Martin Ferguson appointed to Fair Work panel

Martin Ferguson has been appointed by the Coalition to the Fair Work Commission’s wage review panel for five years.

Former Labor cabinet minister Martin Ferguson

Former ACTU president and business lobbyist Martin Ferguson has been appointed by the Coalition to the Fair Work Commission’s annual minimum wage review expert panel for five years.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said Mr Ferguson, a former federal ALP Cabinet Minister who works for the resources and tourism sector, would be joined by labour market academic Mark Wooden and Deloiite partner Adele Labine-Romain as new part-time members of the panel.

Mr Ferguson has come into conflict with the labour movement in recent years, backing penalty rate cuts by the commission; attacking the CFMEU; claiming union influence over Labor is “out of control”; calling on the Coalition to impose new limits on industrial action, and backing employers in their fight with unions over the rights of casuals.

Mr Porter said the appointees all had a “high level of expertise in economics”, and their backgrounds in industry or social policy made them highly qualified for appointment.

“The appointees bring an impressive breadth of knowledge, qualifications and experience to the Fair Work Commission,” he said.

Ms Labine-Romain is a partner and national transport, hospitality and services sector leader with Deloitte Access Economics She has a Masters of Business Administration from York University, Canada, and has been executive general manager strategy and research with Tourism Australia and executive director of the Tourism & Transport Forum.

Professor Wooden has been professorial fellow and director of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey project in the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne since 2000. He was previously professor and acting director at the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University.

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, welcomed the appointments which he said were timely given initial submissions to this year’s minimum wage review were due on Friday.

“The new panel members will add valuable economic, business and labour market experience to the Fair Work Commission,” he said.

“Mr Ferguson has a vast amount of experience within industry, Government and the trade union movement. Professor Wooden is one of Australia’s leading labour market economists and director of the HILDA project, which provides important data for annual wage reviews. Ms Labine-Romain has a great deal of relevant experience in Australia and overseas.”