Hansard (H.R.), June 5, 1970, pp. 3079-80. In practice, the actions of the Government often suggest that, for itself, it prefers arbitration to negotiation or conciliation. When asked whether the Government supported the equal pay principles established by the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, the Minister for Labour and National Service gave the considered reply: "The Government has consistently taken the view that the determination of the principles governing the application of equal pay is a matter for the appropriate industrial tribunal, which in the Federal jurisdiction is the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission" (Hansard (H.R.), June, 1970, p. 2874). This did not represent any advance from the position last year when the Prime Minister in reply to a question when the Arbitration Commission's decision on equal pay, given three months before that, would be implemented in the Commonwealth Service, said: "The introduction of equal pay is a matter for the Public Service Board, which, according to information given to me, is negotiating, is in discussion or is initiating action along those lines. In saying 'initiating action', I am not indicating that it has yet done anything, but it is directing its attention to the methods of doing it" (Hansard (H.R.), September 24, 1969, p. 1813).
2.
Extensive details of penal proceedings under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act have been given in answers to parliamentary questions: see Hansard (H.R.), February 25, 1969, pp. 72, 81, 91, and September 24, 1969, pp. 1918, 1923.
3.
See Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 12 (1970), p. 85.
4.
Some such cases are discussed in C.P. Mills, ''The Practice of the Commonwealth Industrial Court in Strike Cases'', Australian Lawyer, vol. 7 (1968), p. 137.
5.
(1966) 113 C.A.R. 40.
6.
R. v. Gough; Ex parte Meat & Allied Trades Federation of Australia (1969), 44 A.L.J.R. 48.
7.
R. v. Portus; Ex parte Thiess Bros. Pty. Ltd. (1969), 43 A.L.J.R. 204.
8.
As this note was being written, the New South Wales Government announced that it has under consideration new anti-littering legislation, providing, among others, a maximum penalty of $300 for smashing a bottle in a public place!
9.
But this was scarcely an original idea. Compare the Industrial Arbitration Act 1940 (N.S.W.), s.101, enacted in 1964, and the formula evolved by the Arbitration Commission for the new bans clause for the Metal Trades Award on September 3, 1969, noted in Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 12 (1970), pp. 84-5.
10.
See Re Iron Ore (Production and Processing) Award (December 19, 1968, and February 13, 1969), 1969 A.I.L.R. Reps. 38 and 72; 24 I.I.B. 324.
11.
(8 August 1969) 1969 A.I.L.R. Rep. 320; 24 I.I.B. 1459.
12.
Electrical Trades Union v. Goldsworthy Mining Pty. Ltd. (November 21, 1969), 1969 A.I.L.R. Rep. 560.
13.
A.W.U. v. Western Mining Corporation (October 8, 1969), 49 W.A.I.G. 869; 1969 A.I.L.R. Rep. 457; 24 I.I.B. 1941.
14.
General Motors-Holden Case (1966), 1966 A.I.L.R. Rep. 323.
There had been similar circumstances in the Blue Asbestos Case (see ref. 17 above) and the Court had confined itself to a consideration of the position of the employer company only. It had refused to take account of the fact that that company was a fully owned subsidiary of C.S.R. Co. Ltd., a highly profitable enterprise, at least in the absence of evidence that the losses of the subsidiary company were the result of selling its product below cost to the parent company.
20.
The steel companies fight a dogged battle on this point. Their refusal to discuss their bonus scheme with the unions, and the contention that such schemes are no concern of the arbitration tribunals, received little support and were denounced by the Industrial Commission of N.S.W. when this attitude led to serious industrial unrest in that State three years ago: see B.H.P. v. Federated Ironworkers Association, 1967 A.R. 229; 1967 A.I.L.R. Rep. 244; Re Federated Ironworkers Association, 1967 A.I.L.R. Rep. 159.
21.
See the later decisions of April 8, 1970, 1970 A.I.L.R. Rep. 141; July 8, 1970, 1970 A.I.L.R. Rep. 309; July 29, 1970, 1970 A.I.L.R. Rep. 310.
