Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 2:09:40 to 2:13:20
Officials discuss legal advice sought from the Solicitor General regarding constitutional constraints on dual appointments between the Fair Work Commission and the new court.
Topics: Workplace relations, Attorney-General
Speakers: Greg Manning, Senator Paul Scarr, Simon Duggan, Elizabeth Brayshaw
That's uh that's fine, thank you. Uh the Minister has said that dual, as I understand it has said that dual appointments with the Bear Work Commission are, quote, unlikely due to constitutional issues. Has the task force Ms. Brayshaw in relation to that issue.
Senator D Task Force has thought advice on a range of matters and I think arrangements of appointments has been one
So have you sought advice with respect to that particular issue of dual appointments? So that a commissioner could potentially wear one hat as a commissioner and then wear a different hat as a member of a fair work court.
We've sought preliminary advice, noting that government's still formalising options on the full range of constitutional issues relevant to establishment of a court, noting the obvious um requirements in the Constitution about the Mr.
Okay. So who did you seek that advice from?
The Acting Solicitor General through the Australian Government Solicitor.
Can you take on notice when you sought that advice?
Yes, sir.
And have you engaged in any discussion with respect to whether or not this could be done as a division of an existing court as opposed to establishing a whole brand new court?
In relation to the legal advice, are you saying?
Well, and also the logistics, etc. Both.
But I mean obviously, Senator, the last two examples you've given up are options in the sense that the courts already have that jurisdiction, so you could always give them more money in relation to an existing jurisdiction.
Correct.
I know that, Senator, but that's uh as I said, the there's still those issues around whether or not that would solve those issues of timeliness and expertise that were mentioned in the media release in relation to the announcement.
Did you deal with those issues in your briefings? In particular, the expertise issue.
Again, I think that's captured by the question Mr. Duggan took a notice earlier, but certainly I certainly the issue of wanting uh to see expertise in relation to workplace relations disputes has been a long-standing aim in relation to those discussions around the courts.
Okay.
So, Senator, just to point out here, of course, on the basis of that advice, the Prime Minister came to a judgment that it the government was going to pursue a an independent standalone fair work fair work court. Um it came to the conclusion that you know it requires specialist judges with workplace relations expertise to sit on the court. It came to the judgment that the existing court process was not delivering the speed, the efficiency, the simplicity, but nor the accessibility of to the dispute resolution system that it was seeking from the court, and hence it took a decision that it needed to establish a new a new court in that regard. So I think you know, we we've taken on notice whether or not we provided alternatives to a standalone court, and we'll get back to you on that. But the conclusion that was reached on the basis of that advice is pretty clear.