Malcolm Turnbull will overfly Western Australia twice next week, when he makes a brief dash to Indonesia to attend a conference of Indian Ocean Rim leaders.
How often are stories about wealthy lawyers and surgeons told? Marta Dusseldorp in ABC’s Janet King.
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Why do so many Australian TV dramas depict the lives of professionals when there is plenty of real drama for those living from one paycheck to the next?
Malcolm Turnbull inspects the production facility at Bottles of Australia in Canberra on Monday.
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On some days it’s best not to venture out. For Malcolm Turnbull, Monday was such a day. There was no way a visit to Bottles of Australia in the Canberra suburb of Hume was going to end well. Turnbull was…
The latest reflection on just how appalling things are in federal politics came this week from former Treasury head Ken Henry.
ACTU president Ged Kearney called on Malcolm Turnbull ‘to stand up for workers in this country, to actually change the laws to protect people’s pay’.
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Hospitality, fast food, retail and pharmacy workers stand to lose thousands of dollars per year after the Fair Work Commission’s landmark decision to cut penalty rates on Sundays and public holidays.
The choice of Kimberley Kitching to replace former Victorian senator Stephen Conroy was controversial within Labor, dividing the right faction.
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The Senate has voted 35-21 to note that its newest member, Victorian Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, was found to have provided untruthful evidence to the Fair Work Commission.
It’s not easy to walk away from an abusive relationship without the support of a flexible employer.
AAP Image/Angela Brkic
Are penalty rates no longer relevant in the retail industry — and do they cost jobs? Recent research compared two neighbouring states where one raised rates to the other’s level to find the answer.
When does an internship cross the line and become unlawful?
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A case involving the suppression of academic research into racism - by a university - raises troubling questions.
Protesters were back on the streets demanding penalty rates be left alone when the Coalition government asked the Productivity Commission to look at workplace relations last year.
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Cutting penalty rates can be a vote-changer and the looming Fair Work Commission decision is tricky for both sides of politics. So what cards do the parties hold and how might they play them?
Achieving genuine co-operation in Australian workplaces is difficult.
AAP/Angela Brkic
The Fair Work Act delivers a much more peculiar system of collective bargaining than many realise. It has outcomes that contradict the hopes and fears of both sides of the IR debate.
There was enormous growth in casual employment prior to 1998.
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A ruling by the Californian Labor Commission that Uber drivers are employees, not individual contractors, might have much wider implications for the ride-sharing group.
A debate about penalty rates ought to involve the cash economy.
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Amid the ongoing debate over the future of penalty rates, a subtle but important issue also deserves to be examined: their impact on Australia’s “cash economy”. The Fair Work Commission is currently reviewing…
Individual contracts are coming back - but not as we knew them.
AAP/Julian Smith
The government is proposing amendments to the Fair Work Act, including to the operation of “individual flexibility arrangements” (IFAs). The amendments are attracting a lot of attention, including from…
The government wants young people to be learning or earning, but at some point they should be treated as adults.
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When should a young person start getting paid as an adult? It depends on where the money is coming from, according to current government policy - policy that is sending conflicting messages about the true…
The ‘brittle’ side of industrial relations: CFMEU members in dispute with their employer, Energy Australia.
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Over the course of the last few months, industrial relations has once again become a major issue on the national political agenda. Allegations of union corruption, uncompetitive wage deals, inflexible…
Tony Abbott has claimed penalty rates force businesses to close their doors
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With a major review of workplace awards underway, the Federal Government has asked the Fair Work Commission to consider whether penalty rates and other minimum conditions are still relevant. In this Viewpoints…