R v Commonwealth Conciliation & Arbitration Commission; Ex parte Australian Foremen Stevedores' Association [1958] HCA 59

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. McTiernan, Fullagar, Taylor and Windeyer JJ. R v Commonwealth Conciliation & Arbitration Commission; Ex parte Australian Foremen Stevedores' Association [1958] HCA 59

ORDER Order absolute for a writ of prohibition directed to the learned Presidential Member of the Commission constituting the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission for the purposes of Div. 4 of Pt. III of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1957, and exercising or purporting to exercise authority under the provisions of s. 37 of the Stevedoring Industry Act 1956-1957, and prohibiting further proceedings upon the appeals or purported appeals of the respondents Buchan and others mentioned in Sched. A of the order nisi herein. No order as to costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 19 Dixon C.J., Fullagar, Taylor and Windeyer JJ.

This is the return of an order nisi for a writ of prohibition directed to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and to George Buchan and a number of other individuals who are members of the Waterside Workers' Federation. The prosecutors are the Australian Foremen Stevedores' Association, which is an organisation registered under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1956 Cth., and two individual members of that association. It is sought to prohibit the commission from entertaining what purport to be appeals by Buchan and the other individual respondents against suspensions by the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority of their registration as waterside workers in the port of Sydney under the Stevedoring Industry Act 1954-1956. The substantial ground of the application is that there was not at any material time any effective suspension against which an appeal could be brought by any of the individual respondents. There is a second ground taken by the order nisi, but that may be put on one side for the time being.