FWC president appoints himself to expert panel

The President of the Fair Work Commission (FWC), Justice Iain Ross, has appointed himself to the Commission’s so-called expert superannuation panel to ensure that it can proceed with its review of default funds under modern awards.  

The FWC President’s actions represented the quickest and virtually sole means of countering claims by the Financial Services Council (FSC) that the expert panel was not properly constituted and that therefore it could not proceed with the review of default funds.  

The FWC president had earlier found himself having to stand aside two of the original members of the expert panel because of perceived conflicts of interest based on the board affiliations with superannuation funds.  

Justice Ross’ decision to appoint himself to the expert panel came only hours before the FWC ceased business for the Easter break and his formal statement said that he wished to put the matter “beyond doubt”.  

“In order to put beyond doubt that the quorum requirement for the Expert Panel in s.622(2)(a) of the Fair Work Act is met, I will now join the Expert Panel pursuant to s.622(3) of the Act,” his formal statement said.  

“The quorum requirement being met, pursuant to s.622(2) of the FW Act, the Expert Panel may continue to deal with matter AM2014/6 without its full complement of Expert Panel Members,” the president’s statement said.  

Justice Ross acted to appoint himself to the panel in the face of letters from the FSC formally questioning the status of the FWC’s review of default funds and a letter from Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia chief executive, Pauline Vamos, expressing concern about the cost of delays to the process.