Sykes v Queensland Gas Company & Anor

[2009] QCA 163

Queensland Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Real Property
2. › Crown Lands
3. › Queensland
4. › Petroleum leases
5. › Renewal of leases
6. › Failure to comply with statutory renewal requirements
7. › Whether executive actions inconsistent with governing statute can override the statute
8. › Whether leases revived by ministerial acknowledgment
9. › Petroleum Act 1923 (Qld), ss 31A, 34, 45, 48, 80T
1. Administrative Law
2. › Judicial review
3. › Reviewable decisions and conduct
4. › Executive decisions concerning Crown land
5. › Whether separation of powers doctrine prevents tribunal from determining lease expiry
6. › Whether executive decision not subject to challenge in courts
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Costs
3. › Transitional provisions
4. › Transfer of jurisdiction from tribunal to court
5. › Whether costs regime of originating tribunal or receiving court applies
6. › Whether statutory changes to costs powers are procedural and retrospective
7. › Land Court Act 2000 (Qld), s 34
8. › Land and Resources Tribunal Act 1999 (Qld), s 50
1. Appeal
2. › Leave to appeal
3. › From Land Appeal Court to Court of Appeal
4. › Principles governing grant of leave
5. › Whether substantial prospects of success and error of sufficient importance
6. › Land Court Act 2000 (Qld), s 74

Quick Take

Petroleum leases granted under the Petroleum Act 1923 (Qld) expire upon the lessee's failure to comply with statutory renewal requirements, and ministerial correspondence implicitly acknowledging the leases' continued existence cannot revive them. Where jurisdiction is transferred from a tribunal to a court by amending legislation, the receiving court's costs regime (here s 34 of the Land Court Act 2000) applies to transferred proceedings, not the originating tribunal's costs regime, because changes to costs powers are procedural and operate retrospectively.