Australia: High Court clears way for expansion of federal power

By a 5 to 2 majority, the judges ruled that Canberra could use the “corporations” power of the Constitution to sweep aside state and territory legislation over entire areas of economic and social life, undermining the federal-state division of powers enshrined in the Constitution at Federation in 1901. Led by Chief Justice Murray Gleeson, the majority also approved sweeping regulation-making powers that permit the federal cabinet to govern with minimal parliamentary scrutiny.

As is invariably the case with judicial decisions, the law has been interpreted—and in this instance considerably re-interpreted—to meet definite socio-economic requirements. In essence, the majority decision expresses the interests of the most powerful sections of the corporate elite, who are demanding the re-casting of federalism in line with the dictates of global competition, and a new wave of free-market “reform”—privatisation, de-regulation, outsourcing and asset-stripping—at the expense of the jobs, living standards and working conditions of ordinary people.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/high-d20.shtml