Australian Federation of Construction Contractors v Australian Building Construction Employees' and Builders Labourers' Federation

The case of Australian Federation of Construction Contractors v Australian Building Construction Employees' and Builders Labourers' Federation involved an application for the deregistration of the respondent union. The applicants, including the Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, sought to deregister the union under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904. The Minister subsequently sought leave to discontinue the proceedings against the union. The court had to decide whether to accept the union's undertaking to the court and whether to grant the Minister leave to discontinue the proceedings. The court found the union's undertaking to be uncertain and unenforceable, and thus declined to accept it as an undertaking to the court. However, the court granted the Minister leave to discontinue the proceedings, leaving the question of costs arising from the grant of leave to be determined later. The court noted that the application for deregistration involved public policy considerations and that the Minister, representing the public interest, should be allowed to act as he wished. The court also left open the question of whether considerations of public policy would mitigate against granting leave to discontinue in the case of an applicant other than the Minister. The proceedings were ultimately discontinued by consent of all parties.