The Albanese Government will be able to make substantial progress on its promise of "rebalancing" the FWC, after the tribunal confirmed today that it has funding for 13 new members, or a quarter of its primary appointments.
The resignation from the Greens today of Senator Lidia Thorpe over the party's position on the Voice to Parliament has introduced new uncertainty for Labor in the Senate, where it will now have to win support for its second tranche of IR legislation from two crossbenchers in addition to her former party.
A leading IR law academic has welcomed the Albanese Government's return to a more open process for FWC appointments, as DEWR seeks expressions of interest for vice president, deputy president, commissioner and expert panel member roles, but he says structural reform is needed to rebalance the tribunal.
An Albanese Labor Government will "fix the stack" of the Fair Work Commission bench before returning to the convention of making half of new appointments from employer backgrounds and half from unions, according to Shadow IR Minister Tony Burke.
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.
IR Minister Michaelia Cash has defended the appointment of former federal Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella to the FWC, maintaining that experience in employment law or IR is "not necessarily" a requirement.
The NSW IRC appears set to boost its full-time membership to six following the appointment of two new commissioners, one a former union official and the other currently heading up a poker machine lobby group.
The McGowan Government has appointed long-serving WA IRC senior member Stephen Kenner as the tribunal's Chief Commissioner, with Perth-based barrister Rachel Cosentino to replace him as Senior Commissioner.
The Attorney-General's Department has moved to speedily appoint a new general manager to the FWC, while signalling that a key part of the role is to oversee "significant transformation" of the tribunal's "digital capabilities".
