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
Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1949–1951 led by Arthur Fadden won a net of 48 additional seats, allowing it to form government. The incumbent Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Ben Chifley won a net of four additional seats and the four representatives of minor parties and an independent were all defeated. Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1949–1951 This is a list of the members of the Australian House of Representatives in the 19th Australian Parliament, which was elected at the 1949 election on 10 December 1949. In the first of two significant expansions, the house was expanded by 48 seats,