tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/actu-2489/articlesACTU – The Conversation2024-02-15T19:03:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2233102024-02-15T19:03:47Z2024-02-15T19:03:47ZWhy prices are so high – 8 ways retail pricing algorithms gouge consumers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575804/original/file-20240215-28-d833it.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=114%2C175%2C1776%2C1011&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The just-released report of the inquiry into <a href="https://pricegouginginquiry.actu.org.au/">price gouging and unfair pricing</a> conducted by Allan Fels for the Australian Council of Trades Unions does more than identify the likely offenders.</p>
<p>It finds the biggest are supermarkets, banks, airlines and electricity companies.</p>
<p>It’s not enough to know their tricks. Fels wants to give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission more power to investigate and more power to prohibit mergers.</p>
<p>But it helps to know how they try to trick us, and how technology has enabled them to get better at it. After reading the report, I’ve identified eight key maneuvers.</p>
<h2>1. Asymmetric price movements</h2>
<p>Otherwise known as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25593733">Rocket and Feather</a>, this is where businesses push up prices quickly when costs rise, but cut them slowly or late after costs fall.</p>
<p>It seems to happen for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140988323002074">petrol</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S105905601730240X">mortgage rates</a>, and the Fels inquiry was presented with evidence suggesting it happens in supermarkets. </p>
<p>Brendan O’Keeffe from NSW Farmers told the inquiry wholesale lamb prices had been falling for six months before six Woolworths announced a cut in the prices of lamb it was selling as a “<a href="https://pricegouginginquiry.actu.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/InquiryIntoPriceGouging_Report_web.pdf">Christmas gift</a>”. </p>
<h2>2. Punishment for loyal customers</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/simple-fixes-could-help-save-australian-consumers-from-up-to-3-6-billion-in-loyalty-taxes-119978">loyalty tax</a> is what happens when a business imposes higher charges on customers who have been with it for a long time, on the assumption that they won’t move.</p>
<p>The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has alleged a big <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-qantas-might-have-done-all-australians-a-favour-by-making-refunds-so-hard-to-get-213346">insurer</a> does it, setting premiums not only on the basis of risk, but also on the basis of what a computer model tells them about the likelihood of each customer tolerating a price hike. The insurer disputes the claim.</p>
<p>It’s often done by offering discounts or new products to new customers and leaving existing customers on old or discontinued products.</p>
<p>It happens a lot in the <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/utilities-loyalty-costing-australians-billions-2024">electricity industry</a>. The plans look good at first, and then less good as providers bank on customers not making the effort to shop around. </p>
<p>Loyalty taxes appear to be less common among mobile phone providers. Australian laws make it easy to switch <a href="https://www.reviews.org/au/mobile/how-to-switch-mobile-carriers-and-keep-your-number/">and keep your number</a>.</p>
<h2>3. Loyalty schemes that provide little value</h2>
<p>Fels says loyalty schemes can be a “low-cost means of retaining and exploiting consumers by providing them with low-value rewards of dubious benefit”. </p>
<p>Their purpose is to lock in (or at least bias) customers to choices already made. </p>
<p>Examples include airline frequent flyer points, cafe cards that give you your tenth coffee free, and supermarket points programs. The purpose is to lock in (or at least bias) consumers to products already chosen. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/advertising-and-promotions/customer-loyalty-schemes">Australian Competition and Consumer Commission</a> has found many require users to spend a lot of money or time to earn enough points for a reward. </p>
<p>Others allow points to expire or rules to change without notice or offer rewards that are not worth the effort to redeem.</p>
<p>They also enable businesses to collect data on spending habits, preferences, locations, and personal information that can be used to construct customer profiles that allow them to target advertising and offers and high prices to some customers and not others.</p>
<h2>4. Drip pricing that hides true costs</h2>
<p>The Competition and Consumer Commission describes <a href="https://pricegouginginquiry.actu.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/InquiryIntoPriceGouging_Report_web.pdf">drip pricing</a> as “when a price is advertised at the beginning of an online purchase, but then extra fees and charges (such as booking and service fees) are gradually added during the purchase process”. </p>
<p>The extras can add up quickly and make final bills much higher than expected. </p>
<p>Airlines are among the best-known users of the strategy. They often offer initially attractive base fares, but then add charges for baggage, seat selection, in-flight meals and other extras.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/junk-fees-and-drip-pricing-underhanded-tactics-we-hate-yet-still-fall-for-211117">Junk fees and drip pricing: underhanded tactics we hate yet still fall for</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>5. Confusion pricing</h2>
<p>Related to drip pricing is <a href="https://www.x-mol.net/paper/article/1402386414932836352">confusion pricing</a> where a provider offers a range of plans, discounts and fees so complex they are overwhelming.</p>
<p>Financial products like insurance have convoluted fee structures, as do electricity providers. Supermarkets do it by bombarding shoppers with “specials” and “sales”. </p>
<p>When prices change frequently and without notice, it adds to the confusion. </p>
<h2>6. Algorithmic pricing</h2>
<p><a href="https://pricegouginginquiry.actu.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/InquiryIntoPriceGouging_Report_web.pdf">Algorithmic pricing</a> is the practice of using algorithms to set prices automatically taking into account competitor responses, which is something akin to computers talking to each other.</p>
<p>When computers get together in this way they can <a href="https://www.x-mol.net/paper/article/1402386414932836352">act as it they are colluding</a> even if the humans involved in running the businesses never talk to each other.</p>
<p>It can act even more this way when multiple competitors use the same third-party pricing algorithm, effectively allowing a single company to influence prices.</p>
<h2>7. Price discrimination</h2>
<p>Price discrimination involves charging different customers different prices
for the same product, setting each price in accordance with how much each customer is prepared to pay.</p>
<p>Banks do it when they offer better rates to customers likely to leave them, electricity companies do it when they offer better prices for business customers than households, and medical specialists do it when they offer vastly different prices for the same service to consumers with different incomes.</p>
<p>It is made easier by digital technology and data collection. While it can make prices lower for some customers, it can make prices much more expensive to customers in a hurry or in urgent need of something.</p>
<h2>8. Excuse-flation</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-09/how-excuseflation-is-keeping-prices-and-corporate-profits-high">Excuse-flation</a> is where general inflation provides “cover” for businesses to raise prices without
justification, blaming nothing other than general inflation.</p>
<p>It means that in times of general high inflation businesses can increase their prices even if their costs haven’t increased by as much.</p>
<p>On Thursday Reserve Bank Governor <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/inflation-is-cover-for-pricing-gouging-rba-boss-says-20240215-p5f58d">Michele Bullock</a> seemed to confirm that she though some firms were doing this saying that when inflation had been brought back to the Bank’s target, it would be </p>
<blockquote>
<p>much more difficult, I think, for firms to use high inflation as cover for this sort of putting up their prices</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A political solution is needed</h2>
<p>Ultimately, our own vigilance won’t be enough. We will need political help. The government’s recently announced <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/review/competition-review-2023">competition review</a> might be a step in this direction.</p>
<p>The legislative changes should police business practices and prioritise fairness. Only then can we create a marketplace where ethics and competition align, ensuring both business prosperity and consumer wellbeing. </p>
<p>This isn’t just about economics, it’s about building a fairer, more sustainable Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Tuffley is affiliated with the Australian Computer Society (Member).</span></em></p>Each of these tricks is old, but each has been supercharged by the use of information technology.David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084392023-06-25T11:54:27Z2023-06-25T11:54:27ZSimon Crean, former Labor and ACTU leader, dies aged 74<p>Simon Crean, a former Labor opposition leader, has died suddenly while in Germany, aged 74. </p>
<p>Crean, who served in parliament from 1990 to 2013, was a minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments. </p>
<p>He was opposition leader between 2001 and 2003, when he was replaced by Mark Latham.</p>
<p>Under his leadership, Labor opposed Australia’s involvement in the Iraq War, although it supported the Australian troops who served in that operation.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1672911890186641411"}"></div></p>
<p>In the various Labor governments, Crean held a variety of portfolios. They included primary industries and energy, trade, education, employment and workplace relations, the arts, and regional development and local government. </p>
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<p>Before entering parliament, Crean was president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions from 1985 to 1990, and worked closely with the Hawke government. </p>
<p>He was brought up in politics - his father, Frank Crean, was treasurer in the Whitlam government.</p>
