Attorney-General for the State of Tasmania v. Casimaty & Anor
Case No.
Case no H3/2023
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
04/05/2023 Supreme Court of Tasmania (Pearce, Brett and Geason JJ)
Catchwords
Constitutional law – Legislature – Privileges – Privilege of parliamentary debate and proceedings – Admissibility of report of parliamentary committee – Where proceedings concern road works at intersection – Where first respondent claims to hold interest in land at intersection – Where proposal by Department of State Growth to upgrade intersection considered and reported upon by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works (“Committee”) in 2017 – Where second respondent engaged to construct new interchange – Where first respondent claims that works that second respondent was to perform not same as public works considered and reported upon by Committee – Where Attorney-General joined as second defendant and applied to, inter alia, strike out parts of statement of claim as offending parliamentary privilege – Where primary judge found cause of action could not proceed without court adjudicating upon 2017 report of Committee, which would contravene Article 9 of Bill of Rights – Where Full Court dismissed Attorney-General’s interlocutory application – Whether Full Court erred in construing s 15 and s 16 of Public Works Committee Act 1914 (Tas) (“PWC Act”) as creating public obligation which falls outside parliamentary process and hence ambit of parliamentary privilege – Whether it would infringe parliamentary privilege for court to determine whether road works complied with s 16(1) of PWC Act by adjudicating upon whether road works that second respondent were engaged to undertake were different from road works reported on by Committee.
Documents*
13/10/2023 Hearing (SLA, Canberra by video connection)
25/10/2023 Notice of appeal
01/12/2023 Written submissions (Appellant)
01/12/2023 Chronology (Appellant)
18/12/2023 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the State of South Australia, seeking leave to intervene)
10/01/2024 Written submissions (First Respondent)
07/02/2024 Written submissions (Attorney-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, seeking leave to intervene)
07/02/2024 Written submissions (Attorney-General for the Australian Capital Territory, seeking leave to intervene)
19/02/2024 Reply
09/04/2024 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
09/04/2024 Outline of oral argument (Appellant)
09/04/2024 Outline of oral argument (First Respondent)
09/04/2024 Outline of oral argument (Attorney-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, intervening)
09/04/2024 Outline of oral argument (Attorney-General for the State of South Australia, intervening)
09/04/2024 Outline of oral argument (Attorney-General for the Australian Capital Territory, intervening)