Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

In respect of the Forward with Fairness policy implementation plan, the Australian government is committed to—let me be clear about this and the Liberals should understand—maintaining the existing arrangements for the building and construction industry including the ABCC until 31 January 2010. After that date, the ABCC will be replaced by a specialist building and construction division of the inspectorate of Fair Work Australia, the FWA.

The government are also committed to consult widely with industry stakeholders on the arrangement and the specialist division will apply. On 22 May 2008 the government announced that they would ask the Hon. Murray Wilcox QC to conduct consultations with the industry and report on how best to transition to the specialist division of the FWA inspectorate. The Australian government have asked His Honour to report by the end of March 2009. The terms of reference for that were released on 24 July 2008. It is important to understand what the key industry players are doing in the sense that His Honour has engaged in close consultation—