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Relying On Fishy Advice: The Ostrowski Decision, Warwick Gullett

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

On 16 June 2004, the High Court of Australia decided in Ostrowski v Palmer [2004] HCA 30 that the defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact cannot be used on the basis that a commission of a strict liability offence was induced by the provision of misleading advice from a government agency. In the case the High Court reinstated a conviction against a Western Australian rock lobster fisherman for fishing in a marine life protection zone despite the fact that the fisherman, Mr Jeffrey Palmer, had gone to the WA Fisheries Department to find out where he could fish, …