PN1

JUSTICE ROSS: Please be seated.

PN2

THE ASSOCIATE: Ceremonial sitting of the Fair Work Commission to welcome Anderson DP, Colman DP, McKinnon C.

PN3

JUSTICE ROSS: Mr O'Sullivan?

PN4

MR O'SULLIVAN: If the Commission pleases, good morning, Mr President and members of the Fair Work Commission, and to representatives of industry, the trade union movement and the legal profession who are present today.

PN5

I welcome and acknowledge Anderson DP, Colman DP, and McKinnon C and your family members who are here with us today.

PN6

The Federal Minister for Employment, Senator the Honourable Michaelia Cash, is unfortunately unable to be here today but asked me to convey her warmest congratulations.

PN7

The Fair Work Commission, as Australia's national workplace relations tribunal, is an esteemed institution in this country. The Commission and its predecessors have a proud history of well over 100 years of services to the nation. This includes presiding over some of the most significant decisions to shape the nation's industrial relations landscape.

PN8

I know that, as the national economy and the nature of employment changes, the Commission will continue to play a vital role in shaping the workplace relations framework into the future. I'm sure Anderson DP, Colman DP, and McKinnon C will make valuable contributions to the Commission.

PN9

Anderson DP, as a new and senior member of the Commission, I know you're highly qualified to bear these responsibilities. You graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Laws with Honours in 1982 from the University of Adelaide and were admitted as a solicitor in 1984. Since that time you have dedicated your professional life to achieving distinction in a range of legal, employment and workplace relations matters.

PN10

After a brief period with an Adelaide legal firm in 1984, you commenced an industrial and legal advocacy role with the Retail Traders Association of South Australia, becoming executive director in 1989.

PN11

The practice of law drew you back in 1993, this time as a partner in the Adelaide legal firm Fisher Jeffries, before your industrial relations talents were put to use within the South Australian Government as a chief of staff and senior advisor to the Minister for Industrial Affairs, before becoming the chief of staff for the then Premier of South Australia.

PN12

Your industrial relations ministerial advisory experience was not limited to South Australia and from 1997 to 2001 you held senior policy advisor positions in the Commonwealth Government. You then embarked on a 12 year career with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, firstly as director of workplace relations, before being promoted to Chief Executive. You have also had significant roles in the international arena, including your election to the governing body of the International Labour Organisation from 2005.

PN13

Your experience as a practising solicitor, a ministerial advisor at the highest levels of state and federal government, and one of Australia's peak business groups, and on the International Labour Organisation, makes you eminently qualified for appointment as Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission.

PN14

Colman DP, as a new and senior member of the Commission, your qualifications to undertake the task required are impressive. You graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Laws and Arts, both with Honours, in 1993 from the University of Melbourne. After being admitted as a solicitor in Victoria in 1996, you completed a Master of Arts in 2000, followed by a Master of Laws in 2001.

PN15

You commenced your legal career in 1995, specialising in employment and workplace relations matters. Since your admission you have risen through the ranks of private practice and by 2016 you were a partner of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, and recognised as one of the leading lawyers in your field.

PN16

During your career you also gained a diverse range of international experience in other fields, with stints at the United Nations in Geneva and as senior counsel for the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development based in London.

PN17

You have a wide range of workplace relations legal experience in a variety of sectors, including aviation, banking, manufacturing, mining, telecommunications, and stevedoring.

PN18

Deputy President, your academic record and experience as a practising solicitor and in providing strategic and legal advice for some of Australia's largest companies across a range of sectors, makes you eminently qualified for appointment as a Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission.

PN19

McKinnon C, as a new member of the Commission I know you're highly qualified to perform these duties. Having received a Bachelor of Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Sydney in 1997, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Technology Sydney in 2004 and obtained accreditation as a mediator, you have used these qualifications as a strong foundation upon which you have built your impressive workplace relations career.

PN20

You have over a decade of experience working in a legal capacity in the field of workplace relations since your admission to legal practice in 2005. You embarked on specialising in workplace relations in 1998 within a workplace relations consultancy practice. You then joined the Department of Employment, working as a lawyer in the workplace relations legal group and rising to the position of principle government lawyer.

PN21

In 2014, the National Farmers' Federation appointed you to the position of general manager of workplace relations and legal affairs. Since then you have undertaken a wide variety of additional roles, including as a member of the National Workplace Relations Consultative Committee, a member of Rural Skills Australia, and as a member of the women's committee of the World Farm Organisation, to name just a few highlights.

PN22

Your broad workplace relations experience in both the private and public sectors and extensive experience representing small and medium sized business as well, I am sure, will be invaluable to the Fair Work Commission. On a personal note, I am very pleased that a former colleague has been appointed to this distinguished role.

PN23

In conclusion, Anderson DP, Colman DP, and McKinnon C, on behalf of the Australian Government I congratulate you on your appointments and wish you well with the tasks ahead.

