Re Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance; Ex parte Attorney-General (Qld)

High Court of Australia Gaudron J Re Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance; Ex parte Attorney-General (Qld)

ORDER Order accordingly Gaudron J.

The immediate question which arises in this case is whether this matter should be dealt with in this Court as was required prior to the recent Industrial Relations Reform Act 1993 Cth, or should be remitted to the Industrial Relations Court which was established by that legislation.

The case concerns s 128(1)(c) of the Industrial Relations Act 1988, pursuant to which a Full Bench of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission may, in certain circumstances, make an order restraining a State industrial authority from dealing with an industrial dispute or matter.

The question that arises is primarily one of construction. Although different views were taken or were expressed on that issue when the predecessor of s 128 was considered by this Court in R v Moore; Ex parte NSW Public Service Professional Officers' Association (1984) 154 CLR 1, the question of construction is pre-eminently one that is suitable for the consideration of the Industrial Relations Court.

It is said that there is a constitutional issue raised by the application but it is an issue which arises only in the context of the construction of s 128 and may only arise if one construction rather than another is favoured. The precise constitutional question is really no more than a question of the outer limits of s 51(xxxv) of the Constitution or, perhaps, of the application of implied incidental powers in that context. That, too, is a question which, in my view, can properly be determined by the Industrial Relations Court subject to the appellate safeguards that are provided in the Industrial Relations Reform Act 1993.

There will then be an order remitting the matter to the Industrial Relations Court on the usual terms as to the steps taken.