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".
John (Thommo) Thompson, who recently retired from the Queensland IRC after more than 20 years on the bench, says the tribunal has fared better than some its counterparts because of successive state governments' willingness to expand the matters within its ambit.
