PN1

VICE PRESIDENT HATCHER: Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to the Elders, both past and present.

PN2

This ceremony today is for the purpose of acknowledging the appointment to the Fair Work Commission of Matheson C, and I welcome the Commissioner's family, the speakers at the Bar table, and all the other guests present. I will now ask Mr Hehir, the Deputy Secretary for Industrial Relations in the Attorney‑General's Department, who is representing the Minister this morning, to speak first. Mr Hehir.

PN3

MR M HEHIR: Good morning, Vice President. If the Commission pleases, I too acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to the Elders, past and present. I would like to extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people present today.

PN4

Good morning, Vice President and representatives of industry, the trade union movement and the legal profession. I particularly welcome and acknowledge Commissioner Alana Matheson and members of her family on this significant and happy occasion.

PN5

I appear today representing the Australian government and the Attorney‑General, and Minister for Industrial Relations, Senator the Honourable Michaelia Cash. The Attorney‑General apologises that she is unable to meet with us today to welcome Matheson C.

PN6

The Fair Work Commission, like Fair Work Australia before it, is required to perform functions and exercise powers under the Fair Work Act 2009. Fair Work Australia was a successor to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, and before it the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission.

PN7

The Fair Work Commission and its predecessors have played an important role in shaping Australia's industrial relations landscape for over 100 years. During this time the functions and remit of this institution have grown as a result of social, economic and legislative change. Now that the national industrial relations legislation covers the majority of Australian workplaces, the decisions of this Commission have broad ranging impacts throughout the country.

PN8

The appointment of Matheson C will contribute to the vital role that the Fair Work Commission plays in ensuring that our industrial relations system operates in a fair and transparent manner, and promotes cooperative and productive Australian workplaces.

PN9

Matheson C, your appointment commenced on 5 July 2021. You have been appointed to perform the full range of Fair Work Commission functions. You bring to the Commission your considerable experience and knowledge of industrial relations issues at a practical workplace level and in dealing with high level, complex issues in national and international settings. This will be very valuable to the community that is served by the work of this tribunal.

PN10

The balance and fairness of the system depends on the integrity and skills of Members of the tribunal. You are noted for these attributes and will no doubt make an important contribution to the work of the tribunal for years to come. Great responsibilities are placed on Members of the Fair Work Commission. If they are to discharge their responsibilities effectively, they require the goodwill, understanding and cooperation of parties, employers, employees and their representatives. I trust that this will be forthcoming from all concerned to you as a new Member of the Commission.

PN11

Matheson C, on behalf of the Australian government I congratulate you on your appointment. I convey a good will and wish you well in the exercise of responsibilities of your office. May it please the Commission.

PN12

VICE PRESIDENT HATCHER: The next speaker will be Mr Barklamb, who will be representing the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the employer organisations generally. Mr Barklamb.

PN13

MR S BARKLAMB: Thank you, your Honour. Good morning, your Honour, Commissioners, and can I add my acknowledgement of country to those already made.

PN14

I would like to start by addressing some brief remarks, your Honour, to you the Vice President, and through you to all Members of the Commission and staff, particularly here in Sydney. I want to take the opportunity on behalf of ACCI and its members today to express our continuing appreciation for the efforts to successfully deliver on your responsibilities throughout COVID. The past two years have been a time of extraordinary uncertainty and difficulty.

PN15

The tribunal was asked to play a very important role, and a changing role, in 2020, changed in 2021, and changing again in 2022. The Commission's success in remaining open and accessible, providing information, supporting positive workplace relations, dealing with unexpected disputes and uncertainties, and delivering on the dynamic role parliament entrusted to you in a highly uncertain and adverse environment should be acknowledged and has been sincerely appreciated by the employer community.

PN16

Matheson C, there are two varieties of these welcome speeches. Each is quite genuine in its good wishes, but they're distinguished by welcoming people you know well and those you know less well. I am very pleased today on behalf of ACCI to offer a welcome that falls into that first group. It is a genuine pleasure to be able to offer some reflections and well wishes to somebody I have had the opportunity to work beside, domestically and internationally, that I hold in the highest personal regard and that ACCI members hold in very high regard, and I should add, somebody that taught me a great deal in our time working together.

PN17

Commissioner, you were ACCI's lead advocate in a wide variety of matters, including wage reviews and significant Full Bench matters impacting on employers and employees. You prosecuted ACCI advocacy before inquiries, before parliamentary committees, in the media, and behind closed doors with government and union colleagues.

PN18

You came to your role at ACCI following extensive experience in the housing industry, which gave you a well‑developed understanding of work in smaller businesses, and also in a very different role, in major construction, and in a very different direction again, you also have experience in the charitable sector and its unique employment and service delivery challenges.

PN19

Most recently prior to your appointment you worked with a wide variety of businesses on a wide variety of matters, including tackling what is surely one of the most difficult challenges in contemporary industrial relations: assessing compliance with what people are paid in large and complex workplaces. Anyone who has worked with you, whether from a union, employer, administrative or political background, will be in no doubt that you are a substantial positive addition to this tribunal and to its work.

