GENERAL
4 The appellant is a medical practitioner conducting his practice at Lowood in Queensland. The first respondent is the Director of Professional Services Review (the "Director") of the fifth respondent (the "Commission"). The second, third and fourth respondents are members of a Professional Services Review Committee (the "Committee") established pursuant to s 93 of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) (the "Health Insurance Act").
5 Section 82 of the Health Insurance Act provided:
"(1) A practitioner engages in inappropriate practice if the practitioner's conduct in connection with rendering … services is such that a Committee could reasonably conclude that:
(a) if the practitioner rendered … the referred services as a general practitioner - the conduct would be unacceptable to the general body of general practitioners; or
(b) …
(c) …
(d) …
(2) …
(3) A Committee must, in determining whether a practitioner's conduct in connection with rendering … services was inappropriate practice, have regard to (as well as to other relevant matters) whether or not the practitioner kept adequate and contemporaneous records of the rendering … of the services."
6 At the time in question s 106KA provided:
"(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (2A), if, during a particular period (the relevant period), the circumstances in which some or all of the referred services were rendered … constituted a prescribed pattern of services, the conduct of the person under review in connection with rendering … services during that period in those circumstances is taken, for the purposes of this Part, to have constituted engaging in inappropriate practice.
(2) If the person under review satisfies the Committee that, on a particular day or particular days during the relevant period, exceptional circumstances existed that affected the rendering … of services by the person, the person's conduct in connection with rendering … services on that day or those days is not taken by subsection (1) to have constituted engaging in inappropriate practice.
(2A) However, subsection (2) does not affect the operation of subsection (1) in respect of the remaining day or days during the relevant period on which the person rendered … referred services even if the circumstances in which the referred services were rendered … on that day or those days would not, if considered alone, have constituted a prescribed pattern of services.
(3) The regulations may prescribe, in relation to:
(a) a particular profession; or
(b) an identified group or groups of practitioners in a particular profession;
circumstances in which services of a particular kind or description that are rendered … constitute, or do not constitute, a prescribed pattern of services for the purposes of subsection (1).
(4) The circumstances that may be prescribed under subsection (3) as circumstances in which services that are rendered … constitute a prescribed pattern of services include, but are not limited to, the rendering … of more than a specified number of services, or more than a specified number of services of a particular kind, on each of more than a specified number of days during a period of a specified duration.
(5) The circumstances that constitute exceptional circumstances for the purposes of subsection (2) include, but are not limited to, circumstances that are declared by the regulations to be exceptional circumstances.
(6) This section only applies to services rendered … after the commencement of this section.
(7) This section does not preclude the Committee from making a finding under this Subdivision (other than section 106KB) in relation to conduct during a particular period in connection with rendering … services without considering whether or not the circumstances in which the services were rendered … constituted a prescribed pattern of services."
7 Relevantly, regs 10 and 11 of the Health Insurance (Professional Services Review) Regulations 1999(Cth) (the "Regulations") provided:
"10. Circumstances constituting a prescribed pattern
The circumstance in which services that are professional attendances constitute a prescribed pattern of services is that 80 or more such services are rendered on each of 20 or more days in a 12 month period.
11. Exceptional circumstances
For subsection 106KA(5) of the Act, the following circumstances are declared as constituting exceptional circumstances:
(a) an unusual occurrence causing an unusual level of need for professional attendances;
(b) an absence of other medical services, for patients of the person under review during the relevant period, having regard to:
(i) the location of the practice of the person under review; and
(ii) characteristics of the patients of the person under review."
8 Pursuant to s 86 of the Health Insurance Act, the Commission might refer to the Director any concern that a medical practitioner may have engaged in inappropriate practice. The Director was obliged to conduct an investigation. Pursuant to s 93, he or she might then set up a Committee pursuant to the provisions of Div 4 (ss 95 to 106N) and refer to it the question of whether or not the practitioner had engaged in such practice. The content and form of any referral was to comply with guidelines published pursuant to subs 93(4). Subsection 93(6) provided that in making such a referral the Director was to prepare a written report for the Committee, giving his or her reasons for thinking that the person in question may have engaged in inappropriate practice.
9 Paragraph 4 of the Health Insurance (Professional Services Review - Content and Form of Adjudicative Referrals) Guidelines 1999 (the "Guidelines") provided:
"(1) The content of an adjudicative referral to a Committee in relation to a person under review may include:
(a) information and material received by the Director with the investigative referral relating to the person; and
(b) any other relevant information and material discovered or obtained by the Director.
(2) The information included may relate to services rendered or initiated by:
(a) any of the persons mentioned in paragraph 86(4)(a) of the Act; and
(b) for comparative purposes:
(i) a class of practitioners; and
(ii) all practitioners."
10 The reference to an "investigative referral" was to a referral by the Commission to the Director pursuant to s 86. The reference to an "adjudicative referral" was to a referral by the Director to a Committee pursuant to s 93.
11 On 13 December 2001 the Commission referred to the Director the appellant's conduct in providing services in the period from 1 January to 31 October 2000. On 14 February 2002 the Director referred the matter to the Committee. On 6 May 2002, the appellant commenced proceedings in this Court, seeking: