In Hargreaves v Tiggemann [2012] WASCA 92 the appellant was suspended from holding office as a Council member for a period of six months. The appellant alleged, that as the 1988 referendum for approval of legislation to amend the Commonwealth Constitution to include provisions for local government was rejected, the Parliament of Western Australia had no power to enact legislation dealing with local governments, that to the extent that s 52 or s 53 of the Constitution Act 1889 (WA) purported to authorise the Parliament of Western Australia to enact legislation dealing with local governments, they were invalid under s 109 of the Commonwealth Constitution by virtue of their inconsistency with Commonwealth law, and that the Tribunal erred in law in failing to hold that it lacked jurisdiction on the basis that the Local Government Act, and the State Administrative Tribunal Act, were invalid on the basis that they infringed s 73(2) of the Constitution Act 1889 (WA). The court refused leave to appeal and dismissed the appeal.
“Each of the alleged grounds was entirely untenable. The first two lacked any merit essentially for the reasons given by this court in Glew v The Shire of Greenough [2006] WASCA 260.”
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