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<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement on Sunday night: “Simon was a great servant of the Labor Party and of the broader labour movement.” </p>
<p>Albanese said be personally had benefited from Crean’s “advice and wisdom”.</p>
<p>“Simon’s many achievements in portfolios that ranged from trade to employment, from primary industries and energy to the arts, were characterised by a focus on the national interest, engagement with stakeholders, and always acting with principle and determination.</p>
<p>"The common threads running through his long career were his courage and his principled action, qualities that came so powerfully to the fore when he opposed the Iraq war. Yet his opposition to the war was backed by his unwavering respect for the members of the Australian Defence Force, a respect he showed when he went to address the troops ahead of their deployment.</p>
<p>"History has vindicated Simon’s judgement, but at the time his stance was deeply counter to the prevailing political and media climate,” Albanese said.</p>
<p>“After parliament, Simon continued to work for Australia’s interests, most notably as chairman of the European Australian Business Council.”</p>
<p>Opposition leader Peter Dutton said he was “shocked and saddened to hear of Simon Crean’s passing. </p>
<p>"Simon was a gentleman to deal with and a giant of the labour movement. I always admired Simon for his decency and intellect and only just saw him recently in Melbourne,” Dutton said. </p>
<p>The Crean family said in a statement that Crean, who was in Berlin as part of an industry delegation, had died suddenly after his morning exercise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Crean, who served in parliament from 1990 to 2013, was a minister in the Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1979112023-02-02T19:15:03Z2023-02-02T19:15:03ZFriday essay: how Blanche d'Alpuget’s ‘warts and all’ biography of her lover Bob Hawke helped make him prime minister<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506986/original/file-20230130-18-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1595%2C1010&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Verity Chambers/Newspix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Blanche D’Alpuget was born in 1944, the daughter of Lou d’Alpuget and Josie Stephenson, and grew up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. She attended Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School and, briefly, the University of Sydney before becoming a journalist with the Daily Mirror, rival newspaper of the Sun where her father worked. </p>
<p>A hyper-masculine yachtsman, champion boxer, wrestler, water polo player and, in youth, Bondi lifesaver, Lou d’Alpuget in the newsroom <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-journalist-who-knew-his-onions-20060609-gdnpsh.html">once shouted</a> at cadet journalist John Pilger so ferociously for getting his facts wrong that Pilger fainted. He taught Blanche to box, surf, sail, fish, fire a rifle and execute basic unarmed combat moves, the last because he thought girls should be able to defend themselves against assault.</p>
<p>The journalistic gene was not fully transmitted though. “I was always aware of the fact that I was not a good journalist,” d’Alpuget says. “I had no news sense. It is a sense, and I haven’t got it. I still haven’t got it.”</p>
<p>Unusually, Lou recommended the works of Cambridge English literature don <a href="https://www.arthurquillercouch.com/">Arthur Quiller-Couch</a> to Sun cadets, not an obvious choice as an influence on Australian journalistic prose. While Lou’s news sense was not transmitted to Blanche, the literary bent this suggests in him was.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget was on the Mirror’s full-time payroll in Sydney for just three years: life as a novelist lay ahead. First, though, there was a spell in London followed by nine years living in South-East Asia, including two periods living in Indonesia with her husband, journalist turned diplomat Tony Pratt. </p>
<h2>‘A good guy’: meeting Hawke</h2>
<p>In 1970, the year d’Alpuget first met Hawke, Pratt was second secretary at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. “I showed visiting ‘firemen’ around Jakarta,” she recalls. “I was very good at that. It was one of the things expected of the wives.” </p>
<p>Hawke, recently anointed <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/">ACTU</a> president, remembered seeing “this vision” for the first time, en route to the annual meeting of the International Labour Organisation in Switzerland. </p>
<p>“I met her first in Jakarta on my way through to Geneva when Rawdon Dalrymple was the counsellor in the embassy there,” he recalled. “I was sitting on the verandah of his house having a beer and this vision in white appeared from around the corner and I thought, my god!” For her part, d’Alpuget formed an immediately positive impression of Hawke.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought he was a good person for a particular reason. It goes back to Jakarta, and to showing around visiting firemen. All of them, without exception, would want to visit the Jakarta slums. And I used to take people there and […] they’d get this warm inner glow of the superiority of our culture while looking at the poor slum dwellers as if they were animals in a zoo, which I really hated.</p>
<p>Bob was the only person, when I asked, “Do you want to see the kampongs?” who said, “No, I don’t want to see poverty”. And I thought, ah, a good guy. And really my respect for him was based just on that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She would see Hawke once more in Indonesia – the following year, in 1971, when he was again en route for the International Labour Organisation. As well as squiring visitors around Jakarta, d’Alpuget worked variously at the Australian Embassy, including the press office, during her time in Indonesia. </p>
<p>She <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">wrote</a> human interest pieces “with the blessing of the Australian embassy” and tacit approval of the Indonesian intelligence service, to be placed in the Australian media, smoothing the way for the first visit to Australia by an Indonesian head of state: President Suharto in 1972, in the still sensitive post-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia%E2%80%93Malaysia_confrontation">Konfrontasi</a> period. </p>
<p>It was <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">a life of</a> “pleasure and ease … friends and parties, horse riding in the early mornings, swimming in the afternoons”, married to Tony: “We […] were boon companions.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob and Blanche were both married when they first met, in 1970. He thought, ‘my god!’ when he saw her; she thought he was ‘a good guy’. 25 years later, they would marry, and stay together until his death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Good Weekend</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A ‘vivacious, unconventional’ writer</h2>
<p>D’Alpuget returned to Australia in 1973 and lived in Canberra <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">where</a> Pratt worked for the Department of Defence “with consequences he had not foreseen, and he was miserable”. She felt socially restricted and stood out in a national capital then only 200,000 strong, the vast majority of whom were in the paid workforce as public servants. “I don’t much like bureaucrats and they don’t much like me,” she <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">adds</a>. </p>
<p>Her friend, feminist activist <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-susan-ryan-pioneer-labor-feminist-who-showed-big-difficult-policy-changes-can-and-should-be-made-146996">Susan Ryan</a>, who became a Labor senator for the ACT in 1975, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710142.Catching_the_Waves">recalled</a> d’Alpuget then as a “vivacious, unconventional woman in her thirties”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dazzlingly pretty and petite, she looked like a Thai beauty with blond curls […] Blanche was full of fun. She liked to make loud, outrageous observations about people, particularly about their sexual demeanour […] In an era of dull and careless feminist dress codes she was a welcome sight at [Women’s Electoral Lobby] meetings, a little bird of paradise in gold high-heeled sandals, tight black slacks and a mink jacket to keep out the Canberra cold, topped by perfectly ordered blond curls, her face luminous with detailed make-up.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pratt, in turn, was an “Adonis” in Ryan’s recollection. “I loved my husband, whom I’d met when I was seventeen, and felt fiercely loyal to him,” d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">has written</a>. “In the decade we had journeyed together we had both taken side trips, but we were mindful of each other’s feelings, and discreet.” They divorced in 1986.</p>
<p>It was during this period that d’Alpuget established herself as a writer. </p>
<p>“I was not keen on taking a job, because of our young son”; instead she wrote a novel set in Jakarta. Twenty rejection slips later, including one from publisher Richard Walsh who <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">described it</a> as “just a straggle of events” – he “was right, but I felt like pulling out his tongue and feeding it to the cat” – she set the novel aside. “But I had discovered the pleasures of writing and wanted to do it again.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-studied-31-australian-political-biographies-published-in-the-past-decade-only-4-were-about-women-167448">I studied 31 Australian political biographies published in the past decade — only 4 were about women</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>d'Alpuget’s first biography: Sir Richard Kirby</h2>
<p>D’Alpuget did, winning Fellowship of Australian Writers’ prizes for two short stories in 1975. Then came an unexpected, perhaps fated, opportunity to write a biography of Sir Richard Kirby, a long-serving judge and former Conciliation and Arbitration Commission president. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget knew Kirby’s daughter Sue from school. At the time Sue lived in Canberra and her parents occasionally visited. When Kirby and d’Alpuget met in Canberra through Sue, they found a common interest in Indonesia, especially the late Indonesian president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukarno">Sukarno</a>. “Kirby had known him personally when he was at the height of his power,” d’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">later wrote</a>, “I as an observer in the last days of his shattered dream.”</p>
