Khan Owen Horne v The Water Administration Ministerial Corporation [2019] NSWLEC 1172

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Khan Owen Horne v The Water Administration Ministerial Corporation [2019] NSWLEC 1172 Hearing dates: 15 March 2019; 29 March 2019 Date of orders: 29 March 2019 Decision date: 16 April 2019 Jurisdiction: Class 1 Before: Froh R Decision: See orders at [27] below Catchwords: Appeals and applications under the Water Act and Water Management Act – Jurisdiction of the Court under Class 1 and Class 3 Legislation Cited: Interpretation Act 1987 Land and Environment Court Act 1979 Water Act 1912 Water Management Act 2000 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Khan Owen Horne (Applicant) The Water Administration Ministerial Corporation (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: J Reid (Applicant)

Solicitors: Foott Law & Co (Applicant) M Lichtwark, NSW Department of Industry (Respondent) File Number(s): 2019/15887 Publication restriction: No

Judgment

This decision was given as an extemporaneous decision. It has been revised and edited prior to publication. 1. REGISTRAR: By Notice of Motion filed on 8 March 2019 ('Motion') Mr Khan sought leave to: 1. file a separate Class 1 application form for each of the appeals against determination of the Controlled Work Approvals CW803604 (converted to 90FW322193) and CW803605 (converted to 90FW322194); 2. amend the name of the Respondent to "The Water Administration Ministerial Corporation" in lieu of "Natural Resources Access Regulator"; 3. amend the reference to the Act under which the proceedings are brought from s 171AA of the Water Act 1912 ('Water Act') to s 368 of the Water Management Act 2000 ('WM Act'); and 4. have the two Class 1 applications referred to in Order 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c) of the Motion, be heard and determined concurrently. 1. The substantive Class 1 proceedings concern an appeal by Mr Khan in relation to controlled work approvals 30CW803604 and 30CW803605 issued by the Natural Resources Access Regulator (the Controlled Works Approvals). 2. The parties are agreed that it would be appropriate for the Court to exercise its discretion to grant leave to Orders 1(a), 1(b) and 1(d) of the Motion (excluding the reference to Class 1 proceedings). 3. The issue in dispute in the Motion is whether the proceedings should properly be brought under Class 1 or Class 3 of the Land and Environment Court's jurisdiction. 4. On 15 March 2019, by way of an ex tempore decision, Orders 1(a) and 1(b) were made. On 29 March 2019, I determined that the proceedings are correctly brought under Class 1 of the Court's jurisdiction, pursuant to s 368 of the WM Act and Orders 1(c) and 1(d) made. 5. On 1 April 2019, the Respondent requested written reasons for the making of Order 1(c) as it may affect other applications.