Judge Startles Club By Views On ‘Dictators?
Recd. 2 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day
Judge Foster, one of the three Arbitration Court Judges, startled members of the Constitutional Club when he addressed them on “Dictatorship in Australia.”
He said: “The dictatorship I mean is myself, and it is exercised in the Arbitration Court.”’
Judge Foster said the court as it had emerged from a long evolution could, by its decisions, create rights and obligations which transcended the la.ws exacted by the State Legislatures. No Government in Australia could by its decisions enact laws for peace, order and good government in industry as could the New Zealand Government, but the decisions of the Arbitration Court — though arrived at by these “dictators” who were beyond the control of the people, were elected for life and could flout the will of the people and Parliament altogether—had the effect of law and must be enforced as such.
Judge Foster said he proposed to offer a, warning of the dangers he saw in the position which had been developing in recent years, because of the legal iriterpretation of the court’s powers by the High Court and others.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 14 October 1947, Page 5
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191Judge Startles Club By Views On ‘Dictators? Greymouth Evening Star, 14 October 1947, Page 5
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