Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared that energy will be the "defining debate" of the coming Federal parliament, rather than further promised IR changes and other new legislation.
A Shorten Labor Government would set a target of apprentices filling at least one in every 10 jobs on major projects, the Opposition Leader said today.
The Turnbull Government has been lambasted by the ACTU and state premiers after rejecting the push at today's COAG meeting for all modern awards to include paid domestic violence leave, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk decrying it as a "missed opportunity".
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has championed the social benefits of Labor's support for unions and the minimum wage, contrasting it with the American model as he pitches to working and middle class voters after president-elect Donald Trump's success in galvanising low-income workers.
Workers at strategic navy shipbuilder ASC Pty Ltd have endorsed taking legally-protected industrial action in coming weeks, with the aim of winning exemption from the Turnbull Government's broader bargaining policy.
Unions have today called for a national plan to manage the shift to more ecologically-sustainable power generation, via measures that include an industry-wide multi-employer pooling and redeployment scheme.
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.
Senator Malcolm Roberts says he has won backing from the Pauline Hanson's One Nation party room to investigate further IR changes by "working with the Turnbull Government".
