Decision
The court held that the Act was a valid one under the 'Melbourne Corporation' two-limbed principle. The majority spoke about the implications that could be drawn from the constitution. This came from the fact that the constitution contemplates the existence of the states. A law that fundamentally restricts their exercise of essential functions would go against the implication of the continued existence of the states.
Windeyer J notes that the increased entry of the Commonwealth in areas of concurrent federal and state power was foreseen early on, and the progressive increased fiscal power of the Commonwealth was indicative of this notion. The states in the process of Federation agreed willingly to become a single federal entity giving up some of their powers without gaining any new ones. The gradual centralisation of power in the Commonwealth grew from this process. This view is particularly persuasive in the environment after Engineers which swept away reserved State powers and the doctrine of intergovernmental immunities.
Read more about this topic: Victoria V Commonwealth (1971)
Famous quotes containing the word decision:
“Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,—that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses the available candidate,—who is invariably the devil,—and what right have his constituents to be surprised, because the devil does not behave like an angel of light? What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity,—who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?”
—Elias Canetti (b. 1905)
“I know my fate. One day my name will be tied to the memory of something monstrous—a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision invoked against everything that had previously been believed, demanded, sanctified. I am no man, I am dynamite!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)