 [35], 487 [37], 494 [72]-[73]; 400 ALR 1 at 10, 11, 20.

[2]See High Court Rules 2004 (Cth), r 6.07.1; Re Young (2020) 94 ALJR 448 at 451 [11]-[12]; 376 ALR 567 at 570.

AT 9.30 AM THE MATTER WAS CONCLUDED