The Federal Opposition has failed to extract an apology from the ABCC following judicial criticism of its handling of a recent case against the CFMMEU, the construction watchdog shooting back that it acted "highly appropriately" for a model litigant.
The Attorney-General's Department will open a consultation process in December on six of the outstanding recommendations in Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' landmark Respect@Work report, but the Opposition says the timeline leaves no room for legislation ahead of the federal election, expected by May.
FWC President Iain Ross wrote to Deputy President Lyndall Dean after her controversial dissent in the Kimber compulsory vaccination ruling and alerted IR Minister Michaelia Cash to the correspondence, a Senate committee heard this evening.
IR Minister Michaelia Cash will raise with FWC President Iain Ross a LinkedIn post by maverick Deputy President Lyndall Dean that endorses criticism of Australia's "Chinese-style totalitarian" health response to COVID-19, she told a Senate Estimates hearing this morning.
WA's McGowan Government has again introduced legislation boosting anti-bullying and sexual harassment laws, inspector powers and penalties for non-compliance as part of an overhaul of its State IR system.
A Labor/Greens-majority secure work Senate inquiry is calling on the Morrison Government to require federally-funded entities, including universities, aged care and disability services, to give preference to direct, permanent jobs.
The Morrison Government's Respect@Work legislation has now passed both houses of parliament, after the House of Representatives early this afternoon backed the legislation, as amended by the Senate yesterday.
Labor and the Greens have flagged amendments to the Respect@Work legislation that would place a positive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
A parliamentary inquiry into the future of the working week will probe questions such as whether the disruption caused by COVID-19 has created an opportunity and impetus for introducing a four-day week.
A Coalition-dominated Senate inquiry has backed the FWC's request to delay implementing proposed extensions to its anti-sexual-harassment jurisdiction, but declined to support Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' call to include her "positive duty" recommendation in the Morrison Government's Respect at Work legislation.
