Yager v The Queen [1977] HCA 10

High Court of Australia Barwick C.J. Gibbs, Stephen, Mason and Murphy JJ. Yager v The Queen [1977] HCA 10

ORDER Application for special leave to appeal granted. Appeal dismissed.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1977, Feb. 25 Barwick C.J.

The applicant for special leave to appeal imported into Australia a quantity of cannabis. As she formally admitted, the plant material in her personal luggage when she disembarked at Fremantle from a passenger vessel was plant material of the genus cannabis. However, she did not admit and still disputes that the plant material was a prohibited import within the meaning of s. 233B (1) (b) or s. 233B (1) (c) of the Customs Act 1901 Cth, as amended. She was charged before a District Court of the State of Western Australia upon an indictment containing two counts: firstly, that she imported a quantity of cannabis to which the firstly abovementioned section applied and, secondly, that she was in possession of a prohibited import contrary to the second of the sections.

The issue at her trial was whether or not the plant material which she did import and which she had in her possession was a "prohibited import". That in turn involved a question whether it was plant material of the genus cannabis sativa. This turned primarily on the meaning of the statutory provision. If, upon its proper construction, the statute rendered all plant material of the genus cannabis a prohibited import, there was no other question to be considered, for as I have said the applicant admitted that the material in her possession and which she had imported was plant material of the genus cannabis. If, on the other hand, the statute on its true construction only rendered one particular species of the genus cannabis, namely, what was said to be the species cannabis sativa, then there was, in my opinion, no evidence that the plant material in the possession of and imported by the applicant was plant material of that species. Thus, the fate of the applicant on the indictment turned entirely on the meaning to be assigned to the statute.