Is Rule 39.05 available?
58 The Director relies primarily on r 39.05(f) as the source of power to make the orders sought. Rule 39.05 deals with what can be done to orders after they are entered.
59 Ms Alampi deposed to the consent of the State of Victoria to the interlocutory orders sought, it being the entity in whose favour the 28 September 2017 orders were made, since the penalties were payable by Ms Gibson to the State of Victoria.
60 Rule 39.05 is premised, as its text demonstrates, on empowering the Court to do one of two acts: to set aside an order made, or to "vary" such an order.
61 The Director does not apply for the 28 September 2017 orders to be set aside, in the sense of vacated entirely. Rather, he applies for them to be varied, by the addition of an endorsement of a penal notice.
62 At the hearing of the application I expressed some doubt about whether what the Court was being asked to do fell within the terms of r 39.05, on the basis that there was no alteration to the actual terms of the 28 September 2017 orders. Indeed, this was the submission made on behalf of Ms Gibson: she submitted the power in r 39.05 was not available because to endorse an order with a penal notice is not a "variation" to the order.
63 On reflection, and in particular in light of the considerable body of authority to which I refer below, I have concluded that to see this application as outside r 39.05 would be an unduly technical approach. More than that, I am satisfied that the word "order" in r 39.05 means the whole of the document which constitutes the Court's record of the orders made by the Court, and so the power to "vary" includes a power to vary any part of the document constituting the order of the Court, including but not limited to the text which constitutes the exercise of judicial power.
64 In the Dictionary to the Rules, "order" is given the following definition:
order includes a final order, an interlocutory order, a direction and a sentence of the Court
65 In the Federal Court Act, "order" is not separately defined, but is included within the definition of "judgment".
66 There are purposive and practical reasons to construe "order" in r 39.05 as meaning the entire document. The main purposive reason is to ensure that the Rules facilitate the accuracy of the records of the Court. If, to take a simple example, an order recorded the wrong judge as making the order, that should be susceptible to correction under r 39.05 notwithstanding that no correction was sought to the substance of the orders made by the Court. The same could be said if the incorrect date was entered on the document constituting the order. A date may be a critical matter, but it is not itself the exercise of judicial power which constitutes the "order": rather, the document which is the order records (and must record accurately) the date on which the exercise of judicial power occurred.
67 Accordingly I am satisfied that the Court has power to vary the 28 September 2017 orders by endorsing a penal notice onto the document constituting the orders. What then matters more, as I discuss below, is the precise form of the penal notice.
68 If r 39.05(f) is applicable, which I find it is, a number of considerations, which have been held to inform the exercise of the Court's discretion, may be seen as tending against an exercise of the discretion in that rule. In Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v True Alliance Trading Pty Ltd (formerly, Reebok Australia Pty Ltd) (No 2) [2017] FCA 990 at [12], McKerracher J set out some of the considerations informing the exercise of this discretion, which I would respectfully agree with, and adopt:
In determining to exercise a discretion under r 39.05(f), relevant considerations include:
(a) the scope of the power to vary or set aside an order or judgment after entry is more circumscribed than that provided for in relation to the pre-entry situation. It should be exercised with caution and in exceptional circumstances, mindful of the overarching principle of the finality of litigation: Australian Securities and Investments Commission v ActiveSuper Pty Ltd (No 4) [2013] FCA 318 (at [6]);
(b) the discretion to vary an order under r 39.05 FCR is not confined, but must be exercised judicially and the Court must have regard to all the evidence and arguments before it at the time of the application: Campaign Master (UK) Limited v Forty Two International Pty Ltd (No 4) [2010] FCA 398 (at [68]);
(c) the power conferred under r 39.05 FCR must be exercised in a way that best promotes the overarching purpose identified in s 37M of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), of facilitating the just resolution of disputes according to law as quickly, inexpensively and efficiently as possible; and
(d) the Court must also consider the rights and interests of third parties. Orders may be varied or set aside where the party in whose favour the order was made consents, provided that doing so will not detrimentally affect the rights or interests of third parties: Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Yandal Gold [2003] FCA 77 (at [23]); Perre v Apand [2004] FCA 1220 (at [10]-[11]).
69 The Director's application tends against the overarching principle of finality in litigation. In De L v Director-General, New South Wales Department of Community Services (No 2) [1997] HCA 14; 190 CLR 207, a case concerning the proposed vacation of a costs order, the plurality, having noted the existence of the Court's power to re-open final orders, said (at 215):
By such expressions of the power to reopen final orders, courts seek to recognise competing objectives of the law. On the one hand, there is the principle of finality of litigation which reinforces the respect that should be shown to orders, final on their face, addressed to the world at large and upon which conduct may be ordered reliant upon their binding authority. On the other hand, courts recognise that accidents and oversights can sometimes occur which, unrepaired, will occasion an injustice. In the case of a final court of appeal, such as this Court, that injustice may be irremediable, unless the Court itself, acting promptly, is persuaded to reopen its orders so as to afford relief in the exceptional circumstances of the case.
