The Court held that preferential voting is a permissible method of voting under s 89(1) of the Owners Corporations Act 2006 (Vic), but requires an express resolution of the meeting to authorise its use; an implicit or tacit acceptance is insufficient. Applying Project Blue Sky, the Court held that not every breach of the procedural requirements governing meetings and voting under the OC Act renders resolutions void — the question is whether Parliament intended invalidity as the consequence of non-compliance, and the broad discretionary power under s 165 of the OC Act to make orders that are 'fair' supports a conclusion that irregularities are to be assessed by reference to their gravity and consequence rather than resulting in blanket invalidation. The Court found the Aug 24 AGM committee election was irregular but not invalid, while the Dec 24 SGM was convened in breach of s 75(2) because the agenda was not approved by nominating lot owners before they gave their proxies, and the attempt to expand the committee from 7 to 12 members was characterised as an attempt to 'stack' the OCC.
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