Legal cases
Nine Federal Court decisions have involved PSR cases this year.
The status of these court cases, many of which have been discussed in earlier PSR Annual Reports, is reported below.
No new applications have been made to the Federal Court in relation to cases referred to PSR in the last four years. This may reflect the growing certainty about the legal operation of the PSR Scheme as a result both of amendments to legislation and legal decisions to date. The reduced number of requests from Medicare Australia during 2004–05 and 2005–06 may also have had an impact.
Fourteen PSR court cases are currently on hold (voluntarily or by consent order) pending High Court resolution of the constitutional challenge in Selim.54
- 54 The High Court heard the Application for Special Leave lodged by Doctors Selim and Wong on 1 August 2008. At this hearing the High Court granted the Request for Leave to Appeal. It is expected that this matter will be heard over two days in November 2008.