PN20

I want to reflect further on just one area of your pre‑employment experience. Commissioner, you were invited in the 100th year of the International Labour Organisation to represent employers in more than 180 countries in relation to the making of a historic international treaty addressing violence and harassment, and in particular the gendered dimensions of violence and their interaction with the world of work.

PN21

I want to stress how big a deal the centenary of the ILO was and the central role you played throughout the 2019 International Labour Conference. You were one of the stars of a very big, occasionally standing room only, global event. Your capacity for social dialogue, pragmatic, productive negotiation and advocacy was instrumental in the centenary conference delivering a new standard, which countries are now considering. A positive, productive outcome was not guaranteed and your efforts were critical.

PN22

The standout point to me was to watch you successfully stand up for a point of principle, of human rights, of fairness, and of diversity. You faced opposition from all quarters, including from countries whose values are very different to those of Australians. This was a very difficult situation. People around you were in such personal distress that they were passing out, breaking down in tears, and confronting the collision between those who stood up for their values and those wanting to play politics and entrenched bigotry. You calmly, methodically and stoically delivered on not only what you were tasked with doing but also what was morally right and what was actually in the interest of both employers and employees.

PN23

The courage, assurance, resolution, command of detail and clarity of thought you demonstrated at the highest levels of global industrial relations augers particularly well for your success on this Commission. Of course, the role you are playing now is no longer making policy but rather applying the precepts set by parliament to the merits of the matters brought before you, but let no one be in any doubt about the fierce commitment you have to accuracy, rigour, merit, justice and fairness.

PN24

You speak often of your experiences growing up in Campbelltown, rising to become its Deputy Mayor, and your work in retail, for example, when younger. This experience also gives you an invaluable understanding and of an empathy with small businesspeople, employees, including the lower paid directly subject to the decisions of this tribunal, and those who want work and the local communities in which they come together to live and work. This background will again be an enduring asset you bring to your role.

PN25

Finally, Commissioner, I know from our time together and our friendship how important family is to you. If I have it right, you have four generations of your family here today and I want to conclude by speaking to them.

PN26

You should be exceptionally proud of Alana today. She has through her achievements, dedication and hard work been entrusted with a substantial opportunity for community service, and a substantial and important legal responsibility. The responsibility Matheson C assumes today continues a record of public service to Australia across generations of your family.

PN27

I am confident, and all of the Commission's peers that have had an opportunity to work with her from all sides will have no doubt that she will excel and will deliver just, legally rigorous and well‑considered outcomes for employers, employees and all those who come before her. If the Commission pleases.

PN28

VICE PRESIDENT HATCHER: Now Mr Kemppi will speak on behalf of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

PN29

MR S KEMPPI: Thank you, Vice President. May it please the Commission, I speak on behalf of the ACTU, firstly to say welcome to Matheson C. It is a very significant role that you have taken on today and we welcome you aboard.

PN30

From hearing your employment history and from reading about it, having not dealt with you personally, I can say that it is impressive and we are confident that you will bring all of that to your role – your experience as a worker, your experience working on large, complex disputes, as well the international experience to inform how it is you approach the matters of the Commission. It is not an insignificant role and we look forward to you doing it without fear and favour.

PN31

Finally, I also wish to acknowledge the number of friends, family and colleagues that you have here today, which we take as an indication of your good standing. So welcome aboard, and we look forward to working with you. Thank you.

PN32

VICE PRESIDENT HATCHER: I will now invite Matheson C to respond.

PN33

COMMISSIONER MATHESON: Thank you, Hatcher VP and Members of the Bench, and I thank you, Mr Hehir, Mr Kemppi and Mr Barklamb for your kind words.

PN34

Those who know me well know that I am generally a private person by nature and not particularly comfortable talking about myself, but with your indulgence today I would like to use this opportunity to talk about some very special people who are near and dear to me, and those people are my grandparents.

PN35

I wish to briefly speak about them, because, firstly, their story to an extent enables us to reflect on the evolution of work in Australia. Secondly, their life journey as telling of how opportunities to access paid work, combined with hard work and sacrifice, helped to improve living standards, not just for those who access those opportunities but for generations that follow them. And finally, they have played a large part in shaping the person that I am today and it would be remiss of me if I did not acknowledge them.

PN36

Until last year I was very fortunate to have all four of my grandparents with me, a blessing which I acknowledge is very rare at my life stage. While Pop sadly passed away last year, aged 98, in his aged care facility during a COVID‑19 lockdown, today my eldest living grandparent, Joan, is also 98 years of age.

PN37

My grandmother, Joan, commenced her working life as a book binder, a role that has today largely been replaced through technological intervention. She took on various roles and ended her working life as a tea lady, a role that was in those days reserved for women, and the roles of the executive she served reserved largely for men. At 98 she remains bright and articulate, and I often wonder what her life may have looked like had she been born into a different era and had access to a broader range of opportunities.

