Howard’s IR revolution under intense scrutiny

The community remains uneasy about the radical overhaul of industrial relations.

"Catholic parents are campaigning for new high school courses that teach children how to defend their rights under the Federal Government's proposed workplace changes."

Justin Norrie reporting in the Sydney Morning Herald, October 29

"Does the minister really believe that under his proposed industrial reforms employers and employees meet on a level playing field?"

Severino M Milazzo of Maroubra, delegate to the Council of Catholic School Parents, in a letter of support for the campaign to the Sydney Morning Herald, October 31

"If you are one of the very few to have rung what is euphemistically called 'the industrial relations hot line', you will have been answered by an otherwise unemployable teenager who has absolutely no idea what it's all about; this is hardly surprising because the legislation has not yet been finalised, let alone released to the public."

Mungo McCallum in the Northern Rivers Echo, October 20

"The most famous and rightly admired decisions -- from the Harvester judgement in 1907 on the 'normal needs of the average employee' to equal pay for women in 1969 -- were not made by economic experts (as proposed in Howard's vision for a Fair Pay Commission).... "It certainly isn't the case that we can't afford to be as concerned with fairness and equity as we used to be. Some of the most successful, small, open economies in the world (like Denmark and Holland) leave us for dead in their insistence on protecting vulnerable employees and supporting parents in the workforce."

Belinda Probert, pro-vice-chancellor (academic) at the University of Western Australia, writing in the Australian Financial Review, October 21

"No one can be a defender of the constitution who seeks to destroy federalism, its fundamental feature.

"Just as no real Australian conservative would attempt to undermine our greatest guarantee of limited Government, the division of power between the Commonwealth and the states."

Greg Craven describing John Howard as the "prime minister who has launched the greatest assault on federalism since World War II", in the Australian Financial Review, October 28

"There are mounting fears among regional and rural workers that their jobs and work rights will be the hardest hit under the Federal Government's planned industrial relations overhaul."

News story in the Tamworth Northern Daily Leader, October 14

"And I'm certainly not a supporter of a radical weakening of the unions. I think that's gone far enough."

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, to the ABC's 7.30 Report, October 11

"I don't know of any case where deregulation and increased inequality in pay structures was associated with solving the unemployment problem and I don't think it will work here.

"The evidence is that unemployment is better in countries which regulated their labour markets than in countries which deregulated their labour markets."

International economist James Galbraith quoted in The Age, September 27

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005