Appointments/resignations/movements page 8 of 28

An IR manager who recently gave evidence in his company's FWC bid for a s418 anti-industrial-action order will now be sitting on the Commission's bench, after Attorney-General and IR Minister Michaelia Cash made a last-minute appointment ahead of the election anticipated next month.

Attorney General and IR Minister Michaelia Cash has today appointed a senior Sydney IR and employment silk as a Federal Court judge, while she has refused to confirm whether she intends to make any FWC appointments ahead of the Government going into caretaker mode.

With a federal election likely in May, IR Minister Michaelia Cash has thumbed her nose at Labor's plan to axe the Registered Organisations Commission, giving Mark Bielecki another two years as its leader.

Former ASU assistant national secretary Linda White has emerged as a leading contender to replace veteran Labor Senator for Victoria and former frontbencher Kim Carr.

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.

If the Federal Government appoints a new member to the FWC, they are likely to be located in Sydney, the tribunal's general manager told a Senate Estimates hearing last night.

FWC President Iain Ross wrote to Deputy President Lyndall Dean after her controversial dissent in the Kimber compulsory vaccination ruling and alerted IR Minister Michaelia Cash to the correspondence, a Senate committee heard this evening.

IR Minister Michaelia Cash will raise with FWC President Iain Ross a LinkedIn post by maverick Deputy President Lyndall Dean that endorses criticism of Australia's "Chinese-style totalitarian" health response to COVID-19, she told a Senate Estimates hearing this morning.

Former FWC delegate Murray Furlong has today been appointed general manager of the Commission, replacing Bernadette O'Neill.

The turmoil in Victoria's construction sector in the wake of its shutdown and Melbourne's anti-vaccination protests is continuing, with the resignation of a key IR advisor to the Andrews Labor Government.