R v Hunt; Ex parte Sean Investments Pty Ltd [1979] HCA 32

High Court of Australia Gibbs, Mason and Murphy JJ. R v Hunt; Ex parte Sean Investments Pty Ltd [1979] HCA 32

ORDER Order that a writ of mandamus issue directed to the Honourable Ralph James Dunnet Hunt, Minister of State for Health, commanding him to consider and determine according to law the application made by the prosecutor on 15 February 1978 for a review of a decision made by the Permanent Head upon an application to alter the conditions applicable to the prosecutor's nursing home conducted at 22 Woodford Street, Banksia, in the State of New South Wales by increasing the scale of fees determined by the Permanent Head in relation to the said nursing home.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

July 19 Gibbs J.

I have had the advantage of reading the reasons prepared by Mason J. and am in agreement with them. I would accordingly issue a writ of mandamus.

Mason J.

This is an application for a writ of mandamus directed to the respondent, the Commonwealth Minister for Health, requiring him to consider and determine according to law the prosecutor's application for approval for an increase in fees charged for nursing home care in the Rockdale Convalescent and Nursing Home ("the nursing home"), which is an approved nursing home under s. 40AA of the National Health Act 1953 Cth (as amended) ("the Act").

The prosecutor conducts the nursing home, which has a capacity of sixty-three beds, on premises known as 22 Woodford Road, Banksia in the State of New South Wales. It leases the premises from A. & L. Holdings Pty Ltd, a company which is not associated in any way with the prosecutor or its shareholders, under a memorandum of lease dated 24 November 1975. The term of the lease is five years commencing on 1 December 1975. The annual rent payable in the first two years under the lease was $39,420. The lease contained a clause adjusting the amount of the rental paid in the third and subsequent years of the lease by reference to alterations in the Consumer Price Index for Sydney. The result of the application of this clause was that the annual rent fixed by the lease for the year commencing on 1 December 1977 was $49,432.