On 2 June 2008 the Supreme Court of Victoria heard another application brought by Gunns Ltd. This application was for “discovery” and production of further documents from The Wilderness Society.

Julian Burnside QC who is acting for The Wilderness Society argued that the process of discovering documents had become oppressive. The costs of the discovery process alone were exceeding the damages Gunns were claiming.

"Discovery" is the process by which the parties in the case exchange documents relevant to the case. The Wilderness Society (TWS) had provided thousands of pages of documents to Gunns, but many pages of these documents were masked because The Wilderness Society claimed that the masked sections were confidential and not relevant to the case. This application by Gunns was for more documents and for the documents to be provided unmasked.

Mr Burnside told the court that Kamal Farouque, a solicitor for Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, who represents the Wilderness Society, had been directly involved in the discovery process for over 30 full working days. He said the estimate of the cost of the exercise to date (for TWS) is $150,000, whereas the special damages (itemised amounts Gunns says it lost as a result of the alleged actions of defendants) claim by Gunns is $115,000.00. Mr Burnside stated “discovery is overwhelming the claim itself”.

In relation to the case as a whole Mr Burnside said “Why the Plaintiff is pursuing it is difficult to know, but what is clear is that more money is now being spent by defendants in resisting the case than on the case against them.”

Mr Waller, acting for Gunns, said that The Wilderness Society did not need to spend that much money and should have just provided the documents unmasked.

The hearing was adjourned to 16 July 2008. In the meantime The Wilderness Society must submit a further affidavit detailing its claims of confidentiality.