PN38

My grandmother lived through conflicts and lost her first husband to the second world war when the plane he was flying was taken out in action over Germany. She tells a story of struggle as she experienced loss and lived off coupons and rations, a reminder as to the profound impact that global conflict can have on the lives of many.

PN39

A few years later my grandmother married my grandfather, Kevin, who we know as Ken. Ken was a bootmaker and was spared from being sent to fight on the frontline during World War II as a teenager, because in making boots for the troops he was deemed to be working in an essential service. Ironically, he didn't actually own a pair of shoes until he left school, and was frequently sent home from class as a consequence of his apparent misdemeanour until he stopped going to take up full‑time work at the end of primary school.

PN40

He was by my grandmother's side until the very end and worked hard to provide for his family and in his working life, having served in production for Ford Motor Corporation for 25 years, despite never owning his own vehicle. My grandfather was a butler and a gentleman and he always treated everyone with respect and kindness.

PN41

The manufacturing sector and its portion of the labour market has certainly changed significantly since the closure of car manufacturing plants in Australia, and in the era where destructions to global supply chains are increasingly prevalent, driving a need for increased self‑sufficiency and outside‑the‑box thinking, I often ponder what more can be done to leverage the point of difference we offer in terms of safety, quality and ethical standards creating job opportunities for Australians through local production.

PN42

It seems access to a pair of shoes was also problematic for my other grandfather, Reg, who is with us here today. Reg is one of the eldest of 11 children, including his stepbrothers and sisters, and grew up working in a dairy farm in Biloela, Queensland. I recall him telling the story of being so cold in the early mornings when he was milking the cows that he had to put his feet in the warm cow patties for relief.

PN43

My grandfather worked in a range of roles from working in a dairy, cutting cane by hand on sugarcane farms, battling the harsh Queensland heat and snakes, and serving in the Australian Army, including overseas in major armed conflict. He ended his working life attending to the grounds and maintenance of the local schools in my area. He is brave, stoic and resilient, and worked tirelessly to provide for his family and give them a life that was better than the one that he had.

PN44

My grandmother, Shirley, also here today, the daughter of a drover from Dalby in Queensland and one of 13 children, also didn't own a pair of shoes until she was selected for the representative netball team in grade 7. Her teacher, realising she could not play without them, pursuant to the rules, bought her first pair. My grandmother also lived a life of service, her longest tenure being her employment as a school cleaner at my local primary school.

PN45

When I was a small child, my grandmother's boss, the then principal of the school, Mr Mack Small, who was a very kind and compassionate man, let my grandmother take me to work with her when no other arrangements were available. The flexibility that Mr Small offered was highly progressive for its time, and I believe having access to my grandmother's care and support played a significant and positive role in my development as a young person.

PN46

I have learned so much from these amazing people. Firstly, they have taught me that access to employment opportunity is critical if we are to see continual improvements in our living standards. They have taught me that nothing stays the same forever and we have to be resilient and prepare to adapt as circumstances change and life throws us challenges.

PN47

They have taught me to respect those who work in all roles in our society and that no one person is more important than another. The roles we take on, whether it be as a cleaner, farmhand, factory worker or otherwise, can have a profound impact on the lives of many, and my wonderful grandparents are an example of that.

PN48

They have taught me to respect those who are pioneering, and those who provide access to opportunity, including through creating a wide range of jobs and working arrangements to cater for the varying needs of those who seek them out, and they have taught me that working hard and serving others are also most worthwhile pursuits, especially when undertaken in combination.

PN49

They have also taught me that conflict can sometimes be harmful, and they have experienced some of the worst of it firsthand. The nature of my role means that I confront conflict daily, albeit of a very different nature, but if you find yourself before me, you will find that I will listen objectively and impartially, and I will try to help you find a resolution without further escalation if possible.

PN50

Arbitrating a dispute will of course sometimes be necessary. However, I am a believer that in most situations interests are not diametrically opposed. A shared solution to conflict is often available to the parties if they are able to approach things with an open mind and see things from the other person's perspective. If you find yourself before me and the context is appropriate, I will endeavour to help you do that.

PN51

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as a Member of the Commission and have been supported on my life's journey by too many people to thank by name, but some are here in the room and I would like to thank my partner, my family, my friends and my colleagues, former and current. My fellow Members of the Commission, my associate, Freya Booth, and the Commission staff have also been an immense source of support since my joining and I thank them sincerely for making my welcome a warm one. I intend to give back by making a significant and positive contribution to the work of the Commission. Thank you.

PN52

VICE PRESIDENT HATCHER: On behalf of all my colleagues, we would like to congratulate you on your appointment, Matheson C. I thank all those who attended today, both those at the Bar table and the invited guests, and we will now adjourn.

ADJOURNED INDEFINITELY [9.22 AM]