PSA v Commissioner of Police

The case of PSA v Commissioner of Police involved a dispute between the Public Service Association (PSA) and the Commissioner of Police, under the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW). The PSA, as the applicant, challenged a decision made by the Commissioner, which was upheld by the Industrial Relations Commission. The primary issue at hand was whether the applicant was required to allege that a protected matter was the cause of any detrimental action taken against them. Additionally, the court examined whether the Commissioner had impermissibly reversed the onus of proof.

The PSA argued that the Commissioner should have borne the onus of proving that the detrimental action was not due to a protected matter. The Commissioner, however, found that the matters involving a particular police officer were not the substantive and operative cause of the identified detrimental action. The court considered whether there was a jurisdictional error in the Commissioner's decision. After careful examination of the evidence, the court concluded that there was no jurisdictional error as the Commissioner's findings were supported by the evidence and the law. Consequently, the Commissioner's decision was upheld, and the application for judicial review was dismissed.