JAGOT J.
A new Act
1 On 15 June 2023 at 4.26 pm, a statute, the Home Affairs Act 2023 (Cth) ("the Act"), commenced. That statute has three substantive provisions. The first, s 5, provides that:
"A relevant lease, and any legal or equitable right, title, interest, trust, restriction, obligation, mortgage, encumbrance, contract, licence or charge, granted or arising under or pursuant to a relevant lease, or in dependence on a relevant lease, is terminated by force of this section on the commencement of this section."
2 A "relevant lease" is defined in s 4 of the Act to mean:
"… any lease owned or held in respect of the land at the commencement of this Act."
3 "Land" is defined to mean:
"Block 26, Section 44 in the Division of Yarralumla, as delineated on Deposited Plan Number 10486 in the Office of the Registrar of Titles at Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory."
4 Section 6(1) of the Act provides that:
"If the operation of this Act would result in an acquisition of property to which paragraph 51(xxxi) of the Constitution applies from a person otherwise than on just terms, the Commonwealth is liable to pay a reasonable amount of compensation to the person."
5 Section 6(2) provides a mechanism for the determination of that amount of compensation by proceedings in either the High Court of Australia or the Federal Court of Australia.
6 Section 7(1) provides that:
"Subject to subsection (3), this Act:
- (a) has effect despite any other law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory (whether written or unwritten)".
