Parklands Darwin Pty Ltd v Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics

The Full Court of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory considered whether legislation purporting to validate a decision by the Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics to refuse a request to amend the NT Planning Scheme impermissibly directed the Court in its exercise of jurisdiction, contrary to the principles established in *Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW)*. The plaintiff, Parklands Darwin Pty Ltd, had commenced proceedings challenging the Minister's refusal to rezone its land for residential development, and subsequently, the *Planning Amendment Act 2021* (NT) was enacted, inserting s 148A which retrospectively validated the Minister's decision.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether s 148A of the *Planning Act 1999* (NT) was invalid on the grounds that it undermined the institutional integrity of the Northern Territory courts or otherwise infringed Chapter III of the Australian Constitution. The plaintiff argued that the legislation was specifically directed at its pending proceedings, effectively prejudging the outcome and constituting an impermissible intrusion into the judicial process. The Court was required to determine if this retrospective validation of an administrative act, enacted during the currency of litigation and targeting specific proceedings, offended the constitutional prohibition against legislative interference with judicial power.

The Court reasoned that while the legislation was clearly intended to validate the Minister's decision and defeat the plaintiff's proceedings, this did not render it invalid under the *Kable* doctrine. Drawing on High Court authority, particularly *Duncan v Independent Commission Against Corruption*, the Court held that legislation which retrospectively validates an administrative act, and "does no more than attribute the consequences of legal validity" to past acts, is not invalid on that basis alone. The Court found that the mere fact that the legislation was passed during pending litigation, or that it was directed to a specific parcel of land and the subject of those proceedings, did not impair the Court's institutional integrity. The Court concluded that the legislation did not conscript the court into implementing legislative or executive policy, nor did it require the court to depart from its historical methods and standards, and therefore did not infringe Chapter III of the Constitution.

Consequently, the Full Court determined that s 148A of the *Planning Act 1999* (NT) was not invalid on the grounds that it undermined or interfered with the institutional integrity of the courts of the Northern Territory or otherwise infringed Chapter III of the Constitution.