Rowe, Alan, The Employment Advocate v Transport Workers' Union of Australia & Ors [1998] FCA 1646

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE - application to strike out statement of claim on the basis that statutory provisions relied upon to sustain alleged causes of action are invalid because they are beyond legislative power of Commonwealth or infringe constitutional requirement that judicial power of the Commonwealth may only be exercised by Chapter III court - whether causes of action manifestly untenable. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - whether certain provisions of Part XA of Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) are beyond power. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - corporations power - whether s298G a law with respect to a head of Commonwealth legislative power - whether a law with respect to independent contractors - whether s298G is characterised as a law with respect to foreign corporation, and trading and financial corporations formed within the Commonwealth - whether there is a sufficient connexion between the exercise of the power and the subject matter of corporations power - whether connexion not so insubstantial, tenuous or distant that it cannot properly or sensible be regarded as a law with respect to the head of power. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - conciliation and arbitration power - corporations power - whether s298S sustained by these powers. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - conciliation and arbitration power - whether s298B(2) and s298B(3) sustained by this power. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - judicial power - whether s298B(2) and s298B(3) - usurpation of judicial power - whether sections create a statutory factual fiction which may be contrary to the true facts. Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) Part XA Industrial Organizations Act 1997 (Qld) Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) Re Dingjan Ex parte Wagner (1995) 183 CLR 323 Actors and Announcers Equity Association of Australia v Fontana Films Pty Ltd (1982) 150 CLR 169 The Commonwealth v Tasmania (The Tasmanian Dam Case) (1983) 158 CLR 1 Melbourne Corporation v The Commonwealth (1947) 74 CLR 31 Strickland v Rocla Concrete Pipes Ltd (1971) 124 CLR 468 Dey v Victorian Railways Commissioners (1949) 78 CLR 125 General Steel Industries Inc v Commissioner for Railways (NSW) (1964) 112 CLR 125 Munnings v Australian Government Solicitor (1993) 68 ALJR 169 R v Bowen Ex parte Amalgamated Metal Workers & Shipwrights Union (1980) 144 CLR 465 Australian Boat Trade Employees' Federation v Shybrew & Co (1910) 11 CLR 311 Federated Iron-Workers Association of Australia v The Commonwealth (1951) 84 CLR 265 Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills (1992) 177 CLR 1 Victoria v The Commonwealth (the Industrial Relations Act Case) (1996) 187 CLR 416 Polyukovich v Commonwealth (1991) 172 CLR 501 Nicholas v R (1998) 151 ALR 312 Taff Vale Railway v Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants [1901] AC 426 United States v White (1944) 322 US 694 Tesco Supermarkets Ltd v Nattras [1972] AC 153 Hamilton v Whitehead (1988) 166 CLR 121 Environment Protection Authority v Caltex Refining Co Pty Ltd (1993) 178 CLR 477 Canadian Dredge and Dock Co Ltd v The Queen (1985) 19 DLR (4th) 314 Dixon v Deacon Morgan McEwan Easson (1990) 70 DLR (4th) 609 Beach Petroleum NL v Johnson (1993) 43 FCR 1 Muller v Dalgety & Co Ltd (1909) 9 CLR 693 The Queen v County Council of Norfolk 60 LJ QB 379 Hill v East and West India Dock Company (1884) 9 App Case 448 Giblan v National Amalgamated Labourers' Union of Great Britain and Ireland [1903] 2 KB 600 Denaby and Cadeby Main Collieries Ltd v Yorkshire Miners Association [1906] AC 384 Waterside Workers Federation of Australia v Burgess Brothers Ltd (1916) 21 CLR 129 Commonwealth Steamship Owners Association v Federated Seamans Union of Australia (1923) 33 CLR 297 Bayley v Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Co (1872) LR 7 CP 415 Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd v Producers and Citizens Co-Operative Assurance Co of Australia Ltd (1931) 46 CLR 41 Limpus v London General Omnibus Company (1862) 1 H & C 526 Lloyd v Grace Smith & Co [1912] AC 716 Kooragang Investments Pty Ltd v Richardson and Wrench Ltd [1982] AC 462; 158 ER 993 Atkinson v Lamont [1938] St RQ 33 Heatons Transport (St Helens) Ltd v Transport and General Workers Union [1973] AC 15 Chappell v Times Newspapers Ltd [1975] 1 WLR 482 R v Ludeke; Ex parte The Australian Building Construction Employees' and Builders Labourers' Federation (1985) 159 CLR 636 Otzen v Beaubont (1947) 75 CLR 116 ALAN ROWE, THE EMPLOYMENT ADVOCATE v TRANSPORT WORKERS' UNION OF AUSTRALIA, TRANSPORT WORKERS' UNION OF AUSTRALIA, UNION OF EMPLOYEES (QUEENSLAND BRANCH), TIMOTHY BURKE, GORDON WHALLEY AND THOMAS JAMES BAXTER QG 182 OF 1997 COOPER J BRISBANE 17 DECEMBER 1998