With only nine days until the federal election, the Nick Xenophon Team has announced a "modified" policy under which it will support the role of the Fair Work Commission in setting penalty rates.
The Turnbull Government has pledged that if it is returned on July 2, it will introduce a public interest test for union mergers, which would put the planned tie-up between the CFMEU and the MUA under the microscope.
The Productivity Commission has canvassed the "radical" option of providing a "universal basic income" to redistribute wealth as a response to digital disruption of the economy.
A second-term Turnbull Government will adopt the "overwhelming majority" of the Heydon Royal Commission's recommendations, including outlawing "corrupting benefits" such as those involved in the AWU-Cleanevent deal and giving courts the power to disqualify repeat-offender union officials, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said today.
A Shorten Labor Government would introduce an "anonymous CV" regime for all federal public service graduate and entry-level positions, in a bid to eliminate unconscious gender bias in assessment of job applications.
The ACTU is calling for the next federal government to reduce the statutory age at which Indigenous workers can retire and access superannuation because they are currently "more likely to die than retire".
Unions are pushing for the introduction of a threshold "better off overall test" for employers that are seeking to join the national Comcare workers' compensation scheme.
Unions will push for a legislated "no reduction principle" for penalty rates, in contrast to the Labor policy stance of having them decided by the Fair Work Commission.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has today criticised CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch leader John Setka for reportedly comparing the Coalition's "attack" on the union and its members to that of Hitler's Germany, after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the Labor leader to "publicly disown" the union secretary.
