Workchoices and judicial activism in striking it down? Wouldn't that have been judicial conservatism, not activism?
The Federal Government should never have gotten the power over Industrial Relations. It mostly hinged on the definition of 'constitutional corporation' along with the ignoring of the head of power (xxxv) which is an explicit grant of power that limits a broad reading of constitutional corporation. (more)
The High Court's ratification of Workchoices as constitutional was a bad decision for many reasons. One of the issues raised by Paul Keating was that it allows central control over a minimum wage through legislation alone. (more)
One of the areas where conservatism suffers internal conflict is in collectivism. Because conservatism cannot describe human progress with breaking its own internal logic it turns to economic liberalism while trying to maintain conservative collectivism in culture, society, politics and nationalism. Consequently it breaks the liberty of collectivism in the economy but tries to promote or enforce it everywhere else. (more)
The December 1st Senate Hansard is almost entirely consumed by the Independent Contractors Workplace Amendment. Andrew Murray has an interesting statement on the determination of what constitutes an independent contractor.
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The decision of NSW vs Commonwealth of Australia, WA vs Commonwealth etc is on the austlii website. There have been referendums to modify Section 51xx to give the federal government industrial powers but they failed. The High Court decision discounts these failures in their decision. (more)
When I read through the Workchoices legislation a while ago it was a brain dulling experience. The bill was long, boring and complex. It recently received a one hundred and eleven page amendment [PDF warning] to add to the Workplace Relations Amendment Act, the Workplace Relations Amendment Bill, the Explanatory Memorandum, the Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum and the Second Reading Speech. Human Resources just got job security in the same way accountants do with the complex tax system. (more)
