The High Court is set to determine whether Commonwealth Civil Aviation Laws apply to the exclusion of harmonised Work Health and Safety laws, after leave to appeal was granted with respect to the decision of Outback Ballooning Pty Ltd v Work Health Authority and Bamber 2017 ASH 55-120[2017].
The court will be asked to decide whether and precisely when state and territory work safety laws can apply to planes and other air vehicles.
The defendant, an Alice Springs hot air balloon operator, was prosecuted under Northern Territory work safety law after one of its passengers died when her scarf was sucked into an inflation fan as she boarded a balloon. The Northern Territory Court of Appeal upheld the magistrate’s dismissal of the charge, ruling that a 2011 Federal Court decision meant that federal civil aviation statutes overrode state and territory work safety statutes in aviation contexts, including boarding accidents.
The result will determine whether prosecution could only be brought under the federal scheme and not under local health and safety legislation. Watch this space for what promises to be an interesting judgment from the High Court.