After the High Court's decision in Huddart, Parker & Co Ltd v Moorehead (1909),[1] the "corporations" power was largely ignored as a basis for Commonwealth legislation.
Their approach reflected the perceived need to protect "the reserved powers of the States", an idea abandoned in 1920 as a result of the Engineer' case.
In that case, the leading judgment was delivered by Chief Justice Barwick, who, although agreeing that Isaacs' dissent in Huddart, Parker & Co. conformed to the reasoning in Engineers, refused to define the scope of the corporations power.
Some incidental points were clarified in R v Australian Industrial Court; Ex parte CLM Holdings Pty Ltd.[6] That case established that, where the activities of a s 51(xx) corporation were validly regulated, the conduct of individual persons taking part in those activities, such as company directors, could incidentally be regulated as well.
In Actors and Announcers Equity Association v Fontana Films Pty Ltd,[7] the Court still did not deal directly with the regulation of a corporation's activities.