Terms of Reference

 Terms of Reference for the Ministerial Review of the State industrial relations system

The Ministerial Review was undertaken by Mr Mark Ritter SC.  Assisting him was Mr Stephen Price MLA.

Mr Mark Ritter SC

Mr Ritter is an experienced and well respected local barrister who was admitted to the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 1985, and the Federal Court and High Court of Australia in 1986.  In 2004 he was appointed as a Senior Counsel.

Mr Ritter is currently based at Francis Burt Chambers and his major areas of practice include industrial and employment law, criminal law and administrative and constitutional law.

From 2005 to 2009 Mr Ritter was the Acting President of the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission and between 1995 and 1998 was a part time Judicial Registrar of the Industrial Relations Court of Australia.

In 2004 Mr Ritter was appointed by the then Minister for State Development to undertake a Ministerial Inquiry into occupational health and safety practices at the BHP Iron Ore and Boodarie Iron Sites in the Pilbara, and the report of this inquiry was tabled in State Parliament in November 2004.

Mr Stephen Price MLA

Mr Price was elected to the WA Parliament as the member for Forrestfield at the March 2017 State election. Before being elected Mr Price was Director of Strategic Development at The Australian Workers’ Union, West Australian Branch (AWU). Prior to this role, he was the Branch Secretary of the AWU from 2008 – 2016. As a result of these previous positions within the union, Mr Price has a strong understanding of both the Western Australian and national industrial relations systems.

In 2015 he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Management and completed an MBA. Before commencing work at the AWU, Mr Price had an extensive work history based in the resource sector from 1991 through to 2007. 

Previously, Mr Price has also been a member of the Mining Industry Advisory Committee and the Ministerial Advisory Panel (MAP) for the mine safety framework harmonisation of the mining industry legislation.