Judges: Howard's IR power grab "suspicious"

The Federal Government was asking the High Court to grant it industrial relations powers it had been refused in four referendums, a judge said yesterday.

The High Court questioned the extent of the Government's industrial relations power grab as the Commonwealth argued for the second day that its workplace laws should be upheld.

Justice Ian Callinan said the Commonwealth had failed four times between 1911 and 1946 to expand its industrial relations powers through referendums.

He indicated he felt uncomfortable being asked to grant the Commonwealth powers that Australians had refused on those occasions. "What you are really saying is it is very hard to get a change, therefore, ask the court to do it," he said.

Justice Michael Kirby said he was "a little suspicious" of the Government's motives because it did not refer to its use of the corporations power in the title or objectives of the legislation.

"What is at least a source of puzzlement and anxiety is that in the list of objectives of the act, nowhere is there any suggestion that one of the objects of the Parliament was to make a new law for employment in corporations and that makes you then start to wonder is that really the object of the act or is it, as one looks at it, simply a refurbished industrial employment act with a new label thrown in?" he said.

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