(1) Did Australia accept the provisions of Part II of the International Labour Convention No. 173 on Protection of Workers' Claims (Employers' Insolvency) Convention 1992 on 8 June 1994.

(2) On what dates, in what circumstances and with what results have there been subsequent communications between the Commonwealth Government and the governments of each State and Territory concerning the Convention.

(1) Yes. When the Keating Labor Government ratified Convention 173 in 1994, it accepted only Part II concerning Protection of Workers' Claims by Means of a Privilege, but not Part III concerning Protection of Workers' Claims by a Guarantee Institution. The terms of the Convention enable ratifying Member States to accept either Part II or Part III, or both Parts.

(2) The then Commonwealth Department of Industrial Relations advised the States and Territories on 1 July 1994 that Australia had formally ratified Convention 173 on 8 June 1994, and that Convention 173 would come into force in 12 months.

This advice followed correspondence from the then Minister for Industrial Relations, the Hon Laurie Brereton MP, to his State and Territory counterparts on 2 June 1994, which advised that the Commonwealth was proposing to ratify Part II of Convention 173 on the basis of compliance by the Commonwealth's law and practice.

Since July 1994, the Department has referred to Convention 173 in its routine correspondence with the States and Territories concerning Australia's reporting obligations relating to ILO Conventions, on the understanding that Convention 173 was ratified on the basis of Commonwealth law and practice alone. Consequently, there have been no substantive responses from the States and Territories.