Litigation notes

• Tasmanian onsite protest laws invalid (Brown v Tasmania)
• High Court upholds safe access zones (Clubb v Edwards; Preston v Avery)
• Reduced cap on electoral expenditure by third party campaigners invalid (Unions NSW v New South Wales)
• The APS Code of Conduct does not infringe the implied freedom (Comcare v Banerji)

• Competing regulation of political donations (Spence v Queensland)
• Legislation preventing disclosure of information to court invalid (Graham v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection; Te Puia v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection)
• Application of State criminal laws in federal jurisdiction (Rizeq v State of Western Australia)
• State parentage laws do not apply in determining who is a parent under the Family Law Act
  (Masson v Parsons)
• High Court rejects challenge to Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey (Wilkie v Commonwealth; Australian Marriage Equality Ltd v Cormann)
• State tribunals cannot determine federal matters (Burns v Corbett; Burns v Gaynor; Attorney-General for NSW v Burns; Attorney-General for NSW v Burns; State of NSW v Burns)
• NT WHS legislation not inconsistent with Commonwealth civil aviation law  (Work Health Authority v Outback Ballooning Pty Ltd)
• Australian Electoral Commission validly authorised to publish ‘two-candidate-preferred’ results before close of all polls (Palmer v Australian Electoral Commission)
• NSW Court of Appeal finds that NCAT is not a ‘court of a State’ (Attorney-General for New South Wales v Gatsby

• Dual citizens ineligible for election to the Senate or House of Representatives by reason of section 44(i) (Re Canavan; Re Ludlam; Re Waters; Re Roberts [No 2]; Re Joyce; Re Nash; Re Xenophon)
• High Court finds ‘constitutional imperative’ exception to section 44(i) is narrow in scope (Re Gallagher)
• Holding an office of profit during the process of being chosen renders a person ineligable to be elected (Re Nash (No 2))
• Questions of qualification cannot be determined in common informer’s action (Alley v Gillespie)
• Disqualification for holding an office of profit under the Crown (Re Lambie)
• Ineligible candidate remains incapable of being chosen in special count to fill their own Senate vacancy (Re Kakoschke-Moore)

• Former Senator Robert Day held disqualified by reason of interest in Commonwealth lease agreement (Re Day (No 2))
• Mr Rodney Culleton ineligible to have been elected as a senator by reason of conviction (Re Culleton (No 2))
• Commonwealth involvement in detention on Nauru upheld (Plaintiff M68/2015 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection)
• Challenge to Senate electoral reforms dismissed (Day v Australian Electoral Officer (SA))
• Western Australian Bell Group Act wholly invalid (Bell Group NV (in liquidation) v Western Australia; WA Glendinning & Associates Pty Ltd v Western Australia)
• High Court rejects challenge to the close of the electoral rolls (Murphy v Electoral Commissioner)
• Changes to parliamentarians’ superannuation and Life Gold Pass valid (Cunningham v Commonwealth)
• Validity of Northern Territory’s ‘paperless arrest’ laws upheld (North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency Ltd v Northern Territory)
• Compulsory examinations in a voluntary winding-up – judicial power (Palmer v Ayres; Ferguson v Ayres)
• Detention of non-citizens brought to Australia for a temporary purpose (Plaintiff M96A/2016 v Commonwealth)
• Trial by judge alone not permitted by section 80 of the constitution (Alqudsi v The Queen)

Decisions in brief:

• External affairs power extends to conduct within Australia preparatory to engaging in hostile activity in another State (Alqudsi v Commonwealth of Australia; Alqudsi v R)
• State regulation of coastal fisheries (Babington v Commonwealth)
• Right of individuals to acquire proprietary rights over terra nullius under international law (Ure v Commonwealth)
• Commonwealth funding of religious schools (Hoxton Park Residents Action Group Inc v Liverpool City Council)