Declaring that the commonwealth had the power to exclude state laws, lawyers for the Howard Government told the High Court yesterday that Canberra could override the states' laws without having to duplicate their laws in detail.
Barrister Henry Burmester, representing the federal Government, said he did not mean that the commonwealth could "legislate at large".
But the commonwealth's power to legislate on employment contracts using the corporations power of the constitution meant that Canberra could dominate in this area, he said.
Mr Burmester was defending the Government's hostile takeover of state industrial relations laws in the High Court on the final hearing day of a challenge by state Labor governments and unions.
Judges Ian Callinan and Michael Kirby have raised a series of questions during the six-day hearing about how the commonwealth's seizure of state laws using the corporations power might be used to considerably widen its role in areas such as health, education and transport.
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