This is why we need an independent judicial commission.
The Fair Work Commission is anything but fair.
The decisions of its commissioners has destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.
Many of these people worked in essential services, especially health who could have helped sick people much more than the vaccine ever did.
The response from the FWC in this clip shows why People First is advocating for an independent judicial commission as judges/commissioners are not being held to account for their erroneous decisions.
Education and Employment Legislation Committee
06/11/2024
Estimates
EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS PORTFOLIO
Fair Work Commission
Senator RENNICK: My question is in regard to last week’s COVID report that was very scathing of the vaccine mandates and how people have lost a lot of trust in the health system because of compulsory vaccine mandates. I think it’s only fair that the Fair Work Commission—I note that you said before to Senator Roberts that your role is to provide support to the head of the Fair Work Commission. My question to you is: what feedback are you going to give to the head of the Fair Work Commission—I’ll use the words ‘fair work’ as the operative words—in regard to the feedback from the COVID report that was scathing of COVID vaccine mandates that were enforced by the commissioners? I know you can’t comment on cases, but it’s fair to say that the Fair Work commissioners basically took a one-sided approach to imposing those vaccine mandates. I can quote cases if you want, but I know you can’t really discuss cases.
Mr Furlong: Senator, as you are aware, the President of the Fair Work Commission is an independent statutory office holder; he’s also a Federal Court judge. I can undertake to have a conversation with him, but that’s the extent of what I could do in these circumstances.
Senator RENNICK: How do we go about holding these commissioners to account? Time has proven them wrong, and I think that there needs to be a level of scrutiny. For example, Commissioner Dean was actually banned from hearing cases about vaccines, and time has proven her right. Is there going to be any sort of re-education given to the other Fair Work commissioners about their views on vaccine mandates?
Mr Furlong: The evidence that I gave you at the time was that decisions of the members of the commission and the reasons for those decisions are published on our website. Those decisions stand for themselves and—
Senator RENNICK: I dispute that. I’ve got here an autopsy report of a person who died a week after the Pfizer vaccine, and this was never released by the TGA. One of those decisions made by Fair Work Commissioner Colman, one in the Coopers case, said that the vaccine review people can’t be questioned; they are the experts. Well, it turns out that they’re not necessarily experts and they were covering up valuable information. I think it was completely erroneous for a judge just to take the view of bureaucrats and not of the actual doctors who were working on the front line. What’s happened is egregious, and it’s not good enough to just say that their cases stand. The whole point of democracy is for people to be held to account.
Mr Furlong: There’s nothing further that I can add to my evidence.
Senator RENNICK: You’re just going to stonewall. There are still people out there that can’t get work today because they’ve been discriminated against because of those mandates. And those mandates were imposed by the Fair Work Commission, which, in my view and in the view of millions, if not hundreds of thousands of millions of others, was biased.
Mr Furlong: The role of the commission wasn’t to enforce mandates. The role of the commission, as it has always been, is to deal with disputes about whether or not dismissals were fair and just.
Senator RENNICK: Well, they weren’t. I can line up plenty of people who were injured and still lost their jobs because they didn’t take a second shot. Are you going to tell me that’s fair?
Mr Furlong: As you started with your questioning, you understand what my role is at the—
Senator RENNICK: So whose decision was it that Commissioner Dean had to go and get training? Who made that decision?
Mr Furlong: My understanding is that the president at the time—the president has subsequently changed—
Senator RENNICK: Yes. He’s on the RBA board now.
Mr Furlong: wrote to Deputy President Dean to express the view that the deputy president had breached provisions of the members’ code of conduct and had breached basic principles of quasi-judicial decision-making and the conduct constituted misuse of a statutory office.
Senator RENNICK: And you don’t think that judges or Fair Work commissioners not doing the research on these vaccines wasn’t an abuse of the office?
Mr Furlong: It’s not my role to comment on decisions or matters that are dealt with. The Fair Work Act provides a framework for the president of the commission to deal with complaints, and in terms of the member code of conduct, it empowers the president of the commission to establish a code of conduct in consultation with members of the tribunal, and that was done in this case.
