Australian Education Union v Lawler

(2008) 169 FCR 317; [2008] FCAFC 135

Full Court of the Federal Court

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Industrial Law (Cth)
2. › Registration of industrial associations
3. › Entitlement to registration
4. › Association of employees
5. › Whether association permitting retired members to remain constituted an 'association of employees'
6. › Whether s 18(1)(b) exhaustively identified permissible membership
7. › Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth), Schedule 1B, ss 18(1)(b), 166(2)
1. Administrative Law
2. › Jurisdictional fact
3. › Statutory tribunal empowered to register industrial association
4. › Whether requirement that applicant be 'association of employees' was a jurisdictional fact
5. › Whether tribunal required to determine fact correctly as precondition to jurisdiction
1. Administrative Law
2. › Judicial review
3. › Error of law
4. › Statutory tribunal taking 'pragmatic approach' to resolution of technical questions
5. › Whether tribunal misapprehended nature of its task
6. › Whether error corrected by internal appeal
1. Practice and Procedure
2. › Abuse of process
3. › Anshun estoppel
4. › Separate administrative decisions dealing with same subject matter
5. › Whether point available but not taken on first occasion could be taken on second occasion
6. › Port of Melbourne Authority v Anshun Pty Ltd (1981) 147 CLR 589

Quick Take

Associations seeking registration as organisations of employees under industrial legislation must ensure their rules do not permit persons who have permanently ceased to be employees to remain as members, as this will disqualify the association from registration.