Court of Disputed Returns (Queensland)

Court Of Disputed Returns (Queensland)

The Court of Disputed Returns of Queensland is a court that adjudicates disputes concerning elections in Queensland, a state of Australia. A “disputed return” is a situation in which the result of an election is questioned. The name “disputed returns” derives from the practice in common law countries of the issuing of a writ for the election and then the parliament receiving the results by way of returns after the counting of ballots. As a result, this is why the court is named as the Court of Disputed Returns.

The court is an attempt to eliminate the partisan nature of parliament and gives the determination of electoral disputes to an independent and dispassionate neutral body. As parliament traditionally has the sole authority to determine these matters, parliament must create a special law to bring that body into existence to determine those disputes. Where there is no law, the parliament itself determines these disputes. In the Queensland situation, the parliament has decided that the court should be the only avenue for disputing an election result.

The court needs to be distinguished from the role the Supreme Court of Queensland may have had under previous federal election laws for Australia at the national level. Under the previous laws, the Supreme Court could act as the court of disputed returns for the national government in certain circumstances. This is no longer the case and instead all national election disputes are dealt with by either the High Court of Australia or the Federal Court of Australia.