Minister for Resources and Energy v Gold and Copper Resources Pty Ltd (No 2)

This matter concerned an application to vary costs orders made by the Court of Appeal of New South Wales in *Minister for Resources and Energy v Gold and Copper Resources Pty Ltd*. The applicant sought to amend a previous costs order to exclude a specific part of that order.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether it had the power to vary its own previous costs order by adding a specific exclusion to an existing order. This involved considering the Court's inherent jurisdiction and its statutory powers to amend or clarify its orders.

The Court determined that it possessed the power to vary the costs order. It reasoned that the proposed variation was not an attempt to re-litigate the merits of the costs decision but rather to clarify the scope of the order to reflect the parties' apparent understanding and the Court's intention. The Court applied principles relating to the correction of clerical errors or the amendment of orders to reflect the true intention of the court, even if such an amendment might have the effect of altering the incidence of costs.

The Court ordered that order 3 made by the Court on 4 May 2015 be varied by adding the words “(other than order 3)”.