Decided 21 December 1949 Prior action(s) none End date December 21, 1949 | Citation(s) (1949) 80 CLR 229 Subsequent action(s) none Ruling court High Court of Australia | |
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Full case name Parton v Milk Board (Vic) Judge(s) sitting Latham CJ, Rich, Dixon, McTiernan and Williams JJ People also search for Dennis Hotels Pty Ltd v Victoria | ||
Parton v Milk Board (Vic) (1949) 80 CLR 229 is a High Court of Australia case that dealt with the meaning of excise in relation to section 90 of the Australian Constitution.
In this case, the tax was calculated as a fixed amount per gallon of milk, and imposed on retailers, instead of at the production phase; this was held to be invalid as imposing a duty of excise. This heralded in the broad approach to section 92 - where a "tax upon a commodity at any point in the course of distribution before it reaches the consumer produces the same effect as a tax upon its manufacture or production" (per Dixon J). Rich and Williams JJ agreed with Dixon J, stating that a tax at a later stage in the handling of a good is in effect a tax on the production or manufacture of the good.
Latham CJ dissented, using Peterswald v Bartley, and McTiernan J felt that it should be employed in a narrower sense, to make it fit within what he perceived to be the object of the section, which was to promote a "uniform fiscal policy for the Commonwealth".