The Senate's Education and Employment Legislation Committee has recommended today that the upper house pass the government's Fair Work Amendment Bill unamended, with the ALP and the Greens tabling separate reports opposing the legislation.
Former Prime Minister John Howard says that of the five big economic reforms Australian governments has implemented over the last 30 years, industrial relations is the only one that has gone backwards.
There is "no substance" to the claims of inconsistent FWC decision-making that have underpinned calls for an independent appeal mechanism, according to the tribunal's president, Justice Iain Ross.
Labor and the Greens have combined in the Senate today to defeat the Abbott Government's legislation to establish a Registered Organisations Commission and align penalties for union and employer association officials with corporations law.
Advocating a much more severe cut to the Coalition's paid parental leave scheme than Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on Tuesday, the National Audit Commission has recommended the government cap payments at average weekly earnings and plough the resulting savings into child care assistance.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has conceded that savings "won't be vast" from cutting the maximum payment under its paid parental leave scheme to $50,000, while the Greens are pushing for the new regime to be fully-funded by the Coalition's proposed levy on business.
Business groups are pushing the Abbott Government to drop a requirement in its Fair Work amendments that the FWC take account of prevailing industry standards in approving employer proposals to resolve deadlocked greenfields negotiations, in submissions to a Senate inquiry.
Labor and Greens members that make up the majority of a Senate committee have adopted AiG's view that substantial elements of the Abbott Government's Registered Organisations Bill are too onerous and need to be relaxed.
The Coalition has made good on its election promise to launch a new guide and online learning program to help small business owners to hire new employees.
