Indeed they are. Most State Governments are surrendering the powers to Fair Work Australia. NSW is the hold out.
There was a bit of forlorn hope held out in some quarters in this State, that the Rudd Government would reinstate the State Legislation which had been overridden by Workchoices. They simply didn’t. Perhaps they would have appointed members of the State tribunals to Fair Work Australia. They may, but they haven’t.

The NSW Industrial system which has existed in roughly its current form since 1928 (not 1902, as some people have suggested) is now largely a NSW public service dispute tribunal. It duplicates many func-tions of the Government and Related Employees Appeals Tribunal, and perhaps the Transport Appeals Board. It has duplicated the Anti-Discrimination Board and the Administrative Decisions Tribunal for many years.

One desperate dice throw by the State Government this year has been to abolish the Industrial Magistrates Court, and refer all matters to the Industrial Court. The Industrial Magistrates Court had been much by-passed by traffic going to the Federal Magistrates Court anyway.
What we will now have, is judges who are declared by statute to have the same standing as Supreme Court judges, doing Magistrates work. One hopes that the outcome is not that the quantum of judgments will simply (unconsciously of course) go up, and the cases grow more involved, to reflect the seniority of the tribunal giv-ing the ruling. For example, the Chief Industrial Magistrate now does “small claims” cases as part of the juris-diction. Claims under $20,000. Will a “superior court of record” now do them? The amount of extra work involved will certainly not fill the current void anyway.
What is “the current void”? :

The “void” is virtual disappearance of work for the State Commission.

From about 473 new matters commenced in the Section 106 “unfair contract” jurisdiction in 2005 – the last year before Workchoices – commencements went to 51 in 2007, almost a 90% fall off (they went down to 27 in 2008). Wrongful dismissal matters went from about 3750 in 2005 to about 400 in 2007, a number repeated in 2008 (also about a 90% fall). Industrial dispute notifications went from 1100 to 500. Even Occupational Health and Safety prosecutions went from 174 in 2005 to 93 in 2007 (after lobbying of the Government), but came back in 2008.

Of the ten or so Commissioners, three have left in the past year. Two of the thirteen judges and lay deputy presidents have retired. One has now been appointed to the Supreme Court. So, we have had about an 80-90% work reduction, and about 25% personnel reduction.
Change must come soon.