On 20 March 2008 , the '' Workplace Relations Amendment ( Transition to Forward with Fairness ) Act 2008 '' gained assent , and gave effect to some of these measures , including preventing any new AWAs from being signed . Rudd declared AWA 's " dead and buried " , saying : " Today we declare this shameful chapter in the history of Australia 's workplaces to be dead and buried . And today with this legislation we begin the process of burying the rest of the Work Choices omnibus once and for all . " In 2009 , the '' Fair Work Act '' was passed . Rudd also established a single industrial relations bureaucracy called Fair Work Australia , designed to play a far more interventionist role than the Howard Government 's Fair Pay Commission . Fair Work Australia mediated the 2011 Qantas industrial disputes
2011 Qantas industrial disputes
2011 Qantas industrial disputes
Kevin Rudd