The National Farmers' Federation has called on the Federal Government to refer maritime industrial disputes straight to the FWC for arbitration, as one of several moves to improve international freight supply chains.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pledged to intervene if the MUA resumes protected strikes at Patrick stevedores this month, while taking longer-term action on restrictive content imposed by the union in enterprise agreements.
Unions have branded further legislation by the Morrison Government to protect migrant workers as "inadequate, given the scale and of nature" of exploitation, a view endorsed by a leading academic researcher.
The FWC will hear the CFMMEU's challenge to BHP's mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy later this month after deciding the matter is significant enough to invite IR Minister Michaelia Cash, the ACTU and peak employer bodies to intervene.
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.
IR Minister and Attorney-General Michaelia Cash says a meeting this morning between government agencies, employers and unions will focus on how businesses can comply with COVID-19 work, health and safety obligations, "including without mandating the vaccine".
The Morrison Government has committed to reintroducing the major projects greenfields agreement provisions it removed from the IR Omnibus Bill, while employer organisations are pushing it to revive other jettisoned elements that would have overhauled enterprise bargaining and the award system.
A full Federal Court has cleared the way for ROC to recommence probing historic AWU donations to GetUp! and ALP campaigns, holding it did not need to suspect breaches of financial probity in order to have reasonable grounds.