PN24

MR BARKLAMB: Thank you, your Honour.

PN25

Members of the Commission, colleagues from the ACTU, government and legal profession, friends and family of those being welcomed today, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure this morning to formally welcome Anderson DP, Colman DP, and McKinnon C on behalf of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the wider employer community.

PN26

McKinnon C, you join the Commission as heir to two proud traditions. Those who draft our legislation gain a unique understanding of its mechanics and underpinnings, which provides a particularly strong foundation for applying it in workplaces. Former departmental officers have become very well regarded members of this tribunal over many years and you are very well placed to continue this tradition.

PN27

In your more recent work you've been a resolute and committed advocate for the agricultural industry. We've spent a lot of time debating workplace relations in industries such as manufacturing, transport and, more recently, services. Many of us are, however, guilty of paying too little attention to work inside the farm gate, however, it's worth recalling that it was disputes in agriculture that gave rise to the formation of this Tribunal over ten years ago.

PN28

Agricultural employees were fundamental to the formation of our labour movement and the manufacture of farm machinery indeed gave rise to awards and minimum wages in this country. With the NFF you worked to support an industry that will be fundamental to Australia's future economic performance and that is going through a so significant and telling future of work changes. This Commission will be all the stronger for having someone with your background, both with agricultural employers and with the legislation you are to administer, join it today.

PN29

Colman DP, it's been a genuine pleasure to learn more about the impressive and interesting experience you bring to the Commission. Others will tell this morning of your achievements as a lawyer, linguist, scholar and athlete. We were, however, particularly struck by your international experience, something you share with your new colleague, Anderson DP.

PN30

With the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and with the UN, you have contributed to post conflict reconstruction, to the application of the rule of law in nations with very different legal traditions and very different legal challenges to our own, the international development institutions - indeed the UN and ILO - are lasting legacies of a world trying to do better after the scourge of war. You should be very proud of making your own important contribution to this work and of bringing in that contribution and the unique perspectives you've gained to this Commission.

PN31

Joseph Joubert said that to teach is to learn twice. We take from this that training jurists will have uniquely honed your capacities for mediation and arbitration, for best practice in the administration of justice, and for high quality and well-reasoned decision making.

PN32

Deputy President, we like to think in Australia that our industrial disputes can get pretty willing but we think we can confidently predict that someone who successfully monitored ceasefires in the Nagorno-Karabakh, navigated the former Yugoslavia, and worked extensively in both Russia and the Ukraine will be pretty well placed to assist parties in properly applying the law in even the hottest and most complex of the matters that come before you.

PN33

Anderson DP, some claim that employers - and I've been guilty of this charge myself - do not deliver the most balanced submissions from this Bar table. Well, I'm willing to accept that charge today, as we're going to spend a little longer welcoming you than your two new colleagues.

PN34

You grew up in the working class suburbs of Adelaide. Like your father you appeared the quintessential freckled Aussie kid but this concealed the contribution of your cosmopolitan mother, whose six languages and global outlook had a profound impact upon you, and I must say that the one time I met your mother, she was a particularly impressive and formidable woman.

PN35

With your maternal ancestry dating back to Napoleon and the Swedish Crown, it is not surprising that your career saw you excel on the global stage. It's already been recounted that you graduated with honours from the University of Adelaide, majoring in comparative constitutional law. You were encouraged to undertake post graduate study in North America but chose instead to stay at home and get a job. You were 21 and about to marry.

PN36

Your career started in the law but rapidly moved into industrial relations with the employer movement and into the highest levels of state and federal government. It soon became clear that you didn't just want to practice industrial law, you wanted to change it, and change the system you did.

PN37

The 1994 South Australian Industrial Relations Act, which introduced non-union collective enterprise bargaining, was your handiwork, as indeed were large parts of that state's former Workers Compensation Act. You were involved in the 1996 changes that became the former Workplace Relations Act, in reforms on the waterfront, and in making the case for mandatory pre-strike ballots, and for an unfair dismissal exemption for smaller businesses.

PN38

In 2000 you crafted a ministerial publication Breaking the Gridlock that set out how and why a national system could be established based on the corporations power in our Constitution, a message heeded by governments of successive stripes across the next decade.

PN39

This was a time when overlapping federal and state systems and many hundreds of awards of all sorts of weird and wonderful flavours were considered an acceptable and effective way to regulate employment in a modern economy. You played a significant part in changing this thinking. When the High Court upheld the use of the Constitution's corporation's power in 2007, your legal approach and legal thinking was vindicated by the highest court in our land.

PN40

During this time you joined the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In fact, we started on the same day in 2002. I recall that you quickly decided we should produce a blueprint critiquing the entire system and articulating how it could do better and, at the same time, you thought we should also turn our mind to related areas, such as anti-discrimination and workers compensation, just to round things out. Deputy President, you've never wanted for ambition in what you take on.

