New employment relations commission installed

Sydney
23 June 2002

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New employment relations commission installed

Michael McDonald, left, with Sr Ailsa Mackinnon and Bishop Kevin Manning

The bishop of the Parramatta diocese, Bishop Kevin Manning, led a liturgy to celebrate the work of the first Catholic Commission for Employment Relations and to inaugurate the second commission.

He commended the retiring commission on its achievements, which include establishing a committee structure that reaches out into the world of work in all areas of Catholic ministry, not only in systemic and independent schools, but in health, social work and the parishes.

The commission's predecessor, the Industrial Affairs Committee, was largely concerned with schools.

The NSW and ACT bishops established the commission at the end of 1997 in response to the Church’s expanding role as a major employer. It advises Catholic employers in NSW and the ACT on employment relations matters and compliance with NSW child protection legislation.

The executive director of the commission, Michael McDonald, leads the new team with Sr Ailsa Mackinnon, new chair of the commission and principal of Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.

The new team consists of Bishop Manning; Sr Helen Clarke; Jennifer Harman, financial administrator, Armidale diocese; Bill Johnston, social policy research director, Centacare Sydney; Natalie McNamara, director of human resources, Catholic Education Office Sydney; Stephen Marchant, diocesan director, Catholic Education Office, Wagga Wagga; Bob Smeaton, business manager, Canberra and Goulburn archdiocese, and Greg Whitby, diocesan director, Catholic Education Office Wollongong.

The retiring commission members are: Br Anthony Whelan, director of schools, Broken Bay diocese, who was the founding chair of the commission; Emeritus Bishop of Wagga Wagga, Bishop William Brennan; Victor Dunn, director

of schools, Catholic Education Office Wilcannia-Forbes; Associate Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite, director Centre for Clinical Governance Research in Health, University of NSW; Fr Peter Kneipp, Walcha parish priest, Armidale diocese; Paul Brown, Baker and McKenzie solicitors, and Jeffrey Bradley, director of human relations, Catholic Education Office Canberra and Goulburn.

At the ceremony Michael McDonald paid tribute to the late Mons Francis Coolahan, who had been the director of education in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese and who also served on the first commission.

Guests at the commissioning ceremony, at Sydney Tattersall’s Club, included the new Bishop of Wagga Wagga, Bishop Gerard Hanna; Justice Lance Wright, president of the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW; Anne Barwick, the assistant ombudsman at the NSW Ombudsman’s Office; Br Kelvin Canavan, executive director of schools for the Sydney archdiocese, and Dick Shearman, general secretary of the Independent Education Union.

The new commission will serve for four years.