The council's application for summary dismissal of the applicant's review proceeding was refused, and the applicant's grounds of review were amended under s 127 of the VCAT Act to assert that the residential noise improvement notice was unreasonable, conforming to s 432(c) of the Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic). The Tribunal held that VCAT's review jurisdiction was validly invoked under s 48(a) of the VCAT Act where the application complied with the applicable VCAT Rules (r 8A.03), even though the original grounds did not use the statutory language of s 432(c); the power under s 127 could then be used to amend the grounds once jurisdiction was properly on foot. The decision reaffirms the 'very high bar' for summary dismissal, requiring the respondent to show the proceeding is 'undoubtedly hopeless', and confirms that where the meaning of undefined statutory grounds such as 'unreasonable' remains to be tested on evidence, summary dismissal is inappropriate.
The full text is available to signed-in members.