PN41

Although industrial matters were your core business, you developed an appetite for broader public policy, something that came to the fore in leading the Australian Chamber. Saturday afternoon retail trading was introduced in South Australia, following a landmark deal on penalty rates that you reached with the SDA in that state earlier in your career, so those traipsing Rundle Mall of a weekend owe you a considerable debt.

PN42

With Peter Reith you not only crafted industrial relations policy and legislation, but also significant small business reforms, such as the first statutory cause for unconscionable conduct between large and small businesses and the first national franchising code of conduct. Also while working with Peter Reith, you developed 101 good ideas for reform of the then industrial relations system. Deputy President, this was an exercise in open, fundamental policy review that no party would be willing to undertake in these more risk-averse focus group-driven times, an exercise in genuine courage and foresight. With your strong policy and analytical background, it was no surprise you were appointed by the Abbott Government to be part of the Harper Review into Australia's competition law and policy.

PN43

Deputy President, you were thrice thrown into the deep end of economic crises during your career - your pre-Commission career. The South Australian State Bank went under soon after you became chief executive of that state's retailers and you worked with then Premier John Bannon and his treasurer on policies to secure business and consumer confidence, a demonstration in capacity to find policy solutions that were needed at the right time in urgent and crisis circumstances. Lightning struck twice. Shortly after becoming CEO of the Australian Chamber, the global financial crisis struck. Again, you worked successfully with a Labor leader and treasurer, this time Prime Minister Rudd and Treasurer Swan, on policy responses, including financial stimulus and protecting our banking and financial system.

PN44

Throughout your pre-Commission career you came to be respected by leaders, ministers, departments on all sides of politics for the way you went about your work. You also enjoy to this day the highest levels of regard amongst those you led in the Chamber's staff and throughout my organisation's membership.

PN45

You've also developed a particular knack for dealing with minor parties in upper houses, a skill forged in South Australia when the Democrats held the balance of power. This is a skill set the current government may wish it had more of as it tries to navigate its budget through the Senate during coming weeks.

PN46

Deputy President, one element of your career is particularly well regarded literally throughout the world. Between 2005 and '14 you were a leading member of the International Labour Organisation's governing body and came to lead the world's employers in the ILO's vitally important Committee for Freedom of Association. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the global body that protects the most fundamental labour rights to associate and organise. There are few tougher jobs in the United Nations system where you don't wear a blue helmet, directly provide medical aid or feed people in need.

PN47

But rather than me try and communicate this morning the scale of your international achievements and the regard in which you're held globally, I co-opted some better qualified voices. The first is Senor Daniel Funes de Rioja, longstanding head of the world's employers and he says:

PN48

During his IOE years, Peter was always a convinced and articulate promoter of the principles and fundamental rights that inspire the ILO agenda and a clear voice to defend the role of business and private initiative in tripartite debate. Respectful of the rules and of people, Peter combined the art of social dialogue with the prevalence of the rule of law. To him my personal consideration and institutional high regard.

PN49

Congratulations also come today from someone who'll be more familiar to those here, head of the Global Trade Union Movement, Sharan Burrow. Sharan said:

PN50

Congratulations, Peter. You will make a great Commission member. Your commitment to decent work and your commitment to just outcomes has been well-demonstrated in your international work at the ILO and in particular as the spokesperson for the employer's group in the Committee on Freedom of Association. The strength of the Fair Work Commission and its predecessors has been the mix of Commission members from worker and employer representative backgrounds who value rights and the rule of law.

PN51

The final international message comes from the Director General of the International Labour Organisation itself, His Excellency Mr Guy Ryder and I quote again:

PN52

I want to offer Peter my heartfelt congratulations on his richly deserved appointment to Australia's arbitration tribunal. Having been able to see Peter at work in the international arena here at the ILO, I know well that he brings great personal and professional qualities to these important new responsibilities. He has a keen understanding of the technical complexity, deep experience of the realities of the world of work and a highly developed sense of fairness and equity. Those he will serve in future will have many reasons to be grateful to Peter, just as all of us at the ILO are grateful for his contributions here for many years. We wish him all good fortune.

PN53

Jess, Emily, Dan, I hope these messages convey something of the regard in which your father is held at the highest levels of our profession throughout the world. You've just heard one of the highest ranking officials in the United Nations and the representatives of tens of millions of employers and employees throughout the world paying respect to your father and wishing him well.

PN54

Deputy President, you've successfully worked with prime ministers, premiers, ministers, heads of global institutions, business leaders and some of the world's toughest union officials but throughout you've always worked for people in workplaces and for the good of the communities in which Australians live and work. You were forthright in advocacy but patient, courteous and honourable in all dealings and you overwhelmingly secured results. A fine background to bring to this Commission and a fine career at the forefront of advocacy domestically and globally.

