"In a liberal democracy, it is assumed that citizens,
corporations and other organisations will comply with the
law", an exasperated Full Federal Court recently
commented.[1] Perhaps those remarks were conscious of the ACTU
Secretary declaring, "when [the law is] unjust, I
don't think there's a problem with breaking it".
The Full Court's retort to such a sentiment was that
"compliance is not a matter of choice".
Yet compliance (or avoidance) seems to be optional for (some)
unions when it comes to right of entry laws. The laws also allow
for some "considerable uncertainty".[2]
In our view, such attitudes and recent decisions demonstrate
that the right of entry provisions in the Fair Work Act
2009 (Cth) require a serious re-think and modernisation. A
modern system requires laws focussed on professionalism by all
participants.