<p>During a conversation about Sukarno’s Indonesia of the 1940s, d’Alpuget asked to see Kirby’s photographs of the period; Kirby instead sent the transcript of his National Library of Australia oral history interview. Shortly afterwards, at her father’s request, Sue sounded out d’Alpuget about whether she would be willing to help him with his memoirs. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
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<p>D’Alpuget was interested but the logistics were unworkable: she had a young son and the Kirbys divided their time between Melbourne and the NSW South Coast. D’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">suggested</a> she write his biography instead. Kirby agreed. It would be published in 1977 as <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">Mediator: A Biography of Sir Richard Kirby</a>. During the process they became friends; Kirby nicknamed d’Alpuget “Blanco”.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget began work on the book without a publishing contract in hand. Getting a publisher for a serious biography was easier than for a first-time novel, however, and at Max Suich’s suggestion, d’Alpuget proposed it to Melbourne University Press publisher, Peter Ryan.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s very fashionable to say, oh, he’s a terrible old right-wing tyrant and so forth. And indeed, he was a martinet. But he was marvellous. He took it on on what he’d seen – the couple of chapters I wrote plus an outline.</p>
<p>And he really taught me how to be an author. He hand wrote me a letter every single week. First of all he gave me the style manual for the house […] When I’d do something wrong, I remember once he sent me a drawing of me having my head chopped off with a guillotine. He drew it falling into a basket with a ZUT! three times after it. But he was very, very good for a young author. They don’t do that these days.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before d’Alpuget sent a chapter to Ryan she would send it first to her stepmother, journalist and editor Tess van Sommers. It was a production line that forged her as an author. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1664726">credited</a> both Ryan and van Sommers for turning her “into a writer”. Applying the lessons learned from writing the Kirby book, d’Alpuget did a six-week rewrite of the rejected novel and immediately found a publisher; it became the prize-winning <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Blanche-d'Alpuget-Monkeys-in-the-Dark-9781743312254">Monkeys in the Dark</a>.</p>
<p>Research on the Kirby biography included long walks along Berrara Beach, near Jervis Bay, during which Kirby gave d’Alpuget a crash course in Australian industrial law – unique in the world at that time in consisting of court-based arbitrated rulings on cases triggered by disputes between unions and employers, and the creation of court-sanctioned “awards” that embodied agreements on wages and conditions between them. </p>
<p>To that point, d’Alpuget’s only experience with the law <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28169868-the-eleven-deadly-sins">had been</a> as a teenage runaway when at her parents’ instigation police nabbed her and her much older boyfriend interstate. D’Alpuget had also done some court reporting at the Mirror. D’Alpuget was no student of biography either. “At that stage, I’m ashamed to admit, I had never read a biography,” she recalls. “I was much too busy … going to parties!”</p>
<h2>‘Galvanised’ by 28-year-old Hawke</h2>
<p>As the long-standing Arbitration Commission president, Kirby knew Hawke and had come to like him very much. When he first observed him, Hawke was an impatient ANU research student assisting ACTU advocate Richard Eggleston QC in the 1958 national wage case hearings. </p>
<p>“He couldn’t sit still,” Kirby told d’Alpuget. “You could see he was practically going mad with frustration at not being able to have a say […] From the bench we used to watch him with some curiosity and amusement.” Hawke, 28 years old at the time but looking to the bench “only twenty-two or three”, asked for an interview with Kirby in his chambers.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He came in and explained he was a research student at the ANU. He began asking me a series of questions which I found quite objectionable in tone; how did we judges make our decisions? Did we believe we had the economic training necessary for the job we were trying to do? He <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">more or less suggested</a> we were a lot of economic ignoramuses, and things would be better off without us. I got pretty annoyed and indicated I thought him offensive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the next few pages of the Kirby biography, d’Alpuget recounts the unexpectedly riveting story of Hawke’s arrival on the public stage and his role in transforming the conceptual basis of Australian wage-fixing at that time from “capacity” to “productivity”. Hawke dropped out of his ANU doctoral studies, became the ACTU’s first university-educated employee and, not yet 30 years old, was appointed ACTU advocate for the 1959 basic wage case. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YzFmM71HOvw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Hawke was the ACTU’s first university-educated employee.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The presiding judge, Alf Foster, sent word via back channels to ACTU president Albert Monk “that he thought senior counsel and not some unknown student” should present the union case. Monk stuck with Hawke whose “assault on the concepts of wage fixation was immediate, savage and effective,” d’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">records</a>.</p>
<p>Kirby was galvanised by Hawke’s arguments. “In the off-season I later sought discussions with economists like Nugget Coombs, Joe Isaac and Dick Downing to help me understand in some depth what Hawke was talking about,” <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">he told</a> d’Alpuget. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget herself was galvanised by Hawke the man. In March 1976 she went to Melbourne <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">to interview him</a> for the Kirby book.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I did not initially recognise him as the man-passing-through-town with whom, six years earlier, I’d spent an hour tete-a-tete at a party (to which I’d worn, I remembered, a new white dress my mother had made). Nor did I realise what he would do in my life: I did not know when I encountered him again that the Muse had arrived. I did not know that, old, young, black, white, as himself or masked, I would draw him or some characteristic or saying of his, in book after book.</p>
<p>With mutual, wordless consent it was agreed we would become lovers as soon as possible – which happened to be in a different city, the following night.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-from-bob-hawke-economics-isnt-an-end-itself-there-has-to-be-a-social-benefit-117314">What I learned from Bob Hawke: economics isn't an end itself. There has to be a social benefit</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lovers ‘as soon as possible’</h2>
<p>The city was Canberra. Hawke was late and wearing pancake make-up. They would meet every few weeks; in between <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">there were</a> “no phone conversations, no notes, messages, nothing”. Hawke was rarely out of d’Alpuget’s mind. She tried never to mention his name but everything seemed to evoke his image, and all of it “shimmered with life”. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget’s interior world <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">was alight</a>: “Researching was a joy; writing was a joy; everything was a joy.” She carefully diarised their meetings. <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">But</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>slowly, dreadfully, I came to realise he was having affairs with women all over the country, that his love life was a kind of freewheeling, decentralised harem, with four or five favourites and a shoe-sale queue of one-night stands.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The relationship continued nevertheless and in November 1978 Hawke told d’Alpuget about a dream in which she and “Paradiso”, his long-standing lover in Geneva, were standing on a roulette wheel. “The wheel spun, and came to rest at me,” d’Alpuget writes in <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a>. “It meant, [he] said, he must choose me: to marry.” She was, she writes, “slain with delight” but told him she would think about it and respond in the New Year. </p>
<p>Practical considerations arose in her mind but did not seem decisive. Some were especially telling, including the fact that he mispronounced her surname, did not know whether she had siblings and, essentially, “knew little about who I was”. She asked a psychiatrist friend <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">to interpret</a> Hawke’s dream: “He laughed aloud at my obtuseness. ‘It means throwing in his lot with you is a gamble’.”</p>
<p>More than the roulette wheel was turning, however, by the time 1979 arrived. Hawke rang daily: “I felt safe,” she says. But d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">had</a> an emerging realisation that she knew him as little as he knew her: “We were enigmas, peeping at each other through keyholes.” </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>D’Alpuget began to research her second novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3409302">Turtle Beach</a>. It became an exercise in “unconscious autobiography”, d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">wrote later</a>, as had the rewrite of her first novel after the Kirby biography was finished; the writing of both stories reduced the pressure of her clandestine relationship with Hawke to bearable levels, partly by channelling her and Hawke’s personae into those novels’ fictional characters.</p>
<p>Hawke’s attention, meanwhile, had turned to the increasingly tense question of whether he should enter parliament – this against the backdrop of disasters at the 1979 ALP conference and ACTU Congress, the death of his mother Ellie, and trouble at home in Royal Avenue, Sandringham. </p>
<p>His life was now awash with “out-of-control drinking”. At the back of his mind, too, was a calculation that divorce could cost Labor a few percentage points at the ballot box should he become leader. Hawke stopped calling d’Alpuget. After some weeks, in a phone conversation lasting half a minute, Hawke <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">told her</a> he was not getting divorced. “Each of us asked the other to leave,” Hazel Hawke <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">wrote later</a> in her memoirs. “We both stayed.”</p>
