Land and Environment Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council and Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council v Minister Administering the Crown Lands Act [2012] NSWLEC 100 Hearing dates: 4 May 2012 Decision date: 04 May 2012 Jurisdiction: Class 3 Before: Biscoe J Decision: (1) The hearing dates of 12 -18 June 2012 are vacated. (2) The orders of the Court of 10 February 2012 are vacated. (3) The proceedings are stayed pending the decision of the Court of Appeal Goomallee appeal. (4) The matter is to be listed before the Court for directions on 23 November 2012. (5) If the Goomallee appeal is determined before the last-mentioned date, the parties are to promptly arrange for this matter to be listed before the List Judge for directions. Catchwords: PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE:- motions to vacate hearing dates and to stay proceedings pending determination of appeal to Court of Appeal in separate matter. Cases Cited: New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council v Minister Administering the Crown Lands Act [2012] NSWLEC 1 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (First Applicant) Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council (Second Applicant) Minister Administering the Crown Lands Act (Respondent) Representation: COUNSEL: Mr J Behrendt, solicitor (Applicant) Ms V McWilliam (Respondent) SOLICITORS: Chalk Fitzgerald (Applicants) Mr A Baril, Crown Solicitor's Office (Respondent) File Number(s): 30913 of 2010 EX TEMPORE Judgment 1In this Aboriginal land rights claim the applicant and the respondent each move for vacation of the hearing dates of 12-18 June 2012 but for different reasons. 2The respondent Minister's reason is in order to await the outcome of the appeal against my decision in New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council v Minister Administering the Crown Lands Act [2012] NSWLEC 1 ("Goomallee"), which will affect the outcome of these proceedings. I am informed that 13 other similar matters in this Court as well as this one are affected by the Goomallee decision and have been stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. They include a matter that is part heard before Justice Pain known shortly as "Limbri", No 30052/11. 3The applicants in the proceedings do not oppose vacation of the hearing dates on that ground. Indeed, the solicitor for the applicants is also the solicitor for at least a substantial number of the applicants in the other proceedings to which have been stayed. 4The applicants seek vacation of the hearing dates for a different reason, namely, that their counsel who has been briefed throughout the course of the proceedings is unavailable on those dates and that those dates were imposed on the parties recently by the Court in lieu of hearing dates that had been fixed for next week because a special Commissioner was not available on the latter dates. On that basis, the applicants would then seek to have the matter fixed for hearing later in the year on dates when counsel for the parties are available. It is accepted by the applicants that such available hearing dates would be some time in the several months following June. That range would overlap with the date of the hearing of the Goomallee appeal, 1 August 2012. In my view, the Court should act consistently with the position that it has been taken in the 13 other matters affected by the Goomallee appeal. That is, it should stay the proceedings and consequently vacate the hearing dates in June until a decision is made by the Court of Appeal in the Goomallee appeal. It is on that ground that I propose to vacate the hearing dates in June and to stay these proceedings. 5I am told that a number of the other matters that have been stayed are listed for directions on 23 November 2012. I propose to do the same with these proceedings. 6The orders of the Court are as follows: (1)The hearing dates of 12 -18 June 2012 are vacated. (2)The orders of the Court of 10 February 2012 are vacated. (3)The proceedings are stayed pending the decision of the Court of Appeal in the Goomallee appeal. (4)The matter is to be listed before the Court for directions on 23 November 2012. (5)If the Goomallee appeal is determined before the last-mentioned date, the parties are to promptly arrange for this matter to be listed before the List Judge for directions. Amendments 21 May 2012 - Omission of catchwords Amended paragraphs: Cover DISCLAIMER - Every effort has been made to comply with suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication that may apply to this judgment or decision. The onus remains on any person using material in the judgment or decision to ensure that the intended use of that material does not breach any such order or provision. Further enquiries may be directed to the Registry of the Court or Tribunal in which it was generated. Decision last updated: 21 May 2012