The Government won’t reintroduce the ABCC and ROC bills to the Senate until it has the numbers to win their passage, Prime Minister Turnbull said today in response to the new uncertainty about the crossbench.
The Turnbull Government’s plan to push its IR bills through the Senate have been thrown into doubt by legal questions over the eligibility of two crossbench senators.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has called off a scheduled annual meeting with her state and territory IR counterparts, telling them there are "no matters requiring ministerial decision".
The CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch is appealing a Federal Court decision that barred the union from paying an $18,000 penalty against an organiser after the judge concluded the union received part of its income from government grants.
Victoria's volunteer firefighters have dropped legal action in the State Supreme Court against the CFA's proposed new enterprise agreement, in the wake of the Turnbull Government pushing through changes to the Fair Work Act.
The Coalition should have sought a "more extensive mandate" on IR and run a more active campaign on the subject during the last election, rather than supplementing the ABCC and ROC bills with a "last minute minor change on CFA volunteers", according to Abbott Government Employment Minister Eric Abetz.
Pauline Hanson's One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts says the party is inclined to back the ABCC and ROC bills, while it will also push for the federal government to get out of IR regulation and to beef-up the ACCC to police anti-competitive conduct by companies and unions.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will put a new offer to its employees in the wake of the Fair Work Commission's decision to terminate industrial action at airports across the country and move towards arbitration of a new agreement.
The UFU's proposed High Court bid to overturn the CFA legislation is "misconceived and likely to fail", according to Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, who is confident the new law will survive any challenge.
The Turnbull Government has today lost the most hard-line backer of IR deregulation on the Senate crossbench with the resignation of former HR Nicholls officeholder Bob Day.
