SEVENTH DAY OF HEARING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 71, Issue 36, 22 November 1950, Page 5

SEVENTH DAY OF HEARING

Validity of Bill Challenged (Rec. 11.15) SYDNEY, This Day. To-day is the seventh day of the hearing of the challenge by the Australian Communist Party and 10 unions to the validity of the Communist Party Dissolution Act, which was given Royal assent on October 20.

( In the High Court the Chief Justice Sir John Latham, said the court would not be sitting next Wednesday and “it was perhaps not expected but hoped that the case would finish this week.” For the past three days Dr. H. V. Evatt, K.C., for the Waterside Workers’ Federation and the Ironworkers’ Association, has been addressing the court. He has submitted that the Act strikes at the heart of the Constitution, that it would destroy he powers tion, that it would destroy the powers of States, and that newspaper editors to prohibit criticism. Following a submission by Dr. Evatt that the Act was invalid because it was based merely on the opinion of the executive Government and not on facts within judicial knowledge, the Chief Justice said: “This case raises a very important issue of whether the court or Parliament‘should determine the relevant facts leading to the validity of Commonwealth legislation. One of the most important aspects of this case is how far the opinion of the executive Government is relevant to the issues raised.”