Where a plaintiff's statement of claim contains the essential facts supporting a claim under a Commonwealth statute but fails to identify the correct statutory cause of action, an amendment to identify that cause of action may be permitted after expiry of the Commonwealth limitation period, as such an amendment is one of form rather than substance. The State and Territory provisions abrogating the rule in Weldon v Neal (O.36.01(6) and equivalent limitation act provisions) are procedural in character and are not inconsistent with Commonwealth limitation provisions such as s.34 of the Civil Aviation (Carriers' Liability) Act 1959 (Cth). The so-called 'relation back' of amendments is not a common law principle but merely a matter of practice reflecting the nature of amendment to an existing document.
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