<p>From being “slain with delight” at the marriage proposal nearly a year before, d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">now</a> first thought of killing herself, and then of killing Hawke. Each proposition was considered in practical detail over a number of days before a “shard of vanity” and the realisation that “giving my son a murderess for a mother was hardly better than a suicide, and that if I were in jail I would not see him often” terminated that line of thought. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Without revealing too many details, and certainly none of my murder plans, I told (Kirby) the story. He listened, and after a silence said, “Thank God, Blanco, that it’s over. You would have ended up sticking a knife in him.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is it possible that d’Alpuget really did know Hawke as little as she claims in <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a>?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No, I didn’t get to know him well at all. I really didn’t, because it was a completely sexual relationship. Brief encounters that had to be fitted in between him doing a thousand other things […] I only ever saw him behind a closed door.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget disavows even an appreciation of Hawke’s powerful public projection at the time “because I never saw him in public”, and in any case, “I’d been writing novels … I wasn’t all that interested.” Rather, rivals were on d’Alpuget’s mind.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a> she recounts looking at a “luscious minx” on page three of the Mirror, for example, and wondering if she was another of Hawke’s “petites amies” – this while rewriting <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Blanche-d'Alpuget-Monkeys-in-the-Dark-9781743312254">Monkeys in the Dark</a>, whose heroine’s fascination with her lover “was mixed and corrupted with anger and tension”. She continued: “We write out our sicknesses in books, Hemingway said. Well, yes and no: Hemingway shot himself.”</p>
<h2>A symbiotic project</h2>
<p>At this point, in 1979, d’Alpuget was author of the critically well-received Kirby biography, had two novels in the pipeline that would be published in the next two years to acclaim, several literary prizes and foreign translations of her works but little in the way of financial reward. </p>
<p>She wanted to write another biography and initially chose Hawke’s mentor and predecessor <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/monk-albert-ernest-11148">Albert Monk</a>, the ACTU’s first full-time president whose tenure overlapped substantially with Kirby’s at the Arbitration Commission. This idea fell victim to the resistance of Monk’s widow, who was disinclined to give d’Alpuget access to his papers.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget has said that “the Hawke book came about because of the Kirby book”, and there is a symbiotic feel to the projects, even down to their respective book launches. Nearly five years to the day after Hawke launched d’Alpuget’s Kirby biography at Canberra’s Lakeside Hotel, Kirby launched d’Alpuget’s Hawke biography at the same venue. </p>
<p>Melbourne Psychosocial Group members Graham Little and Angus McIntyre, and psychiatrist Michael Epstein, all attended the latter. The Kirby book required mastering the intricacies of Australia’s unique industrial relations system and d’Alpuget did so convincingly. </p>
<p>The language and concepts she acquired enabled her to understand Hawke’s long engagement with labour market theory and practice which dated from his research at Oxford in the mid-1950s on wage fixing under the Australian arbitration system. Interviewing Hawke for the Kirby biography brought about the fateful re-meeting of biographer and subject.</p>
<h2>Conscious motives</h2>
<p>What were d’Alpuget’s conscious motives for the Hawke biography? In 2014 she presented it as a simple instrumental decision after she unsuccessfully “tried and tried” to get Monk’s widow to give her access to his papers: “She turned me down … So I thought, okay, I’ll try the second president.”</p>
<p>Earlier, in <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a> in 2008, d’Alpuget “noted that the news media presentation of [Hawke] was mostly so simplified as to be not much more than a cartoon”. D’Alpuget </p>
<blockquote>
<p>was offended that public debate relied on such spindly legs, and wanted to do something about it; I wanted to make my own presentation of [Hawke] in a biography.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Earlier again, in 1986, d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">told Jennifer Ellison</a> that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>with the Hawke biography – I just had to make some money. I mean, that wasn’t the only reason, but I had that practical reason. Nobody can expect to make money out of writing fiction, so I wanted to write a book which I thought would finance me for a couple of novels, which it has.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The interrelated fiction and financial factors behind the book were related earlier still, in 1985, <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">to Candida Baker</a>, “because I knew it would help make me so well-known in Australia that all future fiction writing would be easy to sell”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>D’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">told Ellison</a> another factor was that Hawke “wasn’t entirely happy” about another biography being written at the time, though she does not specify whether that concern related to the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6939252">John Hurst</a> or <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/1980/642-october-1980-no-25/9261-major-don-grant-reviews-bob-hawke-a-portrait-by-robert-pullan-and-hawke-the-definitive-biography-by-john-hurst">Robert Pullan</a> book. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget also <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">evinced</a> genuine interest in Australia’s arbitration system; Hawke had wanted to do a doctoral thesis on it, and had spent half a lifetime working in it, while she had written a “part-history of that system” in the Kirby biography.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And there was a genuinely shared curiosity: you know, if you’ve once dreamed of going to Krakatoa and then you meet someone who has travelled there, you want to talk to him or her.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget told Baker that Hawke had rung her in 1978 to say that Hurst was thinking of doing a biography of him, wanting to know how much demand on his time a biographer was likely to make: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>So we had a talk about it, and I said as a joke, “Well if somebody’s going to do a biography of you, why don’t you let me do it?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This has been d’Alpuget’s most frequent response to questions about the book’s genesis. A more expansive account was given at a Canberra Times Literary Luncheon in 1982, shortly after its launch.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[I]n 1978 he got in touch with me and he said that somebody wanted to do his biography and I was the only biographer he knew and how much time was he going to have to devote to it.</p>
<p>So we had this conversation, you see, and it was going on and I didn’t know at that stage really but I perceived it intuitively that he’s a man who leaves a great deal unspoken and that you have to understand what he’s saying intuitively. And I thought while he was talking, that he was thinking that if you were going to be the subject of a life, he would quite like me to do it. That’s what I thought in any case.</p>
<p>So I said jokingly – as any shrink will tell you, there are no jokes, especially in these circumstances – I said jokingly, ‘Well if you’re going to have a biography done, why don’t you let me do it?’. And he laughed and so I laughed and that was the end of it. It was officially a joke.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the same speech, d’Alpuget says that as early as February 1976 she had a sense of how interesting Hawke could be as a subject when a woman sitting next to her at a Canberra dinner party one Saturday night, who knew Hazel Hawke, raised Bob’s intriguing mother. The woman told d’Alpuget:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I’ve already complained to Hazel about how aggressive Bob is,” because Hawke in those days was extraordinarily aggressive, he was like a blast of a furnace fire.</p>
<p>I said, “Oh yes”.</p>
<p>And she said, “And Hazel said, "if you think Bob is aggressive, you ought to meet his mother”.</p>
<p>Anyway when I heard that, I thought, there’s a story in that man, because it seemed to me that there was in that remark – that Hazel has repeated to me – an effect or, if you like, the tension between free will and determinism which I think is the tension or the dynamic of all narrative.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget refers to this 1976 dinner party conversation as the “seed” of the Hawke book, and the 1978 conversation with Hawke, triggered by their discussion of Hurst’s planned biography, as its “germination”. In between, in 1977, growth was driven by “that marvellous human need – that is, the need to eat”. </p>
<h2>A 'warts and all’ biography</h2>
<p>Little income had accrued from the Kirby book despite its critical success; <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Blanche-d'Alpuget-Monkeys-in-the-Dark-9781743312254">Monkeys in the Dark</a> had been rewritten and found a publisher but had not yet come out; and d’Alpuget wanted to apply for a Literature Board grant to enable her to continue writing. When her original plan to write a biography of Monk fell over, “I started thinking again about Hawke”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So I approached him […] in late 1978, because by then it was obvious that he would have to make his move to parliament either soon or not at all. I was very conscious [of] my effrontery […] and I expected, I think, that he’d either laugh about it again or just turn me down flat, as Mrs Monk had done.</p>
<p>Anyway I was surprised by his reaction, which was positive and interested and, I think, despite my work with Kirby, I hadn’t realised at that stage just how flattering it is to be made the subject of a book, nor I think had Hawke realised just how traumatic it can be. We made this agreement in principle [that]
