The Act creates duties and rights that structure litigation and administrative behaviour. Below are the primary duties imposed and rights recognised by the statute, with section references.
Duties of the Chief Judge and judicial officers. The Chief Judge is responsible for administering the P&E Court and ensuring orderly, expeditious exercise of jurisdiction (s 6(1)). The Chief Judge has the power to take all necessary or convenient action to perform these functions (s 6(2)). P&E Court judges have the same powers as District Court judges for certain functions, including contempt and witness compulsion (ss 31, 36).
Duty to facilitate expeditious resolution. The P&E Court must, in conducting proceedings and applying rules, facilitate just and expeditious resolution of issues and avoid undue delay, expense and technicality (s 10(1)). Parties implicitly undertake to proceed expeditiously (s 10(2)). ADR registrars share the same statutory mandate when exercising P&E Court powers (s 28(a)).
Rules and directions. The Governor in Council may make rules about P&E Court procedures and anything necessary for the court’s purposes, but only with the concurrence of the Chief Judge and a P&E Court judge (s 13(1)-(2)). The Chief Judge may make directions of general application about procedures (s 14(2)). The P&E Court may make orders or directions about conduct of proceedings and such orders may prevail over inconsistent rules to the extent of the inconsistency (s 14(1), (4)-(5)). These clauses assign the duty to comply with rules and judicial directions to parties and court officers.
ADR duties and rights. The Act creates a duty on ADR registrars and mediators to keep information acquired during ADR confidential, subject to enumerated exceptions, and attaches a maximum penalty of 50 penalty units for unlawful disclosure (s 21(1)-(2)). ADR registrars must file a certificate in approved form when ADR processes finish and must not comment on parties’ participation (s 19). Parties have the right to have an ADR settlement recorded and treated as a compromise (s 18) and to apply for a court order giving effect to that agreement once the ADR certificate is filed (s 20).
Rights to start declaratory proceedings. Any person may start a declaratory proceeding about listed subjects under the Act and the Planning Act (s 11(1)), but some matters are excluded or have special routes (ss 11(3)-(7), 12, 12A). For example, certain Planning Act chapters require use of s 12 or s 12A for declaratory relief in specific contexts (s 11(2); ss 12-12A). Representative commencement is permitted in limited cases with consent from the represented (s 41).
Evidentiary rights and presumptions. The Act creates evidentiary advantages for public entities: no need to prove appointment or authority of enforcement authority CEOs (s 49); signatures and certificates are evidence (ss 50, 52, 57); prescribed instruments used properly are presumed accurate (s 51); certified planning instruments are judicially noticed (s 53); and planning instruments are presumed within power unless issue is raised (s 54). These provisions reduce the evidentiary burden on those bodies and create a right to rely on specified certificates and presumptions.
Onus and burden in Planning Act appeals. Section 45 allocates who must prove a Planning Act appeal should be upheld or dismissed depending on the appellant’s status: applicants/applicants’ requests, local government decisions, infrastructure charges notices, tribunal decisions, and certain Minister decisions are appeals where the appellant must establish the appeal should be upheld (s 45(1)). Where submitters or advice agencies appeal a development application decision, the applicant must establish the appeal should be dismissed (s 45(2)). For enforcement notice appeals, the enforcement authority must establish the appeal should be dismissed (s 45(3)). These rules assign onus that materially affects evidentiary strategy.
Costs duties and exceptions. The default is that each party bears its own costs (s 59). The court may order costs against a party in multiple circumstances set out at s 60 (improper purpose, frivolous/vexatious proceedings, late introduction of new material, default in procedural requirements, failure to provide required information, failure of responsible public bodies to engage, and other specified conduct). For enforcement proceedings, the court may award costs against a person where an enforcement order is made (s 61(1)). Certain declarations require mandatory costs awards where an owner wrongly sought cancellation without required consent (s 61(2)). The court must not award costs against an assessment manager who is allowed to withdraw from an appeal (s 61(3)). The court may quantify costs using District Court procedures and enforce them as District Court orders (s 62).
Appeal rights and limitations. Parties may appeal P&E Court decisions to the Court of Appeal only on grounds of error of law, mistake in law or jurisdictional error and only with leave (s 63). Leave must be sought within 30 business days after receiving the decision (s 64). The Court of Appeal’s powers include affirming, amending, revoking or returning the matter to the P&E Court (s 65). Conversely, P&E Court decisions are declared non-appealable unless the Supreme Court concludes a jurisdictional error or appeal is available under part 7 or enabling Act (s 7(2)-(3)), giving significant finality to P&E decisions.
Remittal duty to tribunals. If a P&E Court proceeding includes a matter within a tribunal’s jurisdiction and the court is satisfied the matter should be dealt with by the tribunal, the P&E Court must remit the matter to the tribunal (s 9(1)). On remittal, specified Planning Act provisions apply as if the initiating document were a tribunal document (s 9(2)). This creates a duty to transfer matters that fall within tribunal competence.
Administrative duties and reporting. The Chief Judge must prepare an annual report on the operation of the P&E Court within four months after the financial year end and give it to the Minister for tabling (s 70). The principal registrar must keep records of decisions and other functions as directed (s 69). These duties create administrative transparency and record-keeping obligations.
Collectively, these duties and rights allocate procedural control to the court and Chief Judge, embed ADR and confidentiality obligations, reduce evidentiary friction for public agencies, allocate burdens of proof in appeals, limit appeals by finality provisions and narrow appellate routes, and create cost exposure in specific conduct situations , all of which produce predictable shifts in litigation behaviour by parties, counsel, and public entities.