G’day readers. Here’s this week’s edition of Feeding the Chooks, your must-read peek behind the scenes of Queensland politics.
PLUM JOB FOR MATES
Is Labor’s fallen federal starTerri Butlerabout to be appointed by her Queensland government comrades to a lucrative job with the Queensland industrial umpire?
Butler was in line for a senior role inAnthony Albanese’sministry before she was ousted from her Brisbane seat of Griffith by Greens upstartMax Chandler-Matherat the May 2022 election.
Chooks can reveal Butler is now a frontrunner to be appointed to theQueensland Industrial Relations Commissionby Labor IR ministerGrace Grace.
Butler submitted an “expression of interest” for a $378,000-a-year industrial commissioner gig a couple of months ago and Chooks’ well-placed spies say probity checks have begun.
The process, which includes a police background check, is also said to be underway for the Queensland head of the shoppies’ union,Chris Gazenbeek.
If appointed, Butler and Gazenbeek, would join former Queensland Council of Unions general secretaryRos McLennanand ex-Australian Workers’ Union legal adviserJacki Power(wife of Logan MPLinus Power) on the commission.
Before her federal parliamentary career, Butler was a partner at Labor-friendly law firm Hall Payne, specialising in employment and industrial relations and providing advice to unions, and set up Maurice Blackburn’s industrial and employment law practice in Queensland.
Liberal and Labor governments both try to stack commission appointments. The Libs want people with employer backgrounds and Labor pushes for union backgrounds.
Albaneseappointed five people with union backgrounds to the Fair Work Commission in March, (including Grace’s former chief of staffSharon Durham)declaring Labor wanted to fix the Coalition’s “shameless stack” of the tribunal.
Labor ministerMurray Watttold senate estimates this yearthat 25 of 27 appointments made to the federal commission by the former coalition government had an employer background.
