Durham Holdings Pty Ltd v The State of New South Wales [2001] HCA 7:
(at 30) “There is little point in searching for additional expositions of, or foundations for, the principle that courts will presume that legislation does not overrule the common law in the absence of clear and express terms, given that it is so clear and that it was not really contested by the State. In English legal history the principle can be traced back for at least 300 years and probably further. It has been applied countless times in Australia, including in the construction of legislation governing privately owned minerals and the public acquisition thereof. However, any presumption, rule of construction, or imputed intention is subject to valid legislative provisions to the contrary. Judges may decline to read such legislation as having such an effect. The more peremptory, arbitrary and unjust the provisions, the less willing a judge may be to impute such a purpose to an Australian lawmaker. But a point will be reached where the law in question is “clear and unambiguous”. Various other verbal formulae are used in the reasoning of this Court to describe that point. They are collected by the Court of Appeal in its reasons. Once that point is reached, subject to any constitutional invalidity, the judge has no authority to ignore or frustrate the commands of the lawmaker. To do so would be to abuse judicial power, not to exercise it.”
(at 48) “Secondly, the applicant invoked Sir Owen Dixon’s reminder that the principle of parliamentary supremacy is itself a doctrine of the common law.”
(at 61) “Members of a legislature, such as the Parliament of New South Wales, are regularly answerable to the electors, whereas judges in Australia are not. Judges recognise that, whatever the deficiencies of electoral democracy, the necessity of answering to the electorate at regular intervals has a tendency to curb legislative excesses. Many judges reject “the role of a Platonic guardian” and are “pleased to live in a society that does not thrust [that role] upon [them]”. Most judges in Australia would probably share this relatively modest conception of their role. In this conception, the duty of obedience to a law made by a Parliament of a State derives from the observance of parliamentary procedures and the conformity of the resulting law with the State and federal Constitutions. It does not rest upon judicial pronouncements to accord, or withhold, recognition of the law in question by reference to the judge’s own notions of fundamental rights, apart from those constitutionally established.”