R v McKenzie; Ex parte Actors and Announcers Equity Association of Australia [1982] HCA 6

High Court of Australia Gibbs C.J. Mason, Murphy, Aickin and Wilson JJ. R v McKenzie; Ex parte Actors and Announcers Equity Association of Australia [1982] HCA 6

ORDER Application for writ of prohibition or certiorari refused.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

1982, Feb. 12 Gibbs C.J.

Before the Court is an application for an order for a writ directed to the respondents, three members of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, the Mannequins and Models Guild of Australia ("the Guild") and the Victorian Chamber of Manufactures, prohibiting them from proceeding in matters before the Commission in which the Guild seeks a variation of four awards by inserting therein provisions dealing with "Modelling (Television or Movie Appearances)". Alternatively, an order for a writ of certiorari is sought. The prosecutor, Actors and Announcers Equity Association of Australia ("Actors and Announcers Equity"), seeks the orders on the ground that the Guild is not able to enrol as members any of the persons covered by the applications filed by the Guild and is therefore, in point of law, incapable of creating an industrial dispute and has not created an industrial dispute, in respect of such persons. The question for decision is whether models and mannequins engaged in television or movie appearances are eligible to be members of the Guild. If not, that union will have no power to represent them in an industrial dispute and the Commission will have no jurisdiction to hear the claims for the variation of the awards: see Reg. v. Aird; Ex parte Australian Workers' Union [1] , and cases there cited.

1. (1973) 129 C.L.R. 654, at p. 666.

The rule of the Guild which deals with eligibility for membership is Rule 3, which reads as follows: