In 1941 the grave deterioration of the industrial situation on the waterfront became a crucial national concern. The Federal Government was requested to intervene to resolve the problem which had existed since at least 1917 when waterfront labour spearheaded the general strike. The Federal Government had previously been involved in waterside matters. In 1914 Mr. Justice Higgins handed down the first Commonwealth Award for waterside workers; in 1928 after the waterfront strike the Government introduced a system, under the Transport Workers Act of 1928, for the licensing of labour prepared to work on wharves; while in 1934 the Transport Workers Act was amended to provide for the establishment of Waterside Employment Committees. In 1939 a ministerial enquiry was conducted into waterside labour, two reports being presented to the Attorney General, one by Senator A N MacDonald, the other by the Minister for Trade and Customs, the Hon J N Lawson.

In response to the wartime call for intervention, the Prime
Minister convened a conference to discuss the situation. A special committee, comprising Justice Sir Owen Dixon, of the High Court of Australia, Sir Thomas Gordon, director of Shipping, and Mr J Healy, General Secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia, was appointed to urgently determine what steps should be taken to cope with the situation.

On 6 March 1942, two days after its appointment, the Committee presented its report to the Government. The Committee recommended that the Government establish a Board to administer and supervise waterfront labour. It advised that some of the industrial functions then vested in the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration be transferred to the new agency. It urged that the Chairman of the new agency be the Chief Judge of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, or his designate. Overseas and interstate shipowners and organized labour were to be represented on the new agency, as was the Commonwealth. (1)

The Government accepted the Committee's submission and on 14 April 1942 the first meeting of the Stevedoring Industry Commission I was held in Melbourne, chaired by His Honour Chief Judge Piper of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.

The Commission consisted of a Chairman and seven other members. The following groups had one representative each on the Commission: overseas shipowners, Australian shipowners and employers engaged in stevedoring operations. One member was an officer of the Commonwealth and three members represented the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia. (2)

The Commission's primary concern was to effect and sustain an immediate improvement in the turn-round of all ships in Australian ports by stabilizing the Industry, assessing labour needs,
identifying available labour and deploying that labour to assist the war effort. (3) The stipulated functions of the Commission were: 

- to co-ordinate the use of labour in stevedoring operations
- to control and regulate waterside work and stevedoring operations
- to ensure that adequate provisions were made for the protection of
  waterside workers against injury, and wharves against damage, from
  or in connection with attack by an enemy with the objective of
  expediting the loading and unloading of ships. (4)

Under the regulations establishing the Commission fourteen specific powers were granted to it to ensure the fulfilment of its functions. Orders could be made:

- controlling or regulating the engagement of waterside workers
- required registered waterside workers to offer for engagement
- prohibiting registered waterside workers from refusing engagements
  for work as waterside workers
- establishing rosters of waterside workers for such work
- fixing the conditions of work to apply to waterside workers
- prohibiting or varying practices calculated to unduly retard the
  loading or unloading of ships
- providing for the transfer of waterside workers from any employment
  to other employment
- providing for the engagement by the Commission of waterside workers
  and the employment in stevedoring operations of the workers so
  engaged
- prescribing, for waterside workers so engaged, fixed or minimum
  weekly or other periodical rates of pay, additional rates of pay
  for overtime and increases, and other inducements to expedite work
- providing for the transfer of the workers, temporarily or
  indefinitely
- making the necessary provisions connected with these transfers for
  travelling, accommodation and sustenance of the workers
- providing for the voluntary registration and organization of
  persons prepared to undertake waterside work when insufficient
  registered waterside workers are available (that is the
  Waterside Workers Reserve)
- maintaining registers of waterside workers
- providing for the control, erection or installation of plant or
  equipment used for the loading and unloading of ships. (5)

Within two years the Commission had fixed labour quotas at ports, identified available labour, established reserve pools of labour, enforced attendance, introduced rosters, devised procedures for dealing with urgent cases, considered welfare problems, and initiated limited facilities and meal services in some ports.

