Countless are the cases where a court or tribunal sets out the basics of our ‘modern approach’ to statutory interpretation by reference to High Court authority. One recent case is novel in this regard1. For guidance on interpretation, Lindsay J quotes French CJ from his foreword to the 2014 edition of Pearce & Geddes2. The main …
Strata Plan v 3A Composites [2026] FCA 351
Strata headed a class action against 3A under consumer guarantee provisions in the Australian Consumer Law concerning aluminium composite panels implicated in high-profile residential fires4.
Although the consumer guarantees are beneficial legislation, limitations on them need not be given a liberal interpretation. Those limitations reflect a practical balance between competing …
Two recent NSWCA cases
In Glencore, a submission that the procedural history of a determination6 could not be considered given no ambiguity had been shown was rejected7. McHugh JA observed (at [86]) that ‘language is unavoidably contextual’ and that context is to be considered ‘in the first instance’. But this is not to deny there are …
FW Aviation v Vietjet Aviation [2026] QSC 63
Vietjet argued that registration of an English judgment against it be set aside, as it was for an amount greater than the amount ‘payable’ at the date of registration10. McCafferty J held that it was the total amount payable, not the amount ‘presently payable’, to which the statute was directed. …
Property Exchange v R-G [2026] NSWSC 344
Modern statutes may have their own interpretation provisions. The Act implementing the national e-conveyancing scheme13 is one of them. Schedule 1 of the National Law deals with things like legislative purpose, extrinsic materials and ordinary meaning. PEXA challenged denial of a request to pass through new charges to consumers on the basis …
In Hopper v Victoria, the High Court held legislated caps on political donations in Victoria to be invalid1. One issue was the effect of a severance clause in the State interpretation statute2 aimed at saving a challenged provision ‘to the extent to which it is not in excess of … power’3. The plurality noted …
Giggle for Girls v Tickle [2026] FCAFC 64
Giggle created an app as a safe online space for women. Born male, Tickle had gender change surgery and was recorded as female. When her access was blocked, Tickle sued Giggle for sexual discrimination7.
The ordinary meanings of ‘woman’ and ‘female’ became relevant in this context. It was noted that …
CCDM Holdings v Republic of India [2026] HCA 9
It was held that ratification of a New York convention did not involve waiver of foreign state immunity from jurisdiction over an arbitral award. India had not waived immunity to enforcement in Australia of an award made in the Netherlands in favour of CCDM.
The text of the convention was silent …
Karam v Close the Loop [2026] VSC 270
An issue in this case was whether High Court cases on the meaning of an expression in fair work provisions were binding in a retail leases context.
Croft J noted that statutory construction ‘differs from that in distilling the common law from past decisions’. The starting point with legislation is always the …
Shell Energy Holdings v FCT [2026] FCA 577
What is of note in this CGT case is the summary from Jackman J (at [62]) on the legal effect of deeming provisions. The judge observed that they do not always create a statutory fiction13. But, where they do, we are to ‘proceed on the deemed basis when applying the …
