Friday Afternoon HCA Transcript

David Bennett QC is well known for his entertaining High Court advocacy back when he was Commonwealth Solicitor General. He was back before the bench this week in the case of Aid/Watch Incorporated v Commissioner of Taxation (transcript at [2010] HCATrans 154 and [2010] HCATrans 155) regarding whether entities with a purpose of affecting politics can maintain a ‘Charity’ status for tax purposes.

He came out guns-a-blazing with quite a conceptually complex argument, discussing ‘purpose’ in terms of ‘differing levels of generality’ as apposed to competing purposes. Sound confusing? Here’s what the Bench said (from HCA transcript):

HAYNE J: For my own part, Mr Bennett, I am not yet grasping the levels of generality argument and I, at the moment, am not finding that helpful. That tells you a lot about me; it tells you nothing about the argument.

And later:

MR BENNETT: Yes. Well, your Honour, one can talk about means and ends and intermediate purposes where one has a purpose of achieving X and the reason one wants to achieve X is that X will lead to Y. X is the intermediate purpose, Y is the ultimate purpose and, as I have said, they cannot be compared or weighed against each other. They are not in the same universe of discourse. That may be a better phrase than level of generality.

FRENCH CJ: I am not sure it is.

MR BENNETT: Universe of discourse. I will try and remember to shift to that phrase.

FRENCH CJ: I did not want to encourage you to do that.

Bennett is also a famous sesquipedalian and grammarian. This week he was particularly concerned about the grammatical structure of the names of charities. Here are some highlights:

MR BENNETT: In the United States there is Regan v Taxation with Representation of Washington – a slightly ungrammatically named society – (2003) 461 US 551. I have copies for your Honours.

….

There are two Canadian cases which deal with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The first is called Human Rights International in Canada Incorporated - so Human Life International in Canada Incorporated. The misuse of prepositions in names seems to be a characteristic of many of these bodies.

CRENNAN J: Be charitable, Mr Bennett.

MR BENNETT: Yes. I was hoping my learned friend could explain the justification for the slash in the middle of his client’s name.

HAYNE J: It is the promotion of education, Mr Bennett.

And finally (I’m not sure the transcript quite captures what must have been the emphasis):

HEYDON J: Do you know of any convenient place where there is evidence on those things?

MR BENNETT: The answer is an unfortunate one, your Honour. The answer is passim.

HEYDON J: Passim?

MR BENNETT: Passim, yes, your Honour. There is a large quantity of evidence.

God bless.