assuming I could get a grant, I would start work on him in 1980.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the interim d’Alpuget completed her second novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3409302">Turtle Beach</a>, which would be another critical success upon publication in 1981. </p>
<p>From the vantage point of late 1979, however, when after four years’ full-time writing d’Alpuget still did not have “even enough to pay the telephone bill”, she decided she would either have to make some money or return to journalism, “a fate worse than death”. She hoped and expected that a Hawke biography would be financially rewarding. It was one of the things that kept her going.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget got the Literature Board grant. On 3 January 1980 – her 36th birthday and just a few months after Hawke’s reneged marriage proposal drove her to suicidal, then homicidal, thoughts – the first interview for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke: A Biography</a> was conducted. </p>
<p>“We set up a meeting […] in Sandringham just around the corner from his house, in the house of a friend of mine,” d’Alpuget recalls. Says Hawke: “It developed rather intimately … but it didn’t affect what I had to say.”</p>
<p>Hawke’s agreement was conditional on it being a “warts and all” portrait, a judgment based on his belief that voters understood he was human like them. “I just reckon I know the Australian people,” he said, conflating them with Australian men. “A hell of a lot of them could recognise themselves in both my drinking and my womanising. I think they make a judgment on the full person.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mG6Le84x8TY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Hawke wanted a ‘warts and all’ biography, believing Australians would recognise themselves in his drinking and womanising.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike the Kirby biography, the book did not immediately find a publisher. Peter Ryan at Melbourne University Press “knocked it back straight off – said, ‘Oh no, he’s alive!’” In a letter to d’Alpuget later, Ryan reiterated his “old-hat preference for "Life” which is dead, career complete, personality finished and the surrounding events reduced to proportion by the perspective of the years". Penguin Books also rejected the proposal.</p>
<h2>A ‘cowboy’ publisher: Morry Schwartz</h2>
<p>D’Alpuget’s literary agent, Rose Creswell, suggested Morry Schwartz, whose innovative Melbourne publishing house Outback Press had recently folded: but not before releasing contemporary Australian classics like Kate Jennings’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/69664">Come to Me, My Melancholy Baby</a> and <a href="https://www.ideanow.online/a-book-about-australian-women">A Book about Australian Women</a> by Carol Jerrems and Virginia Fraser. </p>
<p>Outback Press also had some unlikely commercial successes, including the Kate Jennings-edited <a href="https://readingaustralia.com.au/books/mother-im-rooted/">Mother, I’m Rooted: An anthology of Australian women poets</a>, which sold 10,000 copies in an Australia, whose then population was less than 14 million people.</p>
<p>Schwartz had a colourful reputation – “the kindest thing said about him was that he was ‘a cowboy’,” says d’Alpuget – and was a long shot as a publishing bet. But the book was a long shot for Schwartz, too. There were two biographies in the marketplace already. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Cowboy publisher’ Morry Schwartz (right), pictured at an Outback Press launch, with launcher Gough Whitlam (left) and author Deane Wells (centre).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More serious still was Hawke’s extreme behaviour when drunk, and political embarrassments which made some conclude his ascent was over. “It was thought that he’d absolutely shot himself in the foot,” d’Alpuget recalls. Max Suich told her, for example, upon hearing about the planned biography, “Well you’d better be quick, dear, because he’ll be ‘Bob Who?’ in six months.”</p>
<p>She and Creswell flew to Melbourne to talk to Schwartz. The meeting took place in the street. “Morry, who was around thirty and drop-dead good-looking, conducted the interview leaning against a low, fast, navy blue–coloured car that he owned, or hired, or had borrowed,” says d’Alpuget. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>One was never quite sure. He rested an elbow on the car roof and from time to time turned his Hollywood profile to snatch another black grape from the bunch he held by its stem between thumb and first finger.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Schwartz backed the book with zest, offering an advance big enough to research the book properly. </p>
<p>In d’Alpuget’s view he did this for two reasons: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[F]irst, he was a businessman, and sensed the book could become a best-seller if Hawke’s career flourished. Second, as a Jew, he deeply appreciated Hawke’s support for Israel at a time when doing so was literally dangerous and potentially disastrous for Hawke’s career. Of these two, I think the second reason was paramount.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In d’Alpuget’s estimation, Schwartz was also capable of publishing the book with unusual speed. “I have attacks of being politically canny,” she <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">said later</a> of her conviction that Malcolm Fraser would call the federal election early and that the book therefore must, to avoid irrelevancy, be out before the end of 1982.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget had the Literature Board grant, the agreement of her subject, a publishing contract, a healthy advance on royalties, had begun conducting interviews and was on her way to producing the book. Hawke’s memory of the process was “a hell of a lot of interviews”.</p>
<p>In a letter written late in the manuscript’s preparation, d’Alpuget <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-344188450/findingaid">told</a> Peter Ryan that, “To say … working with him is a nightmare is the blandest understatement: once, in a 2-hour taping session, there were 27 telephone calls.” </p>
<h2>On the road to the Labor leadership</h2>
<p>Four things were happening simultaneously, in fact, in the nearly three years between the first interview in January 1980 and the book’s publication in October 1982. </p>
<p>Firstly, Hawke was on the road to seizing the Labor leadership, the necessary prelude to becoming prime minister. Secondly, d’Alpuget was making a political intervention to help Hawke achieve his goal. Thirdly, d’Alpuget was symbolically reclaiming Hawke as a man before, after publication, putting him aside. And fourthly, through the biographical process conducted by d’Alpuget, Hawke was settling and projecting an identity which formed the personal plank of the platform from which he pursued and conducted his prime ministership.</p>
<p>The first of these elements, that Hawke was bent on seizing the Labor leadership, was widely known and understood at the time, though <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/500808">the story</a> behind-the-scenes – that Hawke “had more blood on him than the entire stage at the end of Hamlet” – still remains largely submerged. Hawke had been vaunted as a potential prime minister for years. </p>
<p>His leadership credentials were the focus even at the press conference when he announced his candidature for the seat of Wills, as Hurst and Pullan both pointed out in their biographies. “Newspaper files had grown fat on reports of his deeds and on speculation about where he was headed,” <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8213926-the-hawke-years">Mills notes</a>, “[and] he was in demand by TV interviewers.”</p>
<p>D’Alpuget argued in her biography of Hawke that his success in using the media, at least that outside Canberra, “was so great largely because publicity – being the centre of attention – corresponded perfectly with a major element in his personality, laid in infancy and childhood”. </p>
<p>Beginning with his parents, Hawke “relished and had the knack of mesmerizing” his audience. D’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">quotes</a> Hawke’s personal assistant, Jean Sinclair, on the extrapolation of this to his later career. “It was cruel to watch Bob with journalists,” Sinclair told her. “They were lambs to be slaughtered.”</p>
<p>Canberra Press Gallery journalists proved a tougher audience than those outside the national capital, however, and parliament itself was the prism through which gallery journalists rated politicians. </p>
<p>As a parliamentarian and as shadow minister for industrial relations, Hawke failed to enchant gallery journalists, impress Labor colleagues, or cow conservative prime minister Malcolm Fraser. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6701134-the-hawke-ascendancy">The Hawke Ascendancy</a>, Paul Kelly quotes from a 1981 report by Laurie Oakes, then Canberra bureau chief for the Ten Network, after Hawke guest-compered a popular daytime television program, The Mike Walsh Show.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since Mr Hawke entered Parliament he has not done himself justice. He does not perform nearly as well in Parliament – or in Caucus by all accounts – as he did yesterday as a television compere. His media skills are unquestioned. But a politician requires other skills as well […]</p>
<p>Mr Fraser so far has not found Mr Hawke much more difficult to deal with than a number of other Opposition frontbenchers … There is more to politics, especially in the big league at the national level, than making like a television star.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In private, including among members of the Labor caucus, comments were frequently much the same. Labor frontbencher Senator Susan Ryan <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710142.Catching_the_Waves">shared</a> Oakes’ assessment of Hawke, rather than that of her friend d’Alpuget.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Blanche, characteristically, had formed an instant and immovable view: her subject should become prime minister of Australia as soon as possible. I was very far from that view. Often on a Canberra Sunday evening, a regular night off for us both, we would debate and argue Bob’s leadership potential. </p>
