Abstract
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission is under a statutorily imposed duty to act in afair manner, but with minimum resort to technical legal form. In addition, it is required to act promptly and effectively to prevent and settle industrial disputes. Some interesting questions arise concerning the relationship between this duty to act fairly and the common law principles of natural justice. This review of the subject area concludes that the two central natural justice principles (the right to a hearing and the rule against bias) are applied in a flexible manner in commission proceedings. The federal tribunal is often required to balance the strict application of these principles against a series of other factors. These might include, for example, matters like the expense, inevitable delay and procedural difficulties associated with a slavish adherence to the rules of natural justice.
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