PN55

I can attest that you've told employers and politicians what they needed to know, even when they didn't want to hear it and whilst unflinching in prosecuting your brief, you've always remained humble and respectful of others. You did your work without calling up favours, without doing side deals and without taking shortcuts. That's how you ran ACCI, leading by example, demanding nothing of others you didn't do yourself and you've helped and mentored many others.

PN56

I should add at this point how much I personally value your mentorship and professional support during our time working together and afterwards and the wider friendship we developed. Particularly thank you for your care and friendship when I faced illness and uncertainty in my life.

PN57

It's also been an absolute privilege to share something of the immense pride you take in your children, Emily, Jess and Dan, and their achievements and this perhaps being shaded only more recently by the joy at number one grandson, Jack, and can I say what an absolute pleasure it is to be interrupted and have a different vibe in this room, if you will, by so many children here today. It's an absolute pleasure to speak.

PN58

It was also a genuine pleasure to be in touch with you and have your regular visits from home when I was living overseas and starting my own family, far from friends and family.

PN59

Deputy President, you do, however, make some interesting recreational choices. Your idea of a well-earned rest after heading ACCI was to get on your bike and ride from one end of Thailand to the other to raise money for Tsunami orphans. For good measure you went back a year later and did it again, although I do know how much you value the chance to ride with your son Dan. With all this riding and with Deputy Presidents running, you only need a swimmer from the Bench to have the triathlon covered.

PN60

Perhaps the most telling aspect of your achievements, at least to those who have worked with you, is the way you've stared down personal adversity and the personal cost of your appetite for hard work and long hours. You lost your father too early to an aneurysm and you lost your brother in 2007 when he took his own life.

PN61

You've successfully faced four heart operations in 12 years and periods of genuine discomfort and difficulty. Few in this room may know that an aneurysm in your aortic root would have taken your life at 45, had it not been unexpectedly found and fixed.

PN62

However, rather than become a source of anxiety, you've approached every day since as a new opportunity, a precious day not to be wasted. This, in itself, is an amazing achievement. Your former organisations, members and peers and all those here are all the better for it and this Tribunal will be all the better not only for your knowledge, experience, capacities but also for the uniquely positive attitude and energy you will bring to each day sitting in this Commission.

PN63

The Australian Chamber has a proud tradition of its alumni making substantial contributions to this institution. A number are here today. Deputy President, you, your family, Jess, Emily, Daniel and young Jack, should be immensely proud to have you join their number.

PN64

Deputy Presidents, Commissioner, you have the opportunity to add your chapters to the storied history of this institution and the contribution it makes to our nation. The employer community wishes you every success in applying the law informed by the substantial experience each of you brings to the Commission to the matters that come before you. May your future cases be as interesting and as rewarding as the diverse experience and qualities you bring to this institution today. Thank you.

PN65

MR CLARKE: Yes, thank you. Members of the Commission, my friends at the Bar table, guests of the new appointees and members of the public gallery. It's my pleasure to acknowledge Anderson DP, Colman DP, and McKinnon C and congratulate them on their appointments on behalf of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

PN66

Anderson DP, you are well known to us from your time at ACCI and also through your commitment to tipartism through the constructive role you've played in various fora in which our organisation is also involved, including the ILO the International Labour Advisory Committee, your progression of the skills agenda, and your work in the Asia Pacific Region.

PN67

Your policy experience and legal expertise is impressive and your prior roles in ministerial offices, no doubt give you some insights into the reality that is often lost in the legal search for the parliamentary intention when construing legislation.

PN68

Throughout your career you have earned a reputation as a proficient and persistent advocate for those whose interests you are representing, but also as somebody who could see the other side of the coin and saw merit in the search for common ground.

PN69

Colman DP, starting a legal career in the workplace relations practice at Freehills in 1995 was a pretty good move for somebody interested in the pointy end of industrial relations law. In well over a decade in that capacity, you no doubt had carriage of some very significant industrial dispute litigation. During that time you were also seconded to the public sector and contributed to the policy development process for new workplace relations laws.

PN70

Your most recent workplace relations role was, of course, at Corrs, where you assisted a range of public and private sector clients but these workplace relations roles were punctuated by a sojourn of sorts from strict workplace relations matter when you worked internationally on investment policy related initiatives. I understand that a portion of the work involved something called judicial capacity assessments. I'm not exactly sure what a judicial capacity assessment involves but I suspect it's a field of expertise that probably someone ought not brag about on their first day in a new job.

PN71

McKinnon C, I've had the pleasure of crossing paths with you throughout numerous particularly award related proceedings in the Commission and in policy related discussions convened by the Commonwealth Government, mainly in your role representing the National Farmers Federation but also before that. You're regarded as a person of utmost integrity.

PN72

If I may make one observation, you're very clear and efficient in your language. After hearing your concise submissions, I've often been left with zero doubt of exactly why it is I am wrong and how it is that I am wrong and just how wrong I am. You have always been a thorough but fair advocate in matters in this Commission and I look forward to reading your decisions and I hope I'm not on the wrong side of them too often.

