Australian Labor leaders shift closer to Howard's IR laws

Officials will also need to prove there exist “reasonable grounds” to believe that breaches of the law may be occurring. They will only be allowed to investigate alleged breaches if there are union members employed on site, while the time and place of any union meetings will be determined by the employer.

Announcing the changes on June 25, Gillard made no bones about where Labor’s priorities lay. “When you look at the current system (WorkChoices),” she declared, “obviously it’s got permits, it’s got limitation on entry, it’s got limits that you would expect about the disruption to work—obviously not having entry in a way which causes disruption to work.