The Abbott Government's Audit Commission report, released today, recommends axing the FWC's role in setting minimum wages, moving over a decade to a new, lower "minimum wage benchmark" of 44% of average weekly earnings, and allowing "regional variations" that would open up a gap of $100 a week between workers in Tasmania and those in four other states and territories.
The Fair Work Commission's President, Justice Iain Ross, has included himself on the default superannuation funds expert panel to "put beyond doubt" industry concerns about its composition.
Former High Court judge Dyson Heydon has told the first sitting of the Coalition Government's royal commission into unions he is heading that its terms of reference are "not hostile to trade unions", while outlining the heavy criminal sanctions that apply to those who breach its rules.
The unions singled out for investigation by the Abbott Government's royal commission have started receiving "notices to produce" ahead of next week's preliminary hearing in Sydney.
The ACTU has fired the first shot in the royal commission into union corruption, finance and governance by telling the inquiry chief Dyson Heydon that it wants a ban on selective leaking of evidence to the media before hearings.
Stoljar, Elliott, Roughley the Royal Commission legal team; Senate committee to report on Fair Work Amendment Bill by early June; FWC president appoints Harcourt to super expert panel; and IR ministers unchanged after WA and Victorian reshuffles.
The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption will hold its first hearing next month and Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon will hand his final report to the federal government at the end of the year.
A Sydney-based silk with a strong suit in commercial law is tipped for the crucial role of counsel assisting the royal commission into the governance of unions and their financial dealings.
The Abbott Government says it has given former High Court judge Dyson Heydon a broad brief to probe employer behaviour and the role of police in industrial matters in the royal commission announced this afternoon, but the focus of its terms of reference is squarely on union misconduct.
