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.
The Federal Police are evaluating allegations that the chief-of-staff to the ACT Police Minister, Joy Burch, briefed CFMEU leader Dean Hall about a top-level meeting with police.
The NUW's troubled NSW branch faces a complete $250,000 write-down on its investment in a failed media company, Manic Times Pty Ltd, while the union's national secretary has confirmed it proceeded with a fundraiser that came under fire in the Heydon Royal Commission.
CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon will go to a contested committal hearing in March next year on the blackmail charges brought by the Royal Commmission police taskforce over the 2013 Boral concrete bans.
Victoria Police have today charged CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch secretary John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon with blackmail, for allegedly pressuring concrete supplier Boral over its relationship with the builder Grocon.
Former NUW NSW branch secretary Derrick Belan has rejected legal arguments by his old union that he was largely responsible for its governance problems.
CFMEU national secretary Michael O'Connor has been described in Federal Parliament as the "Sepp Blatter of the union movement" by a Nationals senator in tabling affidavits by three former CFMEU officials who continue to claim they were driven out of the NSW construction branch for whistleblowing.