Perpetual Nominees Limited v Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy

In Perpetual Nominees Limited v Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy, the appellant sought an order for the respondent to provide further disclosure of certain documents and information relating to the assessment of a property's value for land tax purposes. The legal issues before the court included whether certain documents were directly relevant to the issues in the proceeding and whether the court should order the disclosure of those documents.

The court found that the 1996 contract of the subject property had direct relevance for determining its value as at October 2002. The sale of the property was considered the best evidence of value, and there was likely to be a scarcity of other local sales evidence. The fact that neither side had initially nominated the 1996 sale as relevant was not critical, as it was open to the Chief Executive to lead additional evidence at the hearing. Furthermore, there was likely to be evidence of the value of improvements made between the sale date and the date of valuation, which would assist in making necessary adjustments to the 1996 sale figure. The court also found that the appellant's appeal ground regarding the validity of the cap made in the Regulation (5) was still live, and the respondent was required to disclose any documents or other written material used by officers of the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy to brief the Minister on the operation of the cap in Regulation (5) and the appropriate figure to adopt for the cap.

The court ordered that the relevant appellant disclose to the respondent contracts in relation to the acquisition of the Chermside appeal property by the appellant on or about 23 December 1996 within seven days of the decision. The respondent was ordered to disclose to the appellants any documents or other written material used by officers of the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy to brief the Minister on the operation of the cap in Regulation (5) and the appropriate figure to adopt for the cap within fourteen days of the decision.