More from Heydon J waxing lyrical

I‘ve posted before on Heydon J’s increasing predilection for sexing up his judgments. In the decision handed down yesterday of Travelex Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [2010] HCA 33, the High Court had to decide whether foreign currency was just the paper on which it was written or whether there was something more to it.

According to Heydon J (at [47]):

The rights supplied were the rights enjoyed by the holder of the currency as created by the statute law of Fiji. The handing over of the pieces of paper constituted, evidenced, and was not capable of disaggregation from, the supply of rights. Apart from those rights, the pieces of paper had little value. They might have been used to stop an uneven table wobbling, or to jam shut a loose door, or to amuse small children, or to light a cigar. If the currency included coins, the coins might have been used to turn stiff screws or to lay on railway lines for the purpose of being flattened. But uses of that kind, which are very remote from their real purpose, would not prevent both the pieces of paper and the coins from being almost worthless. The supply of the currency was a supply in relation to the rights it gave because these rights constituted the pith and substance of the transaction.
(Emphasis added.)