Commonwealth v Northern Land Council [1993] HCA 24

High Court of Australia Mason C.J. Brennan, Deane, Dawson, Gaudron and McHugh JJ. Commonwealth v Northern Land Council [1993] HCA 24

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Set aside the order of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia and in lieu thereof order that:

(i) the appeal to that Court be allowed with costs;

(ii) the orders contained in pars 1 to 10, 12(a) and 14 of the order of Jenkinson J. be set aside and in lieu thereof the motion of the first respondent in this Court, the Northern Land Council, so far as it relates to the relief sought in par. (1) of its notice of motion of 14 February 1990, be dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1993, April 21 Mason C.J., Brennan, Deane, Dawson, Gaudron and McHugh JJ.

This action was commenced in the original jurisdiction of this Court. In it the Northern Land Council is seeking remedies against the Commonwealth arising out of an agreement made between it and the Commonwealth on 3 November 1978 pursuant to s. 44(2) of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 Cth [1] . Among other things, the Northern Land Council claims that the agreement is inadequate, unreasonable and unfair to it; that the Commonwealth was in breach of obligations arising out of a fiduciary relationship with it in matters relating to the negotiation and execution of the agreement; that the agreement was executed by it as a result of duress or undue influence exerted by the Commonwealth; and that in acting as it did the Commonwealth behaved unconscionably. It claims a declaration that the agreement is void or that it has validly avoided it. It is unnecessary for present purposes to describe the statutory background to the action; a description is to be found in Northern Land Council v The Commonwealth [2] and Northern Land Council v The Commonwealth [No. 2] [3] . It is sufficient to observe that the legality of uranium mining operations upon land known as the Ranger land is said to depend upon the status of the agreement, which provides for certain payments to be made to the Northern Land Council in respect of mining on that land.