Farmer v Minister [2025] HCA 38
Edelman J (at [105]) said the presumption against surplusage in statutes ‘seldom … carries great weight’7. The corollary that all words are to be given meaning and effect therefore has a similar status. Importantly, the presumption ‘carries almost no weight when the provision is part of a scheme of overlapping circumstances’, as this case illustrates.
In Palmanova, it was said there may be many reasons for surplusage, and that context and purpose are surer guides than the logic of provisions8. In Farmer, that the provisions sought to cover a variety of different and related grounds for visa refusal meant the presumption carried ‘almost no weight’9.
This principle is from Episode 127 of interpretation NOW!
Footnotes:
7 Walker[2000] 1 WLR 799 (805) quoted, cf Herzfeld & Prince [5.160].
8 Palmanova[2025] HCA 35 [73, 75], Episode 125.
9 s 501(6)(d) Migration Act 1958 (Cth).