The new standalone regulator for registered organisations will start operating on Monday, May 1, with its new powers taking effect by the following day.
The Federal Court has today imposed almost $600,000 in fines on the CFMEU and 10 officials for organising two days of industrial action at nine Kane Constructions sites three years ago.
New ACTU secretary Sally McManus has defended her support for unionists to break "unjust laws", arguing the ability to strike is a "human right" and that Australia is out of step with international labour conventions.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has this afternoon introduced legislation that outlaws payments of "corrupting benefits" to unions and imposes penalties on those who provide or receive such payments.
The NUW has today asked its former NSW leader Derrick Belan about evidence he gave to the Heydon Royal Commission, as it defends his brother Nick's unfair dismissal claim in the FWC.
The Turnbull Government has won support for an earlier start for the tougher national construction code, after a dramatic about-face by crossbench Senator Derryn Hinch.
The Australian Federal Police has been ordered to pay the majority of the CFMEU's legal costs for its challenge to the 2015 AFP raid on the offices of the union's construction and general division in Canberra.
A court has refused to summarily dismiss a general protections claim instigated by two former CFMEU construction and general division NSW branch organisers who maintain they were driven out of their jobs for whistleblowing.