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Continuity and Change in Australian Industrial Relations: Recent Developments

Continuity and Change in Australian Industrial Relations: Recent Developments

Ian Hampson et David E. Morgan

Volume : 53-3 (1998)

Abstract

The recent accession to power of a conservative (Liberal/ National Coalition) government in Australia would seem to mark a major change -- perhaps a transformation -- in Australian industrial relations. However, a more subtle reading of events suggests that key ingredients of the new government’s reform package were actually foreshadowed, even partially implemented, by the former Australian Labor Party government. The latter was well known for its enthusiastic implementation of orthodox economic policies, albeit in a context of ‘corporatism’. This suggests a degree of continuity between the policies of the ALP and Liberal/National Coalition governments. At the same time, there are ingredients of significant change, some of them on the face of it minor, but which, over time, are likely to erode the power of unions and sharpen the divide between the union and non-union sectors.