Welcome ceremonies for new FWC members have revealed that one of the new appointees fought so hard for a provision in the Fair Work Act that it was informally named after him, while another told of her "baptism of fire" when she took up her IR legal career with an employer-clientele law firm in the wake of it running the landmark Dollar Sweets case.
The Heydon Royal Commission has recommended that the Turnbull Government introduce special legislation to disqualify officers of the CFMEU who are deemed by Parliament to be not to be fit and proper persons, while stopping short of recommending the union's deregistration.
The Productivity Commission, in its final report on the IR system today, says the FWC should be broken up into two bodies, with the new institution to determine minimum wages and awards.
The Heydon Royal Commission has confirmed it will deliver its final report - which will run to "several volumes" - to the Federal Government by the end of the year.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash today appointed a former Freehills and Clayton Utz lawyer, an ACCI IR director and two IR managers as members of the FWC, while she extended the term of the tribunal's sole acting commissioner.
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver says that unions are "very receptive" to the Turnbull Government's emphasis on innovation, after the "negativity and conflict" under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
The Federal Treasury used a "cabinet sensitive" briefing to urge newTreasurer Scott Morrison to boost labour market flexibility, seizing the opportunity presented by the Productivity Commission's review of Australia's workplace system.
A Queensland parliamentary inquiry will consider licensing and registration of labour hire companies as the state becomes the third jurisdiction to launch investigations into allegations of sham contracting and abuses of visa workers by labour suppliers.
As Parliament prepares to rise for the year, the Turnbull Government has introduced legislation containing the provisions removed from the Fair Work Act amending legislation that came into effect last week.
