The ACTU has distributed to thousands of union member households a trio of election corflutes that seek to mock Prime Minister Scott Morrison over his 2019 Hawaiian holiday as the "black summer" bushfires roared, ahead of the Coalition's attempted spending counter-attack in today's Federal Budget
With the Coalition confirming it is still committed to remaining measures in its Omnibus Bill and Labor pledging to double down on insecure work, labour law academic Andrew Stewart says in a pre-Budget policy analysis that the nation faces a "big choice" on IR regulation.
South Australia's new Premier, Peter Malinauskas, takes office on a platform that includes introducing jail time for the worst cases of wage theft, creating an offence of industrial manslaughter and extending labour hire regulation across all industries.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is set to promise to legislate job security as a key objective of the Fair Work Act, along with empowering the FWC to set minimum standards for gig workers.
The ALP will consider its IR platform at a "virtual" national conference in late March next year, possibly just ahead of an early Federal election, while the ACTU's next triennial congress is also likely to go online.
The New Zealand Labour Party has put industry-wide bargaining on the table ahead of next month's national election after pledging to legislate Fair Pay Agreements endorsed by former conservative Prime Minister Jim Bolger.
The re-election of the Morrison Coalition Government has preserved the features of the current industrial relations system, but left unanswered questions over its workplace agenda for the next three years.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has pledged to hold a national summit between business and unions if he wins the federal election on Saturday, in another nod to the Hawke era of consensus-building in the 1980s.
Federal Labor has pledged to establish a new low-cost small claims jurisdiction to deal with wage underpayments, which will "sit alongside" the Fair Work Commission.