(citations omitted)
70 This passage emphasises the importance of finality, but sets it against the need to ensure, so far as possible, that a previous exercise of judicial power does not work an injustice, especially an unintended or inadvertent injustice. Of course the passage does so mindful of the High Court's place as the ultimate appellate court in Australia, a factor not relevant to the present application. There is no obvious injustice in leaving the 28 September 2017 orders without the endorsement of a penal notice. There is no evidence before the Court that Ms Gibson has wilfully disobeyed the 28 September 2017 orders, so that it might be said she has taken some conscious advantage of the absence of a penal notice endorsement. All that can be said is that she has failed to comply with the order, and in resisting the application she seeks to preserve the status quo, which is that she may be less readily exposed to the risk of contempt proceedings. Since no enforcement steps have been taken by the Director, there is no evidence she has failed to cooperate in any such enforcement steps. The principle of finality is also compromised in the sense that the Director had the opportunity to seek an endorsement at an earlier stage, and first omitted and then deliberately elected not to do so.
71 Thus, the principle of finality tends to support refusing the Director's application.
72 It is questionable whether exercising the power in r 39.05(f) so as to apply an endorsement advances the overarching objective in s 37M of the Federal Court Act, because it has the effect of requiring steps to be taken again in the proceeding (such as serving Ms Gibson), in circumstances where the Director has not acted with appropriate efficiency to take any steps towards enforcing the 28 September 2017 orders in accordance with the Court's processes. The Director could have been well advanced with the usual enforcement processes, but instead appears to have prevaricated about this issue of an endorsement.
73 Balanced against this however is that varying and re-issuing the 28 September 2017 orders tends to bring more clarity to the potential consequences of non-compliance with the 28 September 2017 orders, at least from the time of service of the re-issued and varied orders onwards. It may at least in part avoid further argument on the matters to which I refer below under "Other authorities".
74 It is possible to identify a detrimental effect on Ms Gibson if the power were to be exercised, but it is a minor factor. The detrimental effect is that Ms Gibson may be exposed more readily to prosecution for contempt if she continues to fail to comply with the 28 September 2017 orders and there is evidence her non-compliance is wilful or contumacious, whereas at the moment the conflict in authorities in this Court means that she may have more prospect of resisting any such application if there is no endorsement. I say "may", because there are authorities which tend each way. Ms Gibson currently enjoys a possible benefit flowing from the Director's failure to seek endorsement at the appropriate time. Given her conduct in the contraventions as the Court found, that is no small irony.
75 If Ms Gibson has a current benefit, it is one that has come about because of inadvertence and there is no justice in the Court preserving it for her. As Jagot J said in Humane Society International Inc v Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd [2015] FCA 1275; 238 FCR 209 at [18]:
It is not the case that a party can avoid having to comply with a court order and thereby can avoid the potential of being found in contempt of court merely by engaging in wilful blindness to the terms of the court order.
76 I note that in terms of whether the proposed order is just and appropriate (also relevant to the alternative source of power in r 1.32), the Director accepted that Ms Gibson may be able to argue at a future date that she was entitled to the warning contained in the endorsement, and that she should not be exposed retrospectively to the risk of punishment for contempt for conduct in which she has already engaged. The Director also accepted that a question for any later court would be whether the Court had the power to punish Ms Gibson for the conduct occurring before any endorsed orders were made, given the terms of r 41.06.
77 When pressed, counsel for the Director proposed a modification to the terms of the penal notice to at least partially address these issues. The modification was to express part of the notice prospectively. Ultimately this was the version of the orders on which the Director moved towards the conclusion of the oral hearing. I accept that a prospective version of the orders is appropriate in the circumstances, to recognise that the time for compliance with the orders has passed. What can and should be made of all these factors in the context of any prosecution for contempt (if one ever eventuates) will be a matter for the Court at the time.
78 I accept, as McKerracher J said in True Alliance, that the power in r 39.05 should be exercised with caution. On this particular application, I have reflected carefully on what I consider to be the appropriate order, and the one that is in the interests of justice. I do not consider Ms Gibson's current advantage, if it might be called that, should be determinative. It is the product of happenstance. The disruption of finality caused by the application has concerned me, especially given the delay is entirely, on the evidence, of the Director's own making.
79 I consider what is more important is that the nature of the Court's 28 September 2017 orders was extremely serious. Significant penalties were imposed on Ms Gibson for conduct the Court found to be unconscionable. It is in the interests of the administration of justice that those orders should be capable of enforcement through contempt proceedings if the circumstances which would justify such an application arise. Whether or not any such proceeding succeeds will be a matter for the Court at the time but, having been apprised of the deficiency in the existing form of the orders and the Director's position, the Court should not lightly refuse to exercise a power to make those orders as effective as possible. Exercises of judicial power are intended to be effective: that is one of the foundations of the rule of law.
80 I note that for the purposes of r 39.05(f), it is the consent of the Director that the Court should treat as the operative consent: see Australian Securities & Investments Commission v Yandal Gold [2003] FCA 77 at [21] (Merkel J). However, the evidence is that the State of Victoria, the entity to whom the penalties are payable, also consents to the orders sought, although it is not a party.