A senior Attorney-General's official has denied that the department failed to comply with its obligation to act with "honesty and integrity" when it asserted in the Religious Discrimination Bill's explanatory memorandum that the "statements of belief" provisions had no effect on other laws.
WA IR Minister Stephen Dawson says he is urgently seeking Federal IR Minister Michaelia Cash's agreement to having the McGowan Government regulate all WA local government workers, following yesterday's passage of legislation overhauling the State IR system.
The newly-announced review of the 1973 Maternity Leave Act provides an opportunity for the Federal Government to resume its role as a pacesetter, according to Sydney University's Professor Marian Baird.
The Productivity Commission will begin consulting next month on its inquiry into the "long-term structural issues" affecting productivity on the waterfront, which requires it to consider "operational costs drivers, including industrial relations", according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
NSW's Modern Slavery Act has won Royal Assent after three years in limbo, imposing reporting obligations on local councils, government agencies and statutory corporations and establishing an independent anti-slavery commissioner.
A full Federal Court has dismissed an on-hire worker's bid to overturn a FWC ruling that it could not force a labour hire company to reinstate him to his former job at client CUB, upholding the tribunal's finding giving primacy to the host employer's right to determine who it allowed on its site.
The Morrison Government's religious discrimination legislation permits faith-based employers to discriminate against workers on the basis of their "religious belief or activity" if it is connected to their position as an employee or prevents them performing inherent requirements.
The Morrison Government has today introduced legislation in response to two Migrant Workers' Taskforce recommendations to make it an offence to pressure temporary migrant workers to breach their visa conditions and to create a new power to ban employers that underpay them.
Unions and employer organisations will be barred from refusing membership or the benefits of it on the basis of religious beliefs or activity, but faith-based organisations will be allowed to engage in biased employment practices under the Morrison Government's proposed religious discrimination legislation, which is likely to be introduced to Federal Parliament tomorrow.