PN73

It's a great pleasure to see three new appointments from the legal profession, each of whom have had some involvement in workplace relations policy formation. You have each proven your capacity to shift your thinking between the immediate short-term interests and firm level gains of the employers that you're representing and the broader systemic issues the social and economic contexts that are the springboard for the law that's applied in this place.

PN74

One cannot engage in workplace relations policy or practice successfully in workplace relations law in this country without understanding just how important and unique this institution is or without accepting its necessity or its purpose in the labour market. Your deep understanding and acceptance commends you to these high offices. On behalf of the ACTU, I warmly welcome your appointment.

PN75

MS BATROUNEY: May it please the Commission, I appear on behalf of the Australian legal profession, the Law Council of Australia, the Australian Bar Association and their constituent bodies, including, of course, the Victorian Bar and the Law Institute of Victoria.

PN76

With me at the Bar table is Belinda Wilson, the president of the Law Institute of Victoria. Before I commence, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which we meet, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

PN77

The Legal Profession congratulates Peter Anderson DP and Alan Colman DP and Sarah McKinnon C on your appointments to the Commission.

PN78

In each case your appointment is based on the foundation of many years as a passionate and also thoughtful and responsible advocate in the industrial jurisdiction.

PN79

Anderson DP is also a cyclist. Colman DP runs marathons and McKinnon C, who describes her fitness goals as otherwise aspirational, runs the constant and relentless marathon of, with her husband, raising three boys.

PN80

Anderson DP's honours thesis was in comparative constitutional law on the taxing power of the Commonwealth with comparison to the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Your thesis supervisor was the late Professor Alex Castles. Professor Castles is described as having had a rare ability to combine the life of an academic with a role in the public arena. He was an influential foundation Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission and his works have been frequently cited in High Court judgments from Mabo onwards. To this day you speak of the significance of Professor Castles influence. Your own career from early days to date reflects that influence, the powerful combination of scholarship, in your case practice and public service and policy.

PN81

As a young lawyer, at the Retail Traders Association, you learned an object lesson about business. Your desk was near a piece of equipment that emitted noxious fumes. You asked to be moved near a window. The response was that windows are for merchandise, not staff.

PN82

As a solicitor, your commitment and industry were extraordinary. Michael Evans, now chief judge of the South Australia District Court was a partner of Thomson Simmons when you worked there. Only partially in jest, his Honour says that although he was the partner, you were the one putting through a power of work.

PN83

He went to the independent bar, later taking silk. You returned to the Retail Traders as executive director and then became a partner at Fisher Jeffries. You used your legal skills and lateral thinking to further policy. In the 1980s, as an advocate in your first tilt at the South Australian restrictive Saturday trading hours, the industrial magistrate accepted your inventive historical argument that the 1911 proclamation was defective and of no legal effect, however, her Honour held that the defect was cured by subsequent proclamations in the 1960s and 70s.

PN84

Undeterred, in the arbitration concerning the 38 hour week, you persuaded the South Australian Commission to adopt flexible implementation methods. On your advice, the South Australian minister, unable to get legislation through, introduced Sunday trading in Adelaide by proclamation. In 1995, this was upheld in the High Court.

PN85

In 2000, you advised the Commonwealth minister on using the corporations power in section 51(xx) of the Constitution for work choices. In 2006 this also was upheld in the High Court.

PN86

As we've heard, in 2014, after 12 years with the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, you stepped down as CEO. You undertook an 800 kilometre charity bike ride in Thailand. You didn't want a gift for your retirement from the Chamber. Instead, you asked that people donate to your Thailand charity ride. I'm sure the many lawyers in the room hope that this generosity of spirit continues on the Bench.

PN87

Colman DP and I recently worked together on a large and complex superannuation case in the Federal Court. I experienced, up close and personal, your brilliance, balance and composure as an instructing solicitor.

PN88

You began at Freehills while still at university as a vacation summer clerk. Your principle, Graeme Smith, recalls that there was something of the Tasmania wilderness in your appearance at that time. At work you sported in those days, can you believe it, a fine, long ponytail. The high quality of your work as a summer clerk overcame the conservative reaction of some of the partners on the selection committee and they took you on for articles anyway.

PN89

Not only that, the firm supported your application to the Supreme Court to interrupt your years' articles in order to undertake a three month assignment for the United Nations to report on the consequences of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The partners were glad that they'd supported you. As a young lawyer in 1999, when all the partners were off on a retreat somewhere, in the one day you responded to seven separate sets of instructions for interlocutory injunctions.

PN90

The arts component in your combined law arts degree was not merely token. You took an arts honours degree, majoring in Russian and German and later a Master of Arts in Germanic Studies.

