High Court hands down 23rd decision of the year

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Daily wrap  

• Judgment summary for yesterday’s HCA decision - Valuer-General Victoria v WSTI Properties 490 SKR Pty Ltd [2025] HCA 23
   

• Palmer claims legal win to plead ASIC case [The West Australian paywall]

  Royalties billionaire Clive Palmer has set the scene for more legal fights over a Federal investigation and charges linked to allegedly dodgy dealings more than a decade ago.
   

• Legal legends sign up for Melbourne University students expelled over Palestine protests [The Age paywall]

  “Legal eagle Greg Barns, no stranger to these matters, having acted as an adviser to Wikileaks ex-con Julian Assange, and in a lengthy list of right-on causes, has teamed-up with Victorian criminal law legend and former magistrate Rob Stary to add some heft to the students’ legal crusade.”
   

• Erin Patterson denies foraging death cap mushrooms hours before buying food dehydrator, murder trial hears | Victoria | The Guardian
   

• Sydney Muslim cleric tells court Jewish people can’t be offended by him calling them ‘vile’ as lectures were private | Australia news | The Guardian
   

  • Wertheim v Haddad: Online file
     

• Moira Deeming offered John Pesutto chance to avoid bankruptcy on condition Liberal party assured her preselection | Victorian politics | The Guardian
   

• Defence argues alleged rape by NSW MP Gareth Ward did not happen - ABC News 
   

• Expanded ‘Jack’s law’ police powers could lead to further ‘surveillance and harassment’ of some Queenslanders, expert warns | Australian police and policing | The Guardian
   

• Final text of Sydney woman stabbed to death read to court in first day of murder trial - ABC News

  Anthony Eriksen, 62, is representing himself in the Supreme Court murder trial over the 2023 death of Lisa Fenwick in Sydney.
   

Editor’s picks

• Former Solicitor-General appointed Court of Appeal President | Western Australian Government

  Former Solicitor-General and barrister Joshua Thomson SC has been appointed President of the Court of Appeal of Western Australia and a Judge of the Supreme Court.
   

• As a judge, I’m sounding the alarm: The out-of-control White House is dismantling justice - Lex Lasry (formerly VSC) [The Age paywall]

  Donald Trump’s war on the International Criminal Court is ramping up, and we should all be worried about what comes next.
   

• Hampson & Ors v Jackson [2025] QDC 36 (28 March 2025)

  [47] There is a well-known, but logically confounding, phenomenon that, when moving residence, items of property inexplicably go missing. It usually, but not always, concerns smaller, or less valuable items. Sometimes they turn up later, sometimes much later. Sometimes they don’t. Although I am unaware of any empirical study to support the proposition, it seems to be related to the phenomenon where one of a pair of socks sometimes goes missing in the wash. People will honestly believe that the items were packed, or put in the wash, but either be mistaken, or have overlooked them at the end of the process.
   

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