Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon has rejected union applications for him to stand down from the inquiry on the grounds of apprehended bias, while acknowledging they could still apply to a court to make such a ruling.
Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon will defer until Monday his ruling on whether to stand down as Royal Commissioner following a late request from the ACTU this afternoon.
The CFMEU's CG&E division has confirmed that its national and Queensland president, David Hanna, has left the union but has declined to explain his departure.
The AWU is seeking to terminate a substandard cleaning agreement exposed in the Heydon Royal Commission, while former Victorian branch secretary Cesar Melhem has stepped down as Labor whip in Victoria's upper house, after the inquiry criticised workplace deals struck during his leadership.
The NSW Public Service Association says its axing of an assistant secretary position has boosted its war chest to fight the state government's electricity privatisation plans.
The NSW secretary of the firefighters' union, Jim Casey, has survived a challenge by just 11 votes after only 31% of eligible members voted in an election that was declared yesterday.
The Abbott Government has appointed to the High Court the Federal Court judge Michelle Gordon, who last month was part of a full bench that struck down the Coalition's attempt to exclude foreign workers on offshore resources projects from Australian labour standards.