PN91

Your German came in hand intervening for the minister in the High Court appeal in The Minister v Gribbles Radiology. The Commonwealth solicitor-general, then David Bennett QC, was giving his Victorian junior, who was on the verge of silk and is now a Supreme Court judge, a hard time over his special leave questions. At issue was whether the purchaser of a business was a successor to the seller of the business and so succeeded to an earlier industrial award. Was the business the same?

PN92

The junior was making no headway. Bennett QC had that glazed look and was gazing out as his panoramic view over Sydney Harbour. "Oh, look, a sea plane." You broke the impasse. You said, "We don't have the subtlety in English but isn't the concept the difference between das selbe and das gleiche?" The Solicitor-General's eyes lit up. You picked up two identical bulldog clips from his desk. They look the same but are not one and the same. The solicitor general beamed. You were on your way to special leave and eventually to the High Court reversal of the Full Federal Court decision.

PN93

Overseas you have run marathons in London, Berlin, Paris, Ljubljana, Flanders and Cape Town. You have, as I understand it, taken your marathon time from 4 hours 17 minutes to under three hours. This bodes well for decision writing times.

PN94

McKinnon C majored in government in her economics degree from the University of Sydney. You became the third consultant at First IR, the firm's first female consultant. Paul Houlihan First IR's founding director is here today from Sydney. He says you raised the tone of his rather loud and bawdy firm and, conversely, that you adapted somewhat to the environment.

PN95

Your interest in people and how employment law affects us all spurred you to study law. Throughout your law course, you worked full-time at First IR. You obtained the required law firm work experience with Gordon Henderson at Henderson Workplace Lawyers and you were admitted to practice in New South Wales as a solicitor in July 2005.

PN96

For your first appearance in the New South Wales State Industrial Commission, you asked Paul Houlihan, your mentor, to come with you. You were, as in all things, thoroughly prepared and you have never lacked confidence. You stood to announce your appearance. You opened your mouth but produced now sound. Your ears were find and you heard a male voice. "If the Commission please, Sarah McKinnon appears for the applicant", and then you were off. It has been said with affection and respect, that nothing and no one has been able to stop you ever since.

PN97

You went to the Department of Employment in November 2006 and you were there until April 2014. This was a critical time. The WorkChoices amendments passed in December 2005 and the principal amendments came into effect in March 2006. You worked at a Senior level on the Fair Work Act in 2009. You briefed the minister on the Qantas dispute in 2011 and you instructed in cases such as Tristar in 2007 and Toyota in 2013. No doubt you will continue to forge the law on the Bench in this Commission.

PN98

On behalf of the national legal profession and especially the Victorian legal profession, Ms Wilson and I wish you, Anderson DP, Colman DP, McKinnon C, satisfying and distinguished service as members of the Commission. May it please the Commission.

PN99

JUSTICE ROSS: Anderson DP?

PN100

DEPUTY PRESIDENT ANDERSON: Welcome to you all, including family and friends on video conference from Adelaide. Welcome. Thank you, Mr O'Sullivan, Mr Barklamb and Mr Clarke and Ms Batrouney for your generous remarks. I'm grateful to you for following the usual practice at ceremonies of this kind and exaggerating my achievements and tactfully omitting my shortcomings. I join you in extending my congratulations to Alan Colman DP and Sarah McKinnon C, with whom I share this occasion.

PN101

Life, including one's professional career, is not just a product of conscientious work but also providence. While humbled by your welcome, I know that providence has also played its part. It was providence that brought my parents together, one a cultured multilingual woman from Alexandria, Egypt, as you've heard, the other a down-to-earth farmhand from South Australia's mid-north. Quite a combination.

PN102

Their memory looms large with me today. They have passed on but what hasn't passed on are the values of our working class family and they also demonstrated to me how difference and diversity can combine and enrich the whole.

PN103

My mother encouraged me into tertiary education. My father encouraged me not to let that education go to my head. Both taught that you earn respect by example, not status or demand. Both believed in reward for effort. Both railed against laziness and wastefulness.

PN104

So today I thank my late parents first and foremost; so too my sister Kathleen and her family and my late brother Philip and his family; my grandmother's Queenie and Jean, worlds apart, but each warm and generous; and, of course, my three children Jessica, Emily and Daniel, who are now young adults etching their mark on family and society. They join us today here in Melbourne with my grandson Jack and son-in-law Scott and with the best wishes of my other son-in-law, Dylan, who is in Adelaide.

PN105

Providence has brought many others into my working life. I think of my school teachers at Brompton Primary School and Woodville High School and my lecturers at the University of Adelaide. I thank the governments of the 1970s for opening up low cost tertiary education to families like mine. My experience is that a word of encouragement from an educator or workplace mentor can go a long way to creating belief in one's self. Caring remarks from people like my late honours supervisor, Professor Alex Castles, were highly influential in giving the courage of a young, skinny kid the confidence to make their way in the world.

