Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v Nicholls

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

Supreme Court of Queensland

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

05/11/2012

LITIGATION TYPE

Project Approval - Mitigation, Access to Justice

SUBJECT MATTER

Coal mine, Transparency and disclosure

REVIEW TYPE

Judicial review

SUMMARY

This case concerned a dispute over the giving of a direction by two state Ministers, to the second respondent, to terminate a proposed development process, in relation to terminal development at the Port of Abbot Point. The Court adjourned the application to a later date, and ordered that certain documents, including any which would constitute evidence of such a direction be disclosed by the respondents to the applicants.

In the second judgment, Waratah Coal applied for orders for non-party disclosure. The application was dismissed for various reasons, including that many of the documents were not relevant to the issue in the proceeding, which is concerned with whether the Minister's letter constituted a direction.

In the third judgment, the proceeding centred on the question of whether a letter sent by one of the Shareholding Ministers to the second respondent constituted a direction, in relation to the termination of the proposed development process. The Court held that the letter did no constitute such a direction, as it was a response to the decision of the second respondent. The fact that it agreed with the decision of the second respondent to terminate the proposed development process did not mean it was a formal or informal direction.

CASE DOCUMENTS

Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v Nicholls [2013] QSC 68
Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v Nicholls (No 2) [2013] QSC 208
Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v Nicholls (No 3) [2013] QSC 209