Australian Building Systems [2015] HCA 48
Episode 3 of iNOW! dealt with consistent usage. This case, on liquidator tax obligations, provides more insight (at [27]). It was pointed out that a High Court decision on a provision ‘is a powerful indicator of the correct interpretation of a provision of the same Act which serves similar purposes and uses identical or substantially similar language’10.
Although the same meaning presumption ‘readily yields to the context’11, it was applied to retention obligations in ss 254 & 255 of ITAA36 – ‘two adjacent provisions serving the same general purposes and sharing a common legislative history’. iTip – don’t discount operation of the presumption merely because of the tax setting – that is the key message.
This case is from Episode 8 of interpretationNOW!
Footnotes:
10 cf Walker Corporation [2008] HCA 5.