Ai Group head of national workplace relations policy Stephen Smith is moving on after more than 30 years with the employer group, while NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary Brett Holmes is retiring after two decades in the branch's top job.
Key independent Senator David Pocock says he laughed when recently described as a kingmaker, preferring the role of "peacebroker in the 47th Parliament", ahead of the upper house today considering an Opposition bid to strike down the regulation that guts the ABCC's powers.
A union representative has praised one of the FWC's newest members for her "gloves-off advocacy" on behalf of employers, while offering a greeting in Maltese as a nod to their shared heritage.
The Albanese Government is continuing to add to its IR expertise, with the the appointment to the PM's office of long-serving CFMMEU mining and energy division national legal officer Alex Bukarica as a senior advisor.
A leading silk has recalled how one of the FWC's newest members "effortlessly" combined death metal jeans and flannelette shirts during his days as a long-haired chemical engineering student, before being drawn by the siren song of a career in law.
An official welcome for a new FWC member has heard how he once led a court case revolving around chicken schnitzels that ended with orders to pay more than $70,000 to the family company of a future IR minister.
Former IR Minister Michaelia Cash's final employer-side appointment to the FWC has told how his mother still chafes at the Commission's determination in a matter where she appeared as an employee witness.
The Albanese Government has appointed former Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James as the secretary of the new Department of Employment and Workplace Relations that opens its doors next week.