Unions: Deregister Unions and Court Powers

unions: As parliament resumes, the government will press Labor on two bills to crack down on unions one to extend court powers to deregister unions or disqualify officials, and the other to prevent deductions from employees' pay to unregistered workers' benefit funds, according to The Guardian. Coalition set to criminalise wage theft as it pushes on with union integrity bill Read more Last week Centre Alliance's Rex Patrick agreed in principle that unions cannot treat fines for industrial law breaches as a cost of business but challenged the government to go further in ensuring the proposed penalties on unions are consistent with the corporate world . On Sunday Patrick told Guardian Australia the crossbench party is close to a deal on the workers' benefits bill and still working constructively with the government on the union penalties bill. On Sunday the mooted inquiry took a step forward with Rex Patrick reversing Centre Alliance's position and pledging to support the move, although Labor and the Greens still need Cory Bernardi or One Nation's votes to succeed. Labor has resolved to oppose both measures and accused the government of a disproportionate focus on unions rather than employers who underpay workers. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Angus Taylor's one KPI was to reduce power prices but instead they have continued to go up, and up and up, he said. In a further hip pocket attack, Labor's climate change spokesman, Mark Butler, has attacked the Coalition's record on power prices, noting Australian Energy Market Operator figures that average wholesale prices have increased by 158% across the national energy market since 2015. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.