27th Annual Foenander Lecture 2012
"The Fair Work Act: Review and implications"
The Hon Professor Geoffrey Giudice AO, former president of Fair Work Australia.
About the lecture
The Faculty of Business and Economics hosted the 27th Annual Foenander Lecture, presented by The Honourable Professor Geoffrey Giudice AO, former president of Fair Work Australia.
Over the last twenty years there have been four major revisions of the legislation governing the federal workplace relations system. The last was the Fair Work Act 2009. The current review of the operation of that Act is expected to lead to proposals for further change.
This lecture will examine these proposals against the background of the existing system, its history and the expectations of the major interest groups. It will identify other major issues which remain to be tackled and make observations about the policy formulation process.
About the speaker
Professor Giudice studied law at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1970. He spent nine years working in industry, before beginning to practise as a solicitor in 1979. He was admitted to the Bar in Victoria in 1984. As a barrister, he specialised in industrial relations and employment law. He was appointed as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia on 17 September 1997. At the same time, he became the president of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. In 2009, when the Commission was replaced by the newly-established Fair Work Australia, Professor Giudice was appointed its first president. He retired from this position in February 2012 and has been appointed Honorary Professorial Fellow to both the Department of Management and Marketing in the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Law Faculty in the University of Melbourne.