The Land and Environment Court has now made it clear that the phrase is just that.

The recent decision in Mount Druitt Inn Pty Limited v Blacktown City Council [2026] NSWLEC 1390 reinforces an important legal principle that is often overlooked: before anyone gets to the planning merits, the consent authority (or the Court) must first have the legal power to consider the modification at all.

In the first decision interpreting the Recognise Country Guidelines, the Court confirmed that Aboriginal cultural heritage considerations must meaningfully inform a development’s design at DA stage.

This decision delivers some reminders when dealing with variation requests, development within the foreshore, owner’s consent, and the ways in which the Court will consider controls within local environmental plans.

In a recent procedural ruling, the Land and Environment Court allowed a nearby landowner to join a Class 1 appeal concerning a 30-metre telecommunications tower.

Despite a long and fraught litigation history and striking similarities between the two applications, the Court ultimately allowed the new merit appeal to proceed, finding it was not an abuse of process.

There can be serious cost consequences in Class 4 appeals to the Land and Environment Court.