Blacktown City Council v Statewide Civil Pty Ltd (No 2)

[2026] NSWSC 375

Supreme Court of NSW

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

1. PROCEDURE — Suppression order — Variation of interim suppression orders made under s 10 Court Suppression and Non-publication Orders Act 2010 (NSW) — Scope and power to vary interim suppression orders — Where underlying issues of remediation are the same as in arbitration — Where evidence from same expert relied upon in arbitration and proceedings — Where public interest in confidentiality of commercial arbitration outweighed by public interest in open justice for some documents

Where a party relies on the same experts in both arbitration and related court proceedings concerning the same underlying dispute, the public interest in open justice and the dictates of justice under s 56 CPA may outweigh the public interest in preserving arbitral confidentiality, justifying disclosure of expert evidence from the arbitration to non-parties to the arbitration who are parties to the related proceedings.
The private and confidential nature of arbitration does not provide absolute protection against disclosure of arbitral documents; under s 27I Commercial Arbitration Act 2010 (NSW), disclosure may be ordered where it is no more than reasonable for the purpose and the public interest in confidentiality is outweighed by other considerations, including the interests of justice in the related proceedings.
Parties to related court proceedings who share overlapping issues with an arbitration are not 'strangers' to the arbitration in the typical sense, particularly where they were not joined to the suppression order application despite the substantial overlap.