Suchergebnisse

This article contains a critical discussion of Combet v The Commonwealth (2005) and the reasons given by the High Court in that case, for dismissing the legal challenge to the present government's political advertising campaign in support of its Workchoice legislation which was conducted before the publication or enactment of that legislation. It also deals with the implications of the case for the declining significance in modern times of the parliamentary appropriation process as a means of ensuring the accountability of governments for the expenditure of taxpayers' funds. The article concludes with a discussion of the possibility of future parliaments (regardless of their political complexion) reasserting their control over the appropriation process and restricting the use of government advertising for political purposes.

An Act passed by a Parliament may fail to apply to a given set of circumstances for one of two reasons, neither of which is mutually exclusive of the other. The first of those reasons is that the Act falls outside the legislative competence of the Parliament, in which case it is usually said that the Act is unconstitutional or legally invalid. The second is that the Act does not attempt to apply even though the Parliament possessed the competence to make it apply to the same circumstances. The process by which it is determined that the Act does not apply for that reason is one of statutory construction or interpretation. It is possible to describe such an Act as merely non-applicable or non-operative. There will be situations where both reasons may coincide, especially if there is created a statutory presumption in favour of giving an Act a construction, which will ensure its validity. But only the first of the two reasons mentioned above involves a challenge to the supremacy of the Parliament concerned.

Sir Anthony Mason has been a prominent public figure for over 40 years in Australia. He was Commonwealth Solicitor-General, a Member of the NSW Court of Appeal, a Justice and Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. The Mason Papers discusses the role of the judge and judicial independence in a modern Western democracy