High Court Registry closure

The High Court Registry will be closed from 4.00pm on Wednesday, 24 December 2025 and will re-open at 9:00am on Friday, 2 January 2026.

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The Commonwealth of Australia & Anor v. CommissionerBretWalkerSC & Anor

Case No. C7/2018
Case information

Catchwords

Whether the Royal Commissions Act 1917 (SA) authorises the Commissioner of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (SA) to issue summonses requiring the attendance of, or to require the production of documents from, current and former officers or employees of the Commonwealth or of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (Cth) or residents of another State, or to impose penalties for failure to comply with such summonses. In the alternative, whether ss 10(b)-(d) and ss11(1)(f),11(2) and 11(3) of the Act are constitutionally invalid in their application to such persons.

Documents

13/06/2018 Writ of summons

13/06/2018 Notice of constitutional matter (Plaintiffs)

14/06/2018 Submitting appearance (First Defendant)

21/06/2018 Hearing (Single Justice, Brisbane by video-link to Adelaide and Canberra)

04/07/2018 Notice of constitutional matter (Second Defendant)

30/07/2018 Hearing (Single Justice, Brisbane by video-link to Adelaide and Melbourne)

06/08/2018 Written submissions (Plaintiffs)

07/08/2018 Chronology (Plaintiffs)

17/08/2018 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of New South Wales intervening)

28/08/2018 Consent orders discontinuing proceedings

09/10/2018 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) - VACATED

*The due dates shown for documents on this page are indicative only.