Robert Tolson And Norah Tolson & Elf Farms Supplies Pty LTDSecond and Road And Maritime Services ABN 762 363 71 088

The applicants, Robert Tolson and Norah Tolson, and Elf Farms Supplies Pty Ltd, sought judicial review of a decision made by the respondent, Roads and Maritime Services (RMS). The dispute concerned the RMS's refusal to grant a licence for the applicants to operate a mobile food van business on public roads within a specific local government area. The applicants contended that the RMS's decision was unreasonable and that they had a legitimate expectation that their application would be considered favourably. The matter came before the High Court of Australia.

The primary legal issue before the High Court was whether the RMS's decision to refuse the licence was vitiated by unreasonableness, specifically in the Wednesbury sense. This involved determining whether the decision was so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have ever come to it. The applicants also raised arguments concerning the proper construction of relevant legislative provisions governing the licensing of mobile food vans and the application of principles of administrative law, including the duty to afford procedural fairness.

Kiefel and Bell JJ found that the RMS had failed to properly consider the applicants' submissions and had based its decision on irrelevant considerations, namely concerns about traffic congestion that were not supported by evidence. Their Honours held that the RMS's decision was indeed unreasonable in the Wednesbury sense, as it was a decision that no reasonable decision-maker, properly directing itself to the relevant considerations, could have reached. The court applied the principles of administrative law, emphasizing that decision-makers must act within their statutory powers and consider all relevant matters while disregarding irrelevant ones.

The High Court made orders quashing the decision of the Roads and Maritime Services and remitting the matter to the RMS for reconsideration according to law.