<p>She made some memorable observations about him; memorable because they turned out later to be true. When I pointed out that his contribution in the parliament and shadow Cabinet was, although perfectly workmanlike, not spectacular, she said that Bob would only flourish fully in the number one position: only leadership could provide the optimal psychological environment for him.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some other Labor frontbenchers like Tom Uren <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7764293-straight-left">thought</a> Hawke “brought a charisma, a folksy, friendly, ‘good bloke’ relationship with the Australian people he had built up over the years” as ACTU president – the same point Labor frontbencher Mick Young made at greater length to biographer John Hurst, quoted by him on the opening page of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6939252-hawke">Hawke, the Definitive Biography</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Susan Ryan said Blanche believed ‘her subject should become prime minister of Australia as soon as possible’; she was ‘very far from that view’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But at the time d’Alpuget was writing her book, that sentiment was still a minority one and did not deliver Hawke the numbers to displace Bill Hayden. Was d’Alpuget’s biography part of some Hawke master plan to seize The Lodge? Not according to d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">in March 1985</a>, two and a half years after the book’s publication.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People ever afterwards said, “Oh isn’t Hawke clever!” It’s faintly irritating. I had to consider all these bloody things, all the time. Bob had no idea of the timing, in fact for ages it was unreal to him, and it was only right towards the end of the process, when I started showing him the manuscript to read, that it started to become real. Up until then he’d been interviewed by at least five million people, and it was just something that he did. Part of the day’s work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hawke himself said he had not considered writing an autobiography or organising for someone else to write his biography. “No, I hadn’t thought about it at all,” he said. “I was extraordinarily busy, couldn’t do it myself. I was just doing my job. This came along. I knew she could write.” Hawke didn’t want a hagiography.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I wasn’t regarded as a lilywhite kind of person (and) I was more than happy to stand on my record of achievement … I don’t think it did me any damage. I think on balance it probably helped. I think people made a judgment about me. On the whole they knew the foibles but they knew the pretty substantial record of achievement I had under my belt.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-susan-ryan-pioneer-labor-feminist-who-showed-big-difficult-policy-changes-can-and-should-be-made-146996">Vale Susan Ryan, pioneer Labor feminist who showed big, difficult policy changes can, and should, be made</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A biography to ‘help Hawke achieve his goal’</h2>
<p>The second thing happening in this period was a political intervention by d’Alpuget to help Hawke achieve his goal. D’Alpuget did not declare this as her intention. Nevertheless, the Hawke biography was authorised and d’Alpuget had her subject’s cooperation. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget was not going to write a book that would hurt Hawke’s chance of winning the Labor leadership and thereafter the prime ministership, though upon first reading some did not grasp the sophistication of her approach. </p>
<p>It was a sign of Hawke’s self-confidence as well as, he would say, his confidence in the Australian people, that it had to be a “warts and all” portrayal, and d’Alpuget largely provided it. “I’d become convinced that despite all evidence to the contrary, he would somehow make it to prime minister,” d’Alpuget says.</p>
<p>Another aspect of her role in this was not publicly known. Hawke asked d’Alpuget to try and turn a Hayden vote for him. “Bob had told me how he was going to unseat Hayden,” d’Alpuget says. “And he’d asked my help with a particular Hayden supporter in the caucus. He’d asked my help in trying to turn this person, to vote for him.”</p>
<p>There was a “unique angle” according to d’Alpuget: “I was good friends with this person.” It was Susan Ryan. In the second edition of her Hawke biography, d’Alpuget would describe herself openly as a “Hawke camp insider” in the notes at the front; but not in the first edition. It was concealed even from her publisher, Morry Schwartz, at the time.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was incredibly frustrating. Because the book came out in October, and all of this was going on October, November, December, January, February – all of this plotting and so forth.</p>
<p>So maybe it was sort of November, December, January. And I knew what was happening. [A]nd and I couldn’t say a word – I couldn’t say to Morry, “Morry, print some more copies!” I didn’t tell anybody.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This underlines the dual nature of the author as both biographer and political player. While those roles were congruent, d’Alpuget’s verve and high estimation of her subject underpinned artistic risks from which a lesser, more instrumentally focused, biographer in this situation would shrink.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The choice of cover photograph for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a> is an example. “Morry Schwartz and I sat on the floor in his office in Melbourne and we went through gazillions of photographs,” d’Alpuget recalls. “And we picked that one. If you know Bob, you know he’s drunk.”</p>
<p>The picture, by American photographer Rick Smolan, shows Hawke, eyes heavy-lidded, head leaning sideways on a hand with a cigar clenched between two fingers, his expression poised between bored bemusement and impending explosion. Hawke’s crisp, stylish business attire is juxtaposed against his intense, glowering gaze. The cover’s drama is heightened by its stark black and white palette and the containment of Hawke’s face in a tight square at its centre.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/summits-old-and-new-what-was-bob-hawkes-1983-national-economic-summit-about-187763">Summits old and new: what was Bob Hawke's 1983 National Economic Summit about?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Reclaiming Hawke – and putting him aside</h2>
<p>The third thing happening during this period was d’Alpuget symbolically reclaiming Hawke as a man and then putting him aside. </p>
<p>The background was Hawke’s years of hard drinking, philandering and fighting with wife Hazel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843718-hazel">from whom</a> he had only a few months earlier tried to separate in order to marry d’Alpuget, but failing since neither would agree to be the one to walk out of the marriage. </p>
<p>“It was a very difficult situation for him because Hazel hated me,” d’Alpuget says, and Hazel knew about their previous relationship and assumed, correctly, that it had resumed. Moreover, Hazel Hawke was not the only hostile rival d’Alpuget had to contend with in the writing of the book. There was also Jean Sinclair and others.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Hazel] said to me a marvellous thing once, much later. She said, ‘Blanche, you know what Bob’s like. When he’s drunk he’d fuck a goat’. […] But she talked to me, while hating me. So he had the difficulty of Hazel being against me, and also of course he was in a very long term relationship with Jean Sinclair, his private secretary. And Jean was aware of our relationship. </p>
<p>So he had this great difficulty – trapped – three women. Jean and I managed to get on well, well enough – we were professional about it. But it was difficult for him. So he took minimal interest in the book for those personal reasons.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wJR-HuXYy8Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Hawke, a known philanderer, was in a long-term relationship with his private secretary, Jean Sinclair, as well as having an affair with Blanche.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>D’Alpuget thanks Sinclair in the foreword to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J Hawke: A Biography</a> for “spending so much time in passing messages to him from me, and in finding research material”. She describes Sinclair in the body of the book as “Hawke’s right arm” and spends a few pages sketching out her story as, like Hawke, an “exotic” ACTU employee. </p>
<p>Sinclair was schooled at Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School, had an economics degree from the University of Melbourne, had worked for the management consulting firm McKinsey and was a director of her family company.</p>
<p>Sinclair’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">description</a> to d’Alpuget of the state of the ACTU administration upon taking up her job in 1973 is vivid, and familiar to anyone familiar with the labour movement at that time: variations of this kind of administrative chaos were replicated at busy union head offices around the country.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget describes how Sinclair bore the workplace brunt of Hawke’s belief that “every day contained forty-eight hours and that he should be awake and occupied for all of them”, and remarks that “a good week for her was one in which she dissuaded him from committing himself to a major scheme: agreeing to write a book, for example”. </p>
<p>Sinclair was Hawke’s personal assistant and companion for more than twenty years, and <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">she and d’Alpuget</a> “disliked each other”. The extra demands on Hawke’s time would have been only one of the reasons Sinclair opposed the book given her own ongoing relationship with him.</p>
<h2>Fighting Hazel</h2>
<p>Hazel Hawke’s cooperation did not come without a fight. Hazel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">wrote a letter</a> to the editor of The Age in November 1979 registering her “utter revulsion” at press coverage of a court case involving a prominent politician’s son. “My main argument is that any politician or public figure must be assessed on his job performance, and that whether his wife and family are glamorous and interesting or have two heads and are naughty should be irrelevant,” she wrote. </p>
<p>She continued that “no public figure who is good enough” needs the ego-boosting or public image softening that “nice little stories” involving their families entail, and further, that, “The electorate which makes this demand avoids its responsibility of properly assessing the worth and performance of that figure on the contribution he makes, or does not adequately make, in his particular area of public affairs.”</p>
