The Supreme Court refused leave to appeal from VCAT's order which had reduced a deemed 100% relevant acquisition under s 82 of the Duties Act 2000 (Vic) to 85% to reflect the applicant's pre-existing economic interest. The applicant sought to have the entire assessment set aside by arguing the Tribunal misconstrued s 82 and failed to exercise the 'dispensing discretion' in s 82(1)(b) to reduce the deemed acquisition to zero, but the Court found no real prospect of success on any ground pressed, particularly as the applicant's case before the Tribunal had only sought a reduction to 75%, not to zero. The judgment canvasses the legislative history of the landholder provisions and the rival contentions as to whether s 82 operates as a discrete head of duty or solely as an anti-avoidance measure, but does not definitively resolve that question given leave was refused.
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