Medical Board of Australia v Wong

The Medical Board of Australia (the Board) commenced proceedings against Dr Wong in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) seeking a declaration that Dr Wong's conduct was unsatisfactory and that he be prohibited from practising medicine. QCAT rejected the Board's costs application and ordered each party to bear its own costs. The Board sought an appeal on several grounds, including that QCAT erred in departing from the default position that each party bear its own costs without finding that Dr Wong's position was unreasonable. The Board also argued that QCAT should have found that a statute required Dr Wong to refer the matter to QCAT and that QCAT erred in accepting expert evidence as conclusive of an ultimate question.

The Court considered whether QCAT departed from the default position in section 100 of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (Qld) that each party bear its own costs without making a finding as to whether Dr Wong was required by statute to refer the matter to QCAT. The Court found that QCAT did not make such a finding and that the Board's position was not wholly unreasonable, but QCAT failed to identify any unreasonableness justifying departure from the default position. The Court also found that QCAT erred in accepting expert evidence as conclusive of an ultimate question, rather than making a value judgment based on that evidence. The Court held that QCAT's failure to make a finding as to whether Dr Wong was required by statute to refer the matter to QCAT was a jurisdictional error.

The Court ordered that the time for making the application for leave to appeal be extended to 22 July 2016, granted leave to appeal, allowed the appeal, set aside the orders for costs made by QCAT on 21 June 2016, ordered that there be no order for costs in the proceeding in QCAT, and ordered Dr Wong to pay the Board's costs of the proceeding in the Court.