<p>In the foreword to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, d’Alpuget says the only area she avoided, at Hazel’s request, was the Hawke children “whose privacy has already been invaded over many years”. It was, she wrote, “a price worth paying for her help and unflinching frankness, both in giving information and in reading the manuscript for accuracy of detail”. D’Alpuget wrote that she had been “guided by her perceptions a great deal, while exercising the responsibility to reach my own conclusions”. </p>
<p>Hazel in turn, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">in her own memoirs</a> published after Hawke’s prime ministership was over, characterised herself as an opponent of the biography, then a reluctant starter and, ultimately, a supporter. She felt Hawke’s flaws being brought into the open ahead of his run for the prime ministership had a kind of inoculation effect, as well as relieving the pressure she personally felt over public perceptions of
their marriage.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[I]n May 1980, Blanche d’Alpuget, who was writing a biography of Bob, came to our house to talk with me about the book. This was not easy for me […] I was not in favour of the biography.</p>
<p>Although Bob had authorised the book, it had been embarked upon without my approval even though it would clearly need to refer to myself, the children and Bob’s personal life. But now it was happening and I would cooperate. </p>
<p>I must say that I have since been glad the book was written. It broached areas of Bob’s life, drunkenness and marital problems, which could have been used against him later by the sensationalist press. When he entered parliamentary politics, voters had an understanding of the man they were considering for election. The biography also released me from feeling I needed to protect the marriage totally from public scrutiny.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sue Pieters-Hawke has written that her mother was “distressed and angry” about her father’s relationship with d’Alpuget, and that wider knowledge of their relationship affected the interviews Blanche obtained from Hazel loyalists amongst the Hawke family’s closest friends. </p>
<p>“Intimates who knew of Blanche’s relationship with Bob closed ranks in support of Hazel,” Pieters-Hawke <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843718-hazel">says</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As Marj White put it, “I said, ‘Well, my mouth’s closed. Anything that appears in that book will be absolutely mundane. I will not relate anything personal’.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget had, in fact, pulled off a coup in terms of her power vis-à-vis the two other women closest to Hawke at that time. Within only a few months of Hawke ceasing contact and then breaking his offer to leave Hazel and marry d’Alpuget, she was spending hours interviewing him at a house a couple of minutes from his own in Royal Avenue, Sandringham, had his intimate amanuensis Sinclair passing messages and doing minor research for her, and had Hawke’s wife corralled into an interview against her will. </p>
<p>This was an act of triumphant repossession, all in the name of a greater good the other two women were hard pressed to obstruct: Hawke’s advancement.</p>
<p>Hawke would foreswear alcohol in the interests of his political career, while Hazel fell more deeply into its clutches. “The monster drink had gone from Bob’s life but infidelity had not,” Hazel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">wrote later</a> in her memoir. “I felt extremely unsure about our future and was lonely. Now I would often drink alone, at home, with my solitary dinner, a very unwise practice.”</p>
<p>Sue Pieters-Hawke <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843718-hazel">says</a> her mother was “distressed and angry” about Bob and Blanche’s ongoing relationship, and “was by now capable of striking back when she, too, had been drinking”. Hazel made a number of phone calls to Morry Schwartz’s office demanding information about the book, making it clear that Hawke and d’Alpuget were lovers. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RfGuv6V7nO0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sue Pieters-Hawke says her mother, Hazel, was ‘distressed and angry’ about Bob and Blanche’s ongoing relationship.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once, after newspapers in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra published a photograph of subject and biographer on the steps of Parliament House, Hazel phoned the Schwartz office and told the person who answered the phone, “Get that fucking bitch off the front page or I’ll blow the whistle. I’ll blow the whistle and he’ll never be prime minister.”</p>
<p>The intensity of Hazel Hawke’s battle against the biography is revealed in letters at the time from d’Alpuget to Peter Ryan, her old publisher and mentor at Melbourne University Press, to whom she sent “the Bird Tome” for critique prior to finalising the manuscript.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hazel Hawke, who is a hill-billy termagant, is doing hand-springs in her efforts to prevent publication of the book. I have left out […] that she is a lush and a bully and have presented her as quite the Cecil Brunner rose. For that I get an hour & a half of telephone abuse. </p>
<p>At this very moment she is, no doubt, giving the Bird the rounds of the kitchen about it all. What she wants, I think, is a hagiography of herself, and pillorying of him. She hates him, & her greatest pleasure in life is to make him suffer. Were her portrait ever to be painted it would be with a log, a banjo and a vat of moonshine.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blanche wrote in private correspndence: ‘Hazel hates him, & her greatest pleasure in life is to make him suffer.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Russel McPhedran/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the acknowledgements of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, d’Alpuget thanks Ryan for reading the manuscript when she had reached “exhaustion and despondency” under pressure of meeting the tight publication deadline. This perhaps explains the closing paragraph of the letter from d’Alpuget to Ryan containing her unvarnished comment on Hazel that, “She would make great copy in the Lodge. But I don’t think we can look forward to that.” </p>
<p>It was a brief down beat in d’Alpuget’s usually unrelenting belief that Hawke would indeed make The Lodge. She subsequently revised her view of Hazel’s capacity to perform as a prime ministerial spouse, based on actual performance. </p>
<p>“I was wrong,” d’Alpuget says now. “I had seen only her worst self. Once in The Lodge she rose to the challenge.” Hazel had hypnotherapy to stop smoking, moderated her drinking and conquered her shyness to become a good public speaker. Says d’Alpuget, “Hazel changed into the model prime ministerial wife.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-larrikin-as-leader-how-bob-hawke-came-to-be-one-of-the-best-and-luckiest-prime-ministers-91152">The larrikin as leader: how Bob Hawke came to be one of the best (and luckiest) prime ministers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hawke was ‘a fighter by nature’</h2>
<p>In her speech at the book’s launch at Canberra’s Lakeside Hotel in October 1982, d’Alpuget describes Hawke as a “fighter” by nature who had fought with many, including her, and had fought for the book.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had an argument at our first interview for this book and almost three years later, when he was reading the final manuscript before it went for typesetting, we were still arguing. We were arguing over adjectives and nouns and verbs and my interpretations. While the book was being written and particularly in the last few weeks, Bob has had to argue with those who thought that a mid-term career biography should not be published.</p>
<p>Indeed, he has fought for this book and he’s done so because he shares, I believe, my view that people should be able to make judgments not guesses about their political leaders, and that therefore the more we know about them the better. He has maintained this principle despite the fact that from the outset of my work on his biography, he knew it would be treated as a curiosity, misused, trivialised and distorted. And I must say that events have borne out that weary foreknowledge grossly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget told the audience she had tried to write a frank account and that the biography was intended as “an early step in a movement for more penetrating analyses of people in Australian public life”.</p>
<p>It was a significant break from the usual mould of contemporary political biography, and initial reactions and calculations about it were wider of the mark the closer one got to Parliament House, Canberra. Many Canberra Press Gallery journalists assumed it would seriously damage Hawke’s standing. </p>
<p>So did some of Hawke’s rivals on the opposition frontbench, like fellow leadership aspirant Paul Keating. Hawke recalled a member of Labor’s NSW Right faction telling him at the time, in relation to the book, “Keating’s very, very happy, reckons that’s the end of you. With all that stuff in it, all your drinking and womanizing – that that’ll be the end of you.” Hawke replied, “Well, I think that shows how little Paul understands the electorate.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people looking at portraits of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paul Keating was apparently ‘very, very happy’ about Hawke’s warts and all biography. ‘He reckons that’s the end of you.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/melodyayresgriffiths/">Melody Ayres Griffiths/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It did prove the end of the d’Alpuget relationship, though. “I’d been burnt, when we’d broken up,” she says, recalling the breach over Hawke’s failure to honour his promise to leave Hazel and marry d’Alpuget in 1979.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although we resumed sexual relations while I was doing the book I wasn’t going to fall in love with him. And also when you study somebody to that degree, it’s like having too much chocolate. You never want to see another chocolate again! So by the end of the research, and certainly by the end of the book, I really didn’t want to see him again. I was so sick of him. You can’t give so much energy to another human being, unless it’s your own baby.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This repossession and then relinquishing of Hawke had a satisfying symmetry.
