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WAPolitics and LawQuick questions
Unit 3: Political and Legal Power
Quick questions on The Rule of Law and Constitutionalism: WACE Year 12 Politics and Law
1short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the Communist Party Case (1951)?Show answer
The single best illustration is the Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth (1951). The Menzies government passed the Communist Party Dissolution Act 1950, which declared the party unlawful and allowed the executive to ban organisations and disqualify individuals largely on its own say-so. The High Court struck the Act down. It held the Commonwealth could not simply recite that something was a threat to defence in order to give itself power; the existence of constitutional power is a question for the courts, not a matter the Parliament can declare into being.
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