In a ceremonial sitting of the High Court for Sir Anthony Mason, Gageler CJ called out the late chief justice’s ‘assimilation of taxation legislation into the mainstream of statutory interpretation together with Wilson J in Cooper Brookes …’1 It was said in that case that the fact ‘that an Act is a taxing statute does not make it immune to the general principles governing the interpretation of statutes’. It is proper to depart from literal meaning when, measured against legislative intent, the result produced is capricious and irrational. So began the revolt against literalism. The next week, parliament legislated for purposivism via s 15AA of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. In 1985, it was Mason J dissenting in K & S Lake who first mapped out the detail of our ‘modern approach’2. These Mason Principles have lost none of their bright vitality in the years since – quite the opposite.
Gordon Brysland – Tax Counsel Network gordon.brysland@ato.gov.au 0417 605 338
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Footnotes:
1 Ceremonial Sitting 15 June 2026 (7-8), Cooper Brookes 147 CLR 297 (323).
2 K & S Lake (1985) 157 CLR 309 (315), then CIC Insurance 187 CLR 384 (408).