With the end of the Second World War in sight, the Chifley Government proposed a Commonwealth Government monopoly on scheduled airline services throughout Australia. Its legislation was stymied, however, by the Airline Operators Secretariat, which argued that the Constitution guaranteed freedom of commerce between states. The High Court agreed in its "Airlines Case" decision. This did not however prevent the Government from starting its own airline Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) in 1946. ANA now had effective and well-resourced competition on its inter-state air services for the first time since 1937.