|
||
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
Issue No. 151 | 06 September 2002 |
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Looking for the Light
 Collex Decision is TerribleCharity Begins At Home
|
|
|
News Cole Comfort: I’m Not Biased
Cole has rejected an application from 35 NSW-based union officers that he stand aside on the ground of apprehended bias. The Commissioner considered the application for four days before releasing a decision which, at its core, contended he had made no "findings" in a preliminary report to Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott, before hearing union evidence. To describe what he had made Cole has come up with the word "evidences", used as a verb rather than a noun. He does not provide any dictionary support, much less case history, for the unusual usage. Minister Abbott used Coles "evidences" to announce the establishment of an interim industry taskforce with an office in Sydney, and flag changes to legislation that would require parliamentary assent. CFMEU national secretary John Sutton said Cole's decision "defied logic" and "an ordinary sense of fairness". "It is an extraordinary statement from the Royal Commissioner. If he made no findings how can he justify the fact he made recommendations which Tony Abbott has leapt on to establish a taskforce?" Sutton asked. "It is clear to us and our members he has made findings against the union without hearing our evidence or considering all our submissions." An analysis of witness appearances before the Commission, established to consider illegal and inappropriate activity across the building industry, reveals that 604 employer witnessed have been called, against 34 worker witnesses. Approximately 97 percent of hearing time has been spent looking at anti-union topics with less than three percent of its time devoted to issues that did not adversely reflect the union. "Any objective person considering those figures would have little doubt the hearings have been biased against building workers and their representatives," Sutton said. CFMEU solicitor David Shoebridge confirmed the Federal Court case seeking to stand Cole down would proceed. "This doesn't deter us in any way," he said. "Any fair reading of the Commissioner's first report would say he made adverse findings against the applicants, without hearing from them. "We find it inconceivable that the Commissioner could recommend a taskforce, with an office in Sydney, without attaching any findings of fact to support it." The substantive case has been set down for hearing before Justice Pranson in the Federal Court at Sydney on October 14 and 15.
|
| Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
|
© 1999-2002 Workers Online 
|
|
