The Full Federal Court has unanimously overturned the landmark Sharma decision, which found the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment owed a duty of care to Australian children to avoid risk of personal injury when considering whether to approve a coalmine expansion.

While this appeal concerned one Minister’s specific exercise of power under Commonwealth legislation – and the FFC took an orthodox approach to reject a novel duty – we expect many more claims seeking to recognise novel duties.

In this article, Wotton Kearney’s James Clohesy, Charu Stevenson, Jesse Pereira and Nadica Mirceska explain the implications of this significant decision for government decision-makers and agencies, company directors and their insurers.

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