Coming almost 10 months after the Labor Party was swept to power on a promise to tear up the WorkChoices laws, the Workplace Relations Minister’s speech fleshing out the details of the Rudd Government’s replacement industrial relations regime was met with anger from unions, particularly over the revised unfair-dismissal rules.

The Business Council of Australia’s warning about the economic costs of the Rudd Government’s climate change strategy provoked a strong response yesterday from BP chairman Gerry Hueston. He said that arguments about trade-exposed industries was obscuring the need for Australia to quickly introduce an emissions trading scheme.