R v Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission; Ex parte Australian Workers' Union [1957] HCA 97

99 O.L.R.] OF AUSTRALIA.

(HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

THE QUEEN

AGAINST

THE COMMONWEALTH CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION

COMMISSION AND ANOTHER ; Ex PARTE AUSTRALIAN WORKERS' UNION.

Constitutional Law (Cth.)—Conciliation and Arbitration—Industrial Dispute—

Extending beyond limits of any one State—Dispute as to handling bagged wheat at Queensland port—Order made prescribing stacking of wheat to certain height to be done by waterside workers—Dispute at Tasmanian port betwen waterside workers and other workers as to area of work and operation of fork lift—Difficulty at West Australian ports as to where work of waterside workers should begin in loading cargoes of bulk wheat—Order made upon basis that three incidents con- stituted dispute extending beyond limits of one State—Each incident involving separate and unconnected industrial questions—No industrial dispute extending beyond limits of one State—Order made without jurisdiction—Prohibition—The Constitution (63 & 64 Vict. ©. 12), s. 51 (xxxv).

An order made by the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Com- mission on the application of the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia prescribed that the work of stacking bagged wheat discharged from ships at Pinkenba in the port of Brisbane in a shed of the Queensland State Wheat Board adjacent to the wharf should up to a certain height be done by members of the federation. But for the order the board would have employed members of the Australian Workers' Union, a registered organisation of employees, to do the work. 'The order was expressed to be binding upon the latter organisa- tion and its members and the board as well as the federation and its members. At the hearing of the application which resulted in the making of the order it appeared that there was a dispute at Bell Bay, Tasmania, between the federa- tion on the one hand and the Federated Engine-drivers' and Firemen's Associa- tion, the Transport Workers' Union and the Australian Aluminium Commis- sion relating to the point at which cargo (not wheat) discharged from a ship should be transferred from members of the federation to other workers and in