The Howard government’s draconian Work Choices laws will soon be history. A change of government at the 2007 federal election means that Australian industrial relations legislation will continue to be a turbulent field, for some time yet. This review provides an account of the last piece of...

In 2009, two major pieces of industrial legislation were enacted to give effect to the Labor Government’s commitment to replace Work Choices with laws for ‘Fair Work’. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) promises to bring greater stability and simplicity to Australia’s workplace relations...

Australian employment contract law has been slow to recognise the duty of “good faith and fair dealing” now reliably recognised in the United Kingdom. This note considers an Australian decision that has recognised this duty – Russell v. Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church for the...

At the federal level, the year 2001 saw much legislative activity in the form of bills, debates, revisions and rejections - but very little progress for the government's 'third wave' industrial reform program. Apart from some changes to the unfair dismissals regime, much important legislation...

Legislation proposed and passed in 2002 continued to demonstrate the close alliance between law and politics in this field. While the Federal government pressed on with its Workplace Relations third wave (the Registration and Accountability of Organisations legislation being its only significant...

The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) has redrafted the old ‘transmission of business' provisions for awards and agreements as new ‘transfer of business' provisions. The new provisions differ considerably from the immediately prior Work Choices rules, and they also mark a change from the pre-Work...