Re State Public Services Federation; Ex parte The Attorney-General for the State of Western Australia; Re The State Public Services Federation; Ex parte The Attorney-General for the State of Queensland

The applicants, the Attorneys-General for Western Australia and Queensland, sought writs of prohibition and certiorari against the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and certain of its members. The dispute concerned a log of claims filed by the State Public Services Federation against employers in the public sectors of Western Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania. The log of claims sought a minimum wage of $5,000 and a minimum allowance of $2,500 per employee per week, which the applicants argued amounted to approximately $390,000 per year for every employee.

The legal issues before the High Court were whether the Australian Industrial Relations Commission had jurisdiction to hear and determine the dispute as found. Specifically, the court was required to consider whether the dispute was genuine and whether it possessed the necessary interstate character to fall within the Commission's purview. The applicants contended that the magnitude of the claims rendered them not genuine and that the dispute lacked the interstate element required for federal jurisdiction.

The court was asked to determine if the claims were so extravagant as to indicate a lack of genuine dispute, and if the dispute, as framed, extended beyond the limits of any one State. The applicants argued that the claims were not a genuine attempt to resolve a dispute but rather a device to bring the matter before the Commission. The significance of the claims' size was central to the question of genuineness and the interstate nature of the dispute.