In order to facilitate its work at the port level the Commission was empowered to advise the Minister on the desirability of establishing a Waterside Employment Committee at any port. (6) These committees consisted of seven people (three representing employers, three representing the Waterside Workers' Federation and one nominated by the Commission to chair the Committee)7, and had such powers and
functions, in relation to their ports, as the Commission chose to assign them. (8)

On 2 June 1944 the National Security (Stevedoring Industry) Regulations of April were repealed and the National Security (Shipping Co-ordination) Regulations came into operation. Although the statutory basis of the Commission was altered neither the compositon nor the powers of the Commission were modified. (9)

Sir Owen Dixon, when outlining the 1942 Committee's concept for the agency, had viewed it as being a temporary war measure. Therefore on 19 October 1945, the Acting Attorney General, Mr J A Beasley, appointed His Honour A W Foster, a judge of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, to enquire into and recommend on the provisions to be made for the stevedoring industry.

Judge Foster's report and recommendations were presented to the Attorney General on 22 February 1946. Foster made sixteen
recommendations which in essence called on the Government to establish a permanent body with a basis in legislation to be known as the Stevedoring Industry Commission. The Commission was to consist of a chairman and four members to be representative of employers and employees. Judge Foster also detailed a minima of thirteen powers that this new body should have. (10)

The Government accepted Judge Foster's recommendations. However, it was not until March 1947 that the necessary legislation was passed and it was not until December of that year that it was enacted to realize the recommendations. The Stevodoring Industry Act of 1947 terminated the wartime Commission and established in its place the Stevedoring Industry Commission [II]. 

Chairmen:

Apr 1942 - Jun 1944: His Honour Chief Judge Piper
Jun 1944 - Dec 1947: Mr D V Morrison

References:

1.  Committee of Inquiry into the Stevedoring Industry, Report of the
    Committee of Inquiry (Canberra, 1957), Appendix II-1, pp 164-165.
2.  Commonwealth of Australia Statutory Rule Number 159 of 1942,
    National Security (Stevedoring Industry) Regulations 1942,
    Regulation 7.
3.  Ibid., Regulation 3.
4.  Ibid., Regulation 10.
5.  Ibid., Regulation 11.
6.  Ibid., Regulation 24 (1).
7.  Ibid., Regulation 24 (2).
8.  Ibid., Regulation 25.
9.  Commonwealth of Australia Statutory Rule Number 86 of 1944,
    National Security (Shipping Co-ordination) Regulations 1944
10. Judge A.W. Foster, Inquiry and Report on Stevedoring Industry
    Control (Canberra, 1946), pp 36-38.
Historical agency address
1942-1943: Royal Bank Chambers, Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 1943-1947: Hosking House, Hosking Place (also known as Hosking
           Street), Sydney
Legislation administered
Creation: Commonwealth of Australia Statutory Rules Number 159 of 1942, National Security (Stevedoring Industry) Regulations, 1942 Abolition: Commonwealth of Australia Act Number 2 of 1947, Stevedoring Industry Act, 1947

Agency controlled unregistered

Waterside Employment Committee, Port Adelaide, South Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Albany, Western Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Port Augusta, South Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Bowen, Queensland
Waterside Employment Committee, Brisbane, Queensland
Waterside Employment Committee, Bunbury, Western Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Burnie, Tasmania
Waterside Employment Committee, Cairns, Queensland
Waterside Employment Committee, Darwin, Northern Territory
Waterside Employment Committee, Devonport, Tasmania
Waterside Employment Committee, Fremantle, Western Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Geelong, Victoria
Waterside Employment Committee, Geraldton, Western Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Hobart, Tasmania
Waterside Employment Committee, Port Kembla, New South Wales
Waterside Employment Committee, Launceston, Tasmania
Waterside Employment Committee, Port Lincoln, South Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Mackay, Queensland
Waterside Employment Committee, Melbourne, Victoria
Waterside Employment Committee, Newcastle, New South Wales
Waterside Employment Committee, Port Pirie, South Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Rockhampton, Queensland
Waterside Employment Committee, Sydney, New South Wales
Waterside Employment Committee, Thevenard, South Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Townsville, Queensland
Waterside Employment Committee, Wallaroo, South Australia
Waterside Employment Committee, Whyalla, South Australia

Previous agency unregistered

Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, 1904-1946 [Arbitral Function]