They next met three years into Hawke’s prime ministership for a newspaper profile d’Alpuget undertook for the Sydney Morning Herald. “The room was quiet and felt empty,” d’Alpuget reported, and Hawke was distant. “Hawke has defined his Prime Ministership as super-respectable,” she <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Paul-Kelly-End-of-Certainty-9781741754988">wrote</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>He said repeatedly that physically he was on top of the world. Indeed, his skin tone and colour looked excellent. But […] my overwhelming impression was of a lack of vitality, that he was vanishing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">Two years after that</a> Hawke rang d’Alpuget and their relationship resumed; covert meetings were organised during the latter years of his prime ministership. In December 1991 he was ousted as prime minister by Paul Keating and he resigned from parliament shortly afterwards. </p>
<p>The Hawke marriage ended in 1994 and Bob married d’Alpuget in 1995. They spent 24 years together until his death in 2019.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jW-thSZX0VU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob and Blanche spent 24 years married, until his death in 2019.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Settling and projecting an identity</h2>
<p>Three of the four things happening simultaneously between January 1980 when d’Alpuget conducted her first interview for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, and October 1982 when it was published, have so far been canvassed. </p>
<p>Hawke was on the road to seizing the Labor leadership, the necessary prelude to him becoming prime minister. D’Alpuget was making a political intervention to help Hawke achieve that goal. D’Alpuget was symbolically reclaiming Hawke as a man before relinquishing him post-publication.</p>
<p>The fourth thing happening was that, through the biographical process conducted by d’Alpuget, Hawke settled and projected an identity which formed the personal plank of the platform from which he pursued and conducted his prime ministership. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget describes Robert J. Hawke as “a well-built book” with a good structure. “It’s internally strong,” <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">she said later</a>. “I was actually thinking of the architecture of a Congregationalist church I’d seen in South Australia when I was writing it: well-proportioned stone, four-square.” </p>
<p>In the process of construction, it could be argued that d’Alpuget did some rewiring of her subject, or at least enabled him to do some rewiring of himself through the biographical process, that helped stabilise his behaviour and settle his life generally, junking the self-destructive behaviour which jeopardised the achievement of his political goals.</p>
<p>It is not a claim that should be overstated; Hawke’s personality is highly distinctive and of robust continuity. Nor is it a proposition that can be dismissed. </p>
<p>Some of d’Alpuget’s impact on Hawke was straightforward and attitudinal – for example, concerning the position of women. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, d’Alpuget describes his unreconstructedly sexist attitudes about, and behaviour towards, women, noting it did not change until Hawke in his fifties read Simone de Beauvoir’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-second-sex-9780099595731">The Second Sex</a>.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">omits to mention</a> that she was the one who lent Beauvoir’s book to him. The Hawke Government went on to pass landmark sex discrimination and affirmative action legislation for women through the auspices of the Minister for the Status of Women, Senator Susan Ryan. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anne-summers-new-memoir-and-the-bitter-struggle-over-memory-narratives-of-feminism-105845">Anne Summers' new memoir and the bitter struggle over memory narratives of feminism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Earliest memories and uncomfortable truths</h2>
<p>In other respects, though, the change in Hawke’s behaviour between 1979 when he was largely written off by political insiders because of his reckless, drunken and abusive behaviour, and the early 1980s when he gave up alcohol and (at least publicly) curtailed his obvious philandering, was dramatic. </p>
<p>Even if one ascribes the change entirely to his May 1980 decision to give up alcohol, the question remains, how was he able to give up drinking this time when he had failed on all previous attempts?</p>
<p>Upon the book’s publication, d’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2504064">described it as</a> “an attempt on my part to wrap a narrative around an analysis of personality”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I spend the first 76 pages of the Hawke biography on his infancy, childhood and youth. That’s really an unusually long time to devote to that sort of early conditioning but I thought it was essential to give it so much time to adequately be able to explain what comes later, and that is Hawke, the folk hero of the 1970s. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget went on to describe the unusual family dynamic before concluding that for Hawke, “In psychological terms, which I don’t use at all in the book, I think it was a <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/psychology/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/hypercathexis">hypercathexis</a> of his intellect”. This was a rare intrusion of psychological jargon, which d’Alpuget kept from the biography itself. While jargon free, however, there is no mistaking the bent with which she approached the project.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.freud.org.uk/education/resources/the-interpretation-of-dreams/">The Interpretation of Dreams</a> Freud wrote of “the royal road to the unconscious”. In the therapeutic setting, patients undergoing psychoanalysis lie on a couch and are questioned about their earliest memories and their dreams, and encouraged to reflect and expand upon them. </p>
<p>For Hawke it was a trip from his home on Royal Avenue, Sandringham, to the nearby home of d’Alpuget’s psychiatrist friend Michael Epstein, where she would question him about his earliest memories and encourage him to reflect and expand upon them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ferdinand Schmutzer" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">d'Alpuget’s questioning and encouraged reflection on Hawke’s memories is likened to Sigmund Freud’s ‘royal road to the unconscious’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In these interviews d’Alpuget stirred up memories, unconscious and otherwise, and foreclosed resistance to them on his part when he could not or would not remember, by bringing to the biographical couch stories told to her by surviving family members. The most important was d’Alpuget’s revelation that the all-powerful Ellie Hawke had committed Bob, when he was a small child, to the teetotal path ascribed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazirite">Nazarites</a> in the Hebrew bible, the word “nazir” having the spiritually highly charged meaning “consecrated”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My research turned up all of this stuff that he would never have told me about, [like] his mother enrolling him as a little Nazarite. They were sworn never to drink in their lives. She was a … teetotaller. Obviously in her background there’d been drunks. At the age of 8 he was sworn that alcohol would never touch his lips.</p>
<p>And when I started research I went straight to the family in South Australia and turned all of this up, and I came to him and asked him about it. I started in January. He gave up grog four months after I told him [in] February […]</p>
<p>I tell you it was a high moment when the family in South Australia told me all this background about the drinking, because no way was Bob going to tell me that, let alone Hazel. And really they were the only two people whom I’d met up until that point who knew.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hawke was “tremendously uncomfortable” when d’Alpuget raised it with him. Whether causal or coincidental, the fact that he successfully swore off alcohol within proximate range of d’Alpuget drawing key scenes like this from his childhood inescapably into his view is highly suggestive. Nor was it the only uncomfortable truth d’Alpuget brought to the surface.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We shared this other strange thing. My mother had wanted me to be a boy, and his mother had wanted him to be a girl. And unless you’ve had that experience of actual maternal rejection, which is completely denied – completely denied – at a very young age, you don’t really know what it’s like. But it gives a certain sympathy.
There’s a certain