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Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has criticised the Coalition for seeking to rely on "the old reform agenda" of industrial relations, deregulation and privatisation for productivity gains - saying it is "largely exhausted".

Legally, it went to a full bench of the NSW IRC (in Court Session) and the state Court of Appeal. Industrially, it was settled yesterday in a fairly straight-forward conciliation session. And that, says the CFMEU (mining & energy division) of its dispute with Newcrest Mining, is the point.

The long-running WA nurses dispute that saw the ALP Government flagging a non-union agreement and the ANF lining up with the Liberal Party ended yesterday with an agreement that differs little to the one recommended by the AIRC last December.

The Federal Court will on July 25 and July 26 hear the coercion claims the Commonwealth Bank and its subsidiary Colonial Services have launched against the FSU over the industrial and shareholder campaigns the union ran in the lead-up to the bank's AGM in November last year.

The AIRC has allowed the CFMEU in WA to withdraw applications to certify agreements, despite earlier rulings that withdrawal was not an option.

The peak NSW union council says its latest poll of workers' perceptions shows that the Howard Government's plans to amend workplace laws to weaken unions don't have public support.

Clayton Utz partner Graham Smith says the Howard Government should introduce good faith bargaining provisions, recognise picketing as a legitimate form of protected industrial action and wind back its proposal for pre-strike secret ballots when it amends the Workplace Relations Act later this year.

Global recruitment firm Hudson says a shortage of skills and rising wages runs the risk of the Australian labour market "overheating completely".

Awards and agreements would no longer be able to contain restrictions on the use of independent contractors or labour hire workers, under provisions that might be included in the Howard Government's legislation to shield independent contractors from regulation by the IR system.

The Howard Government has revealed it might amend the no disadvantage test in its forthcoming package of IR legislative change, while the Bracks Government says it is considering options available to it if Canberra's workplace law makeover is unacceptable.