Re McJannet; Ex parte Australian Workers' Union of Employees (Qld) [1997] HCA 40

High Court of Australia Brennan CJ McHugh and Gummow JJ Re McJannet; Ex parte Australian Workers' Union of Employees (Qld) (FC 97/037) [1997] HCA 40

ORDER

1. The respondent, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, to pay the prosecutors' costs of and incidental to the application for prohibition.

2. The respondent, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, to pay the prosecutors' costs of the argument on costs in this Court.

Cur adv vult

The Court delivered the following written judgment:—

14 August 1997 Brennan CJ, McHugh and Gummow JJ

The Australian Workers' Union of Employees, Queensland, obtained in this Court [8] an order absolute directed to Judges of the Federal Court prohibiting them from acting upon, giving effect to, proceeding further upon or enforcing the decision of those Judges made on 4 May 1994 in the Industrial Division of the Federal Court of Australia, Victoria District Registry. The respondents to the order nisi, other than the Judges of the Federal Court, were the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, an industrial organisation registered under the Industrial Relations Act 1988 Cth [1] (the Act) and two officers of that organisation.

1. Re McJannet; Ex parte Minister for Employment, Training and Industrial Relations (Q) (1995) 184 CLR 620. 2. The Industrial Relations Act 1988 Cth has been renamed the Workplace Relations Act 1996 Cth and that Act and others have been amended in other respects by the Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Act 1996 Cth. Further amendments were introduced by the Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Act (No 2) 1996 Cth. This judgment refers in the present tense to the statutory position as it stood at the relevant time.

The proceeding before the Federal Court was held to be outside the jurisdiction of the Federal Court and, in particular, outside the scope of that Court's jurisdiction arising either under s 253X or s 253ZC of the Act. There was no proceeding in the Federal Court which fell within the parameters marked out by those sections. This Court held that the Federal Court had wrongly assumed jurisdiction in circumstances where none existed. Accordingly, the order absolute for prohibition was made. When that order was made the parties were given liberty to apply in writing within fourteen days for an order as to the costs of the proceedings in the Federal Court and in this Court. After hearing counsel for the prosecutors and the respondent industrial organisation, the Court has ordered that the time for lodging the submission be extended.