PN106

My career has exposed me to law, to politics, to business, to industrial relations and to the media here in Australia and overseas. I have been honoured to sit in cabinet rooms and board rooms, represent industry on the world stage, advise ministers, heads of government and court public opinion. Yes, I have turned my hand to some big tasks but it is the value of effort by smaller, less powerful people in the economy that makes a lasting impression.

PN107

My first job was a teenager, standing in the sun, wind and rain wearing a terry towelling hat, pulling out nails from jarrah and pine floorboards at Deslandes Salvage on Port Road in Adelaide, where my dad worked. It was unfashionable but valuable. In recent years I've seen that same spirit of enterprise and effort at work in Southeast Asia, where I've worked with private industry and employer organisations.

PN108

I embraced industrial relations and public policy because good outcomes in those fields can make a bigger difference than the pure practice of law. My first appearance in the 1984 State Wage Case in South Australia exposed me to an intoxicating mix of law, of economics, of industrial politics, of business people and of working people. I was hooked. I thank all of those who employed me over the years. I place value on the risk taken by employers when they employ. Each could have chosen others. In this new venture, I thank the Minister who recommended my appointment and those who supported that course.

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As a young lawyer and employer advocate, I was impressed by the fearless advocacy of Bryan Noakes with CAI and then ACCI. To my good fortune, in 2001 Bryan ushered me into my international work. As federal minister, Peter Reith brought me to the eastern seaboard in 1997 and allowed me to apply my legal and policy work on the national stage. He was a reformer and consummate professional from whom I learned much. I mention Bryan and Peter because they would be here but for ill-health. I wish them the best with their recoveries.

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None of you, however, would know Garth Martin but I did. He was a lay advocate with the South Australian employer organisations in the 1970s, 1960s and even 1950s. When I started in 1984, he was given the task of mentoring me for a few days a week. He taught me that some of the best advocates were not lawyers but industrial officers who knew the system like the back of their hand and had the practical zeal for it, which some lawyers lacked. As his mind's eye recounted the system as it operated in the 1950s, I learned another lesson, that we are just a modern manifestation of what came before. He passed away three years ago but I'll be visiting his wife Terri in Adelaide with a transcript of today's ceremony.

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I acknowledge the organised employer and chamber of commerce movements here and overseas, as well as the union officials with whom I have jousted and also done some good work. I have observed and respected many in my working life but have never sought to emulate anyone. I have always believed in the uniqueness of each individual and learned to be comfortable in living with my judgment and my conscience. I intend to take that approach into this new work. I will be both collegiate and independent.

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On assuming this role, I take an oath of office and will do so on my mother's French bible. That oath will require me to do some things differently. My focus is now on the application of the law, not its formulation. On what is just and right according to the merits, not the force of advocacy or public opinion. I thank friends and colleagues for their understanding and forbearance in advance.

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Whilst my focus must narrow, I will strive to maintain a sense of connectivity to the real circumstances facing investors, employers and employees. Nothing we do here operates in a vacuum. The broader legal system, the real economy, the vagaries of life and the vicissitudes of the private sector rightly hold us to account. In my chambers, in my courtroom, I will not only engage the law and the parties but also my father's call to common sense and my mother's injunction to act in a way that commands respect.

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With the utmost sincerity I thank family, friends, and colleagues, who supported me through unexpected ill-health. Ill-health does not define me but your support and the wonders of modern medicine and the medical professionals here in Melbourne have uplifted me on more than one occasion. I thank them.

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President, I conclude by thanking members and staff of this Commission past and present, especially here and in Adelaide, for the very warm welcome and guidance given to me in these early weeks.

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JUSTICE ROSS: Colman DP?

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DEPUTY PRESIDENT COLMAN: Thank you, President. Good morning, everyone.

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I've had a keen and long interest in the work of the Commission. This began as a student at university where, for a time, I was a non-faculty tutor in constitutional and administrative law and I noticed the large number of landmark cases that related to industrial relations: decisions on separation of powers, commonwealth and state power, judicial tenure and the High Court's jurisdiction to review tribunal decisions for error. So I decided to study labour law and then to practice it and have never regretted it.

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Labour law and the work of the Commission is a substantively diverse and interesting field with an intricate statute, extensive case law and 113 years of history. But it's not only a very interesting field, it's also a highly important one. It has a vivid human dimension, as it affects people's living standards and it also has an important economic dimension, as it bears on the productivity and competitiveness of Australian businesses.

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Mindful of this, I'll endeavour to carry out my statutory responsibilities methodically and, as the Act directs, in a manner that is fair and just. I hope to be reasonable and reasoned and to have the confidence of the parties that appear before me. There are many people who have been great friends and mentors to me in my professional life, from Corrs, Freehills, the Victorian Bar and beyond, and many of you are here today, so thank you all very much.

