Privacy Commissioner v Telstra [2017] FCAFC 4
Should you work out the meaning of a statutory definition in isolation before reading it into the text of the provision being looked at? The answer given by the courts is a firm ‘no’. Statutory definitions are only aids to construction, not substantive law2. Divorcing a definition from its substantive context risks giving the definition a meaning at odds with the language and purpose of the provision3.
In this case (at [58-60]), Dowsett J declined to interpret the definition in isolation. Instead, he first inserted the words of the definition into the provision in question, then construed the expanded text as a whole4. iTip – use this standard method.
This case is from Episode 23 of interpretationNOW!
Footnotes:
3 Allianz Australia [2005] HCA 26 (at [12]).
4 Kelly v R [2004] HCA 12 (at [103]), ASIC v AAT [2011] FCAFC 114 (at [124]).