Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment, Senator Abetz. I refer the minister to revelations that Fair Work Commission Vice-President Michael Lawler took nine months of fully paid sick leave from his $435,000-a-year job at Fair Work in just one year. This is despite Mr Lawler admitting to the trade union royal commission staff that he had been constantly working on legal issues for his partner, the disgraced union official, Kathy Jackson, during this period. Given Mr Lawler's own admission that he had been conducting complex legal work while claiming to be too sick to work, will the government investigate this apparent rorting of taxpayers' money?