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I'd like to thank my family, who is also here. My wife Meagan and my parents, Anne and Peter. I'd like to thank today's speakers: Jennifer Batrouney QC, thank you very much for speaking. It was a pleasure working with you over the last year. It was a real highlight of my last year of practice, so thank you. I'd also like to thank Jeremy O'Sullivan and Scott Barklamb and Trevor Clarke for your kind words. Thank you Belinda Wilson also. And, lastly and importantly, I would like to thank my fellow members for their assistance in my first weeks at the Commission. It was greatly appreciated, thank you.

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JUSTICE ROSS: McKinnon C?

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COMMISSIONER McKINNON: Thank you to you all for your kind words. Jeremy, thank you, both personally and for your generous remarks on behalf of the minister. Having worked as your junior for many years, I know what a wonderful lawyer you are and how committed you are to delivering the best legal service you can for the minister of the day.

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Thank you also to Trevor and to Scott, two men who continue to play an important role in shaping workplace relations in this country. Having done my penance in an industry body representative role, I know how much how you invest in doing just that. Scott was one of the first people to ring me at the NFF and welcome me to the new role and I knew I was having an impact when Trevor turned to somebody else at the Bar table in a modern award review proceeding and asked if the farmers were here.

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Jennifer, as a recent immigrant to the State of Victoria, it's an unexpected pleasure to have such interest and support from the Victorian Bar, so thank you too.

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It is a true privilege to be appointed to this honourable Commission and to have been so warmly welcomed by my fellow members and staff of the Commission over the past few weeks.

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I am one of five children, four of us here today, and one other in Peru. We grew up in the semi-rural town of Moss Vale, where my father was the local optometrist for 43 years and, consequently, the worst person to walk down the street with if you were in a hurry. My mother is a palliative care social worker, who has devoted her professional life to making the last days of the dying worth living. My parents gave me the stability, the security and education that all children deserve and I will always be grateful.

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I have had a very rewarding career to date and it's only been possible because of the unconditional support of my husband Brian and his willingness to take on the role of chief parent with its endless school lunches, drop offs and pickups. Brian and our three beautiful boys, Xavier, Matthew and Sam, have endured more nights without mum than their fair share in recent years and I couldn't do without them.

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I didn't know what I wanted to be when I left school and so, like many others, I enrolled in the ubiquitous Sydney University arts degree, with its diversity of offerings. Amusingly in hindsight, I tried without success to get into the industrial relations course, filling out the green form instead of the pink one, a fatal error as it was.

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I landed instead in the world of economics, politics and women's studies and when I finished university I got a call out of the blue from a man ahead of his time, who said he wanted to employ a woman and would I like a job? I want to acknowledge and say thank you to Paul Houlihan, who set me on my path and encouraged me to study law. He was a wonderful boss and mentor and taught me so much.

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Shane Coyne, Paul's long suffering partner, taught me the value of moderation, gently nudging me off my high horse on more than one occasion. I also acknowledge Peter Rochfort who wore out countless red pens making sure I was a competent technician of my trade.

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I went on, as we've heard, to work in the Department of Employment, helping to craft the Fair Work Act. I learnt the language of government and became involved in a number of cases behind the scenes. As it turns out, those early years were the perfect apprenticeship for the National Farmers Federation. Working with the NFF gave me new insight into the reality of life in rural and regional Australia, its particular challenges and opportunities. Many of the great industrial battles, as Scott said, in our history were fought on farm soil and shaped the industrial relations landscape in ways that today we take for granted.

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Workplace laws affect us all in some way at some time in our life, which is what makes it such an interesting space to work in. I'm very much looking forward to this new chapter of my life and to playing my part, as John Loty would say, in giving a fair go to all. Thank you.

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JUSTICE ROSS: Thank you.

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Before we adjourn, I'll shortly invite each of our new members to take the oath or affirmation of office. They've each done so formally previously but it's also important that it be done on this occasion. It's important because the oath of office represents the compact between the new member and the community which we serve. It is a compact by which the member undertakes to faithfully and impartially perform the duties of their new office.

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DEPUTY PRESIDENT ANDERSON: I, Peter Christian Anderson, do swear that I will bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors according to law, that I will well and truly serve her in the Office of Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission, and that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of the Office, so help me God.

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DEPUTY PRESIDENT COLMAN: I, Alan Carnegie Colman, do solemnly and sincerely promise and declare that I will bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors according to law, and that I will well and truly serve her in the office of Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission, and that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of the office.

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COMMISSIONER McKINNON I, Sarah Margaret McKinnon, do swear that I will bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors according to law, that I will well and truly serve her in the office of Commissioner of the Fair Work Commission, and that I will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of the office, so help me God.

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JUSTICE ROSS: Before we adjourn, in addition to welcoming and congratulating our three new members, I'd also like to take this public opportunity to congratulate our General Manager Bernadette O'Neill on her reappointment for a further five year term.

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Nothing further? Thank you. We will adjourn.

ADJOURNED INDEFINITELY [9.56 AM]