The Court held that the Minister for Health can consider the merits of a request for approval to supply pharmaceutical benefits when deciding whether to consider the request under s 90B(4) of the National Health Act 1953. The Court confirmed that there is no implied limitation preventing the Minister from assessing whether a request has reasonable prospects of success at the threshold stage of deciding whether to consider it. The Court also clarified that a single judge should not depart from an earlier single judge decision unless it is 'clearly and plainly wrong', applying principles of judicial comity.
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