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Academic economist Professor Ian Harper will be the first chair of the new Australian Fair Pay Commission, the Prime Minister, John Howard, announced today.

The Federal Government has now agreed to a Senate inquiry into its new IR legislation - but it will be short and it will exclude many of the key planks of the proposed changes.

Federal Court fines Multiplex $4,000 over strike pay; Howard denies misleading over WorkChoice protections, defends ad campaign; and "Low to moderate" CPSU industrial action allowed to continue at Centrelink.

Unions will be barred from representing small businesses in collective bargaining after the passage last night of amendments to the Trade Practices Act, while there have also been developments in other workplace-related legislation.

The Federal Government is extending its General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) to cover more workers and wages unpaid in the three months before an employer becomes insolvent.

The ACTU has accused Prime Minister John Howard of lying about protecting public holidays and other conditions, after Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today confirmed that public holidays such as Anzac Day could be bargained away under the government's second wave changes.

WorkChoices appears to be aimed at moving unskilled, unemployed people - including disability support pensioners - into the workforce, rather than improving productivity, according to the ANU's Professor Bob Gregory.

Unions that engage in "systematic abuse" of their entry rights will face severe new sanctions, including revocation of permits for the entire union, according to the Howard Government's WorkChoices blueprint for its second wave IR change agenda. The Government also plans big reductions in the number of awards, and substantial re-working of transmission of business and freedom of association provisions.

While the Federal Government, led by Prime Minister John Howard, today continued to try to direct the IR debate on to the benefits to workers of a strong economy, the Opposition, the ACTU, church leaders, and Family First Senator Steve Fielding again focussed on how the second-wave laws would strip away existing entitlements.

The CFMEU (construction division) in WA and four of its officials - secretary Kevin Reynolds, assistant secretary Joe McDonald and two organisers - are facing significant fines after construction company John Holland Group yesterday filed contempt of court proceedings against them in the Supreme Court.