Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth Australian Communist Party v The Commonwealth, also known as the Communist Party Case, was a legal case in the High Court of Australia described as "undoubtedly one of the High Court's most important decisions." In a general election held on 10 December 1949, Prime Minister Robert Menzies led a Liberal-Country Party coalition to government pledged to dissolving the Communist Party of Australia. The Party had been banned before: following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Party had opposed Australian involvement in the Second World War in 1939, which gave Menzies' United Australia Party-Country Party government the opportunity
Australian home front during World War II to the declaration, and Parliament passed the "National Security Act 1939". A War Cabinet was formed after the declaration of war, initially composed of Prime Minister Menzies and five senior ministers (RG Casey, GA Street, Senator McLeay, HS Gullet and World War I Prime Minister Billy Hughes). When Page still refused to join a government under Menzies, he was replaced by Archie Cameron as leader of the Country Party on 13 September 1939, allowing the conservative parties to re-form a Coalition by March 1940. The recruitment of a volunteer military force for service at home and abroad was announced, the