Shellharbour City Council v Minister for Planning. Country/Territory Australia Type of court Others Date Apr 6, 2011 Source UNEP, InforMEA Court name Land and Environment Court of New South Wales Judge Biscoe. Reference number [2011] NSWLEC 59 Language English Subject Land & soil, Legal questions Abstract The applicant challenged the validity of the Ministers concept plan approval under Pt 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. The applicant sought directions that the Minister provide relevant documents and a statement of reasons relating to the decision. The issues were: (1) whether the Court should direct the Minister to provide written reasons for the approval under r 4.3 of the Land and Environment Court Rules (“LECR”) or para 14 of the Courts Class 4 Practice Note; (2) whether the Minister was a “public authority” for the purposes of r 4.3, having regard to the definition in r 1.3 of the LECR; (3) whether the Minister was a “public official” for the purposes of para 14 of the Courts Class 4 Practice Note; (4) whether the Court should direct the Minister to make available to the applicant documents in respect of the concept plan application; and (5) whether, due to the change in personality of the Minister (due to a change in government), the new Minister should only be ordered to provide reasons to the “best of their knowledge, information and belief”. The Court held: (1) the Minister did not constitute a “public authority” for the purposes of r 4.3 having regard to the definition in r 1.3 of the LECR;(2) the Minister was a “public official” within the meaning of para 14 of the Class 4 Practice Note;(3) directions to provide reasons and to make available documents under the para 14 of the Class 4 Practice Note may be made before points of claim are filed. Full text COU-156802.pdf