Federal Court of Australia
McDonald v Commonwealth of Australia (No 3) [2025] FCA 1048
Summary
In accordance with the practice of the Federal Court in some cases of public interest, importance or complexity, the following summary has been prepared to accompany the reasons for judgment and orders made today. This summary is intended to assist in understanding the outcome of this proceeding and is not a complete statement of the conclusions reached by the Court. The only authoritative statement of the Court’s reasons is that contained in the published reasons for judgment which will be available on the internet at www.fedcourt.gov.au together with this summary.
The Court is making two sets of orders today. Each set of orders is quite long but what follows is a summary about what they concern, and what the Court’s decision is.
One set of orders concerns the application by Ms McDonald on behalf of group members to extend the registration date for distribution of compensation payments. Currently people must register by 31 August 2025 and give sufficient information to have their registration approved also by that date. If they miss this cut-off date they are unlikely to receive any payments.
Registrations have not come through as quickly as Shine lawyers expected, and that is why there has been this application to extend the registration cut-off.
Through her lawyers Ms McDonald herself informed the Court that she was concerned that group members, including her, get their money as soon as possible, and that she would leave it to the Court to make a decision about extending the registration cut off. I have taken that position into account.
The parties and the settlement scheme Administrator, Deloitte, have provided a lot of useful information to the Court about the consequences of extending the registration cut off. The Court is grateful for their efforts.
The Court has decided there should only be a short extension, to 3 October 2025. That is the new cut-off date. After this date, the registration forms then need to be checked and processed, and because of some new arrangements agreed by the parties, some people might also be followed up for more information. The Administrator needs some time to do all this, which is what will happen from October to the end of January 2026. This means group members should start to receive their final payments by around the end of January 2026.
The Court considers that is an appropriate compromise between on the one hand the understandable position of Ms McDonald and probably many other group members, that they wish to receive their money as soon as possible, and on the other hand allowing a little more time for as many potential claimants as possible to register to receive a payment. While some extra legal and administrative costs will be incurred by extending the registration cut off, a short extension minimises these costs.
During and after the Court hearing on 11 August, the parties and the Administrator recognised that there may have been too strict or technical an approach being taken to what kind of information needed to be provided for a group member’s registration form to be approved and accepted.
Therefore, the parties have agreed to some variations to the Settlement Deed which should make it more straightforward for registration forms to be processed more quickly, and for an appropriate but not overly strict approach to be taken to what information people need to provide. It is a positive step that the parties and the Administrator have been able to agree to those modifications.
The second set of orders being made today are orders approving the parties’ agreement to modify the Settlement Deed in this way. Separately, further guidance will be given to the Administrator on assessing the information that group members provide.
The Court has published reasons explaining why it has made these orders.
MORTIMER CJ
29 August 2025
