Fish v Solution 6 Holdings Limited

Industrial law (NSW) – Industrial Relations Commission - Jurisdiction - Power given to the Commission by s 106(1) of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW) to declare wholly or partly void, or to vary, any contract whereby a person performs work in any industry if the contract is an unfair contract - Share purchase agreement which stipulated that the first appellant's entering an employment contract with a related company of the purchaser was a condition precedent to completion of the share purchase - Application to Commission for orders declaring share purchase agreement unfair, harsh and unconscionable, and contrary to the public interest, and orders varying the agreement - Whether the share purchase agreement was a "contract whereby a person performs work in any industry" - Whether share purchase agreement formed part of the arrangement between the parties - Relevance of changing nature of employment relationships - Relevance of availability of other remedies.

Industrial law (NSW) – Industrial Relations Commission - Writ of prohibition sought to restrain the Commission from exercising jurisdiction - Entitlement of the Commission to determine its own jurisdiction in first instance - Absence of objection to jurisdiction raised before Commission - Whether trial held by Commission in Court Session.

Prerogative writs – Prohibition - Excess of jurisdiction - Industrial Relations Commission (NSW) - Whether writ lies in the circumstances - Commission in Court Session a superior court of record of limited jurisdiction equivalent in status to the Supreme Court - Whether application for prohibition premature - Likelihood or danger of order being made in excess of jurisdiction - Relevance of privative provision purporting to exclude issue of writ - Relevance of failure of respondents to make jurisdictional objection before the Commission - Relevance of specialist subject-matter of disputes before the Commission.

Statutes – Construction - Interpretation - Remedial statute - Purposive approach to construction - Objects of statute.

Statutes – Privative clause - Industrial Relations Commission (NSW) - Whether privative provision applicable - Relevance of exclusion of the right to appeal to the Supreme Court and hence to the High Court.

Statutes – Construction - Interpretation - Composite phrase incorporating technical words - Extrinsic matters - Legislative history - Minister's second reading speech - Relevance of Parliament's purpose of successive re-enactment in increasingly ample terms - Relevance of interpretation afforded to equivalent provisions in other jurisdictions.

Words and phrases – "any contract whereby a person performs work in any industry", "any related condition or collateral arrangement", "arrangement", "decision or purported decision", "industry".

Constitution – s 79.

Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW) – ss 105-109A, 152, 179, 187-188.

Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW) – s 48.