Queensland Judgments
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Attorney-General (Qld) v Lawrence

Unreported Citation:

[2013] QCA 364

EDITOR'S NOTE

This matter was heard together with the matter in Attorney-General v Fardon [2013] QCA 365.  This decision sets out the substantive reasoning for the conclusion that certain parts of the Criminal Law Amendment Act which were amended by the Criminal Law Amendment (Public Interest Declarations) Amendment Act 2013 were invalid because they contravened the Kable principles.  The Court of Appeal noted that:

A public interest declaration under the Criminal Law Amendment Act would have the effect of depriving a person of supervised liberty which had been ordered by the Supreme Court in accordance with the DPSOA

Mr Lawrence had standing to challenge the amended provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act because the enactment of the subject provisions impacted upon any judgment of the Supreme Court made on an application brought by him under the DPSOA.

That the operation of the Declarations Act itself undermined the authority of the Supreme Court by impugning every order made by the Supreme Court made under DPSOA by rendering them mere provisional orders.

That:

“These amendments are within that exceptional category of legislation which is invalid on the ground that it is repugnant to that institutional integrity of the Supreme Court which is entrenched under the Commonwealth [Constitution] as ‘the highest court for the time being in the judicial hierarchy of the State’.”

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