The AFP acted lawfully and had reasonable grounds to seize and copy electronic files during last year's raid on CFMEU offices in Brisbane, the Federal Court has found.
A second-term Turnbull Government will adopt the "overwhelming majority" of the Heydon Royal Commission's recommendations, including outlawing "corrupting benefits" such as those involved in the AWU-Cleanevent deal and giving courts the power to disqualify repeat-offender union officials, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said today.
The HSU's NSW branch says it will clear the debt generated by its corrupt former leadership within two-and-a-half-years, thanks in part to an aggressive savings strategy and a new recruitment focus in aged care and private health, as it prepares to reveal a substantial donation to the ALP to fight the Coalition's "draconian" attack on unions.
The Turnbull Government is seeking to make a direct link between the Heydon Royal Commission's findings and the ABCC legislation that looks set to be a double-dissolution trigger, but there is no concrete policy connection between the two, according to a leading IR academic.
Former Federal Labor MP Craig Thomson deliberately misled the House of Representatives when he denied using HSU credit cards to withdraw cash and pay for escort services, a new report has found.
RMIT academic Professor Anthony Forsyth has told a forum on the Heydon Royal Commission that he has shifted his position on whether a specialist regulator of unions and employer organisations is justified, and now believes unions should accept the Coalition's proposed Registered Organisations Commission.
The Heydon Royal Commission has recommended that the Turnbull Government introduce special legislation to disqualify officers of the CFMEU who are deemed by Parliament to be not to be fit and proper persons, while stopping short of recommending the union's deregistration.
The Heydon Royal Commission has confirmed it will deliver its final report - which will run to "several volumes" - to the Federal Government by the end of the year.
Former HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson has today failed in her attempt to appeal a Federal Court decision for her to repay about $1.4 million to her old union.
The Federal Court has this morning ordered former HSU national secretary Craig Thomson to pay about $458,000 in compensation and fines for inappropriate spending during his reign.
