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Ex parte H.V. McKay, commonly referred to as the Harvester case, is a landmark Australian labour law decision of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. The case arose under the Excise Tariff Act 1906 which imposed an excise duty on goods manufactured in Australia, £6 in the case of a stripper harvester, however if a manufacturer paid "fair and reasonable" wages to its employees, it was excused from paying the excise duty. The Court therefore had to consider what was a "fair and reasonable" wage for the purpose of the act. H.B. Higgins declared that "fair and reasonable" wages for an unskilled male worker required a living wage that was sufficient for "a human being in a civilised community" to support a wife and three children in "frugal comfort", while a skilled worker should receive an additional margin for their skills, regardless of the employer's capacity to pay. While the High Court of Australia in 1908 held that the Excise Tariff Act 1906 was invalid in R v Barger, the judgment nevertheless continued to be the basis for the minimum wage system that extended to half of the Australian workforce in less than 20 years. The decision was credited as the foundation for the national minimum wage included in the Fair Work Act 2009. As well as national ramifications, the decision was of international significance. Background In 1906 the second Deakin government was in power, with support from the Labor party. Prime Minister Deakin's "New Protection" policy was to provide tariff protection to employers in exchange for "fair and reasonable" wages for employees. In implementing this policy, the Commonwealth government introduced two bills, that would become the Customs Tariff Act 1906, and the Excise Tariff Act 1906, Higgins was a member of the Australian Parliament and spoke in support of the bills that imposed custom and excise duties that were payable on certain agricultural machinery, including stripper harvesters. The Excise Tariff Act 1906 contained a proviso that the excise would not be payable if the manufacturer paid "fair and reasonable" wages as follows: Provided that this Act shall not apply to goods manufactured by any person in any part of the Commonwealth under conditions as to remuneration of labour which— are declared by resolution of both Houses of Parliament to be fair and reasonable; or are in accordance with an industrial award under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904,; or are in accordance with the terms of an industrial agreement filed under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904; or are, on an application made for the purpose to the President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, declared to be fair and reasonable by him or by a Judge of the Supreme Court of a State or any person or persons who compose a State Industrial Authority to whom he may refer the matter. H. B. Higgins H. B. Higgins had been a member of the Parliament of Victoria and in 1896 supported the trial introduction of a minimum wage. He successfully argued at the 1897-1898 conventions that the constitution should contain a guarantee of religious freedom, and also a provision giving the federal government the power to make laws relating to the conciliation and arbitration of industrial disputes. The industrial disputes proposal was initially unsuccessful, however Higgins was undeterred and succeeded in 1898. Despite these successes, Higgins J had opposed the draft constitution produced by the convention as too conservative, and campaigned unsuccessfully to have it defeated at the 1899 Australian constitutional referendum.After the federation of Australia, Higgins was a member of the Australian Parliament as a member of the Protectionist Party, but was in broad agreement with the Labor party's social reforms. When the Labor Party sought to amend the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill to cover state railway employees, Higgins was one of the radicals who supported the amendments and helped bring down Deakin's government. When Labor formed a minority government in 1904, Higgins became Attorney-General in the Labor ministry, because Labor had no suitably qualified lawyer in Parliament.In October 1906 Higgins was appointed to the High Court and the following year O'Connor J resigned as President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration and was replaced by Higgins J. Hugh Victor McKay Hugh Victor McKay was one of Australia's largest employers, manufacturing agricultural machinery, most notably the Sunshine Harvester. McKay had a reputation for discouraging union membership, and had previously closed his factory at Ballarat and moved to the Sunshine Harvester Works to avoid paying workers under the determination of a wages board. Under the Excise Tariff Act 1906, he was required to pay an excise tax unless he paid wages that were fair and reasonable. McKay applied to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration for a declaration that the wages paid by him were fair and reasonable. The hearing in the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration McKay's was one of 112 applications by manufacturers of agricultural machinery in Victoria and his application was selected as a test case because the factory was one of the largest, and had the greatest number and variety of employees and because his application was strongly opposed by various unions. Other applicants were told that the Court, in dealing with their application, would be limited to the information obtained in McKay's hearing unless there was some exceptional circumstances. Several large manufacturers were represented in the hearing, but did not call any evidence. The hearing took place in Melbourne over 20 days between 7 October 1907 to 1 November 1907. The evidence and arguments McKay's case was that fair and reasonable wages should be calculated according to the worth of each individual to the business and led evidence from eight witnesses, including from the factory superintendent, McKay's brother George. George McKay's evidence was that the workers received fair and reasonable wages that took into account their level of skill, experience, age, qualifications, complexity of work, equipment used, and level of danger. The employees at the Sunshine Harvester factory required less skill, judgement and discretion because of mechanisation which had simplified and standardised the work.The unions, represented by Duffy and Arthur, led evidence from employees of McKay's factory and also their wives, union officials and others dealing with everything from the conditions at the factory and elsewhere to the cost of living, including the "reasonable enjoyments that a man enjoys in that state of life". Higgins J gave his judgment on 8 November 1907. The decision Higgins J held that for McKay to pay a fair and reasonable wage meant paying his employees a wages that met "the normal needs of an average employee, regarded as a human being in a civili.... Discover the Rs Hamilton Fair Work Australia popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rs Hamilton Fair Work Australia books.