Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Poor George. This tactic is straight out of the Liberal Party’s new media play book: ‘Seek cheap points by smearing public officials.’ There is no controversy that the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee has the power to compel the attendance of the President of Fair Work Australia, should the committee decided that this was appropriate. The committee actively turned its mind to whether the president should be required to attend the recent hearings. Let us be very clear: the committee did not require the president to attend. Instead, it accepted the president’s most reasonable submission that the general manager, Mr Lee, would be a more appropriate witnesses, as he would be of more assistance to the committee in answering questions about the administrative activities of Fair Work Australia.

The committee confirmed this again this morning when it met and passed the following resolutions. The committee noted that the justice has not refused to appear before the committee. The committee noted that the head of the national industrial tribunal has never been asked to appear at estimates and this practice has never been excepted by the committee to date. The committee agreed—after consideration of responses provided by Mr Lee, the General Manager of Fair Work Australia, at the estimates hearings—that Mr Lee was able to adequately address questions regarding the administrative aspects of Fair Work Australia as per previous committee practice, and consequently the committee sees no need to change the current practice. The committee agreed that it had the authority to call Justice Giudice but, as per the point above, does not have the obligation to do so. If the committee were to form a different view at a later time, it would be free to do so. (Time expired)