Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to refer to a letter I sent to the Minister for Employment on 16 March this year in relation to the former vice president of the Fair Work Commission, Mr Michael Lawler.

Of course, the minister at the table is aware of the circumstances around the resignation of Vice President Lawler of the Fair Work Commission. There was of course an independent assessment of his conduct by a former Federal Court judge, appointed by the Minister for Employment, to look into whether in fact he had been in breach of his duties as vice president over the most recent years.

I will just remind the House that of course Vice President Lawler was appointed to the Fair Work Commission at the time when the former Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, was the Minister for Employment in the Howard government. So Mr Lawler was a longstanding commissioner of the Fair Work Commission and there were some questions around his performance and him discharging his responsibilities as a vice president of the Fair Work Commission.

We are seeking to have the information about his entitlements disclosed publicly. We do know, of course, that the former Federal Court judge found that he was in breach of his duties as a vice president in his report, commissioned by the Minister for Employment. Then the vice president subsequently made a decision to resign, so no action had to be taken either by the parliament or by some other means.

However, on 16 March, on behalf of the federal opposition I sought to have information about the entitlements that Mr Lawler will be afforded, given his resignation. I asked then that the minister immediately disclose such matters in the public interest. We said at the time that the public has a right to know the difference in the entitlements Mr Lawler will receive as a result of his resignation, rather than being dismissed.

I sought at the time, and it is enclosed within the letter, that the Minister for Employment responded to the matters raised in the report that relate to the application for leave and termination proceedings in order to prevent a matter of this nature rising again. We have not really been provided with such information and we thought it was an opportunity today for the government to provide that information. We think it is in the public interest that a most senior officer of the Fair Work Commission—in fact, arguably, the second-most senior officer of the Fair Work Commission—who was found to be in breach or in dereliction of his obligations as an officer who has subsequently resigned, be required to publicly disclose his entitlements upon that resignation.

We believe that the minister would be aware of the details of such entitlements afforded to Mr Lawler and yet, despite the letter of 16 March from me to the minister, we have not been in receipt of any information and would ask the minister at the table, the minister acting on behalf of the Minister for Employment, to provide answers to this question—namely, what are the details of the entitlements afforded to Mr Lawler upon his resignation?

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