29.
and economic changes in the place now occupied by the corporation, compared with the place it occupied when the Constitution was drafted and adopted, and when s 51(xx) was first considered in Huddart Parker.
4Huddart Parker
68 There are at least two reasons why it is important to examine what was said about s 51(xx) in Huddart Parker. First, the decision is important for what it reveals concerning assertions made about what the framers of the Constitution intended. Secondly, as noted earlier, the dissenting reasons of Isaacs J were the acknowledged source of one of the principal strands of the plaintiffs' arguments about the construction and effect of s 51(xx).
69 Huddart Parker was argued in October 1908 and March 1909, little more than five years after the Court first sat in October 1903. The membership of the Court had been increased in 1906, with the appointments of Isaacs and Higgins JJ, but all five members of the Court had been leading participants in the Constitutional Conventions. All are properly seen as among the framers of the Constitution although, of course, each played a different part in that work.
70 Huddart Parker concerned the validity of three provisions of the Australian Industries Preservation Act 1906 (Cth) – ss 5, 8 and 15B. Sections 5 and 8 were held to be invalid; s 15B was held to be valid. Sections 5 and 8 created offences. Section 5 prohibited "[a]ny foreign corporation, or trading or financial corporation formed within the Commonwealth" from making any contract or engaging in any combination:
"(a) with intent to restrain trade or commerce within the Commonwealth to the detriment of the public, or
(b) with intent to destroy or injure by means of unfair competition any Australian industry the preservation of which is advantageous to the Commonwealth".
Section 8 was directed to the same persons, and prohibited such corporations monopolizing, or attempting to monopolize, or combining or conspiring to monopolize, any part of the trade or commerce within the Commonwealth, with intent to control the supply or price of any goods or services. Section 15B[1] gave
- ↑ Introduced into the principal Act by the Australian Industries Preservation Act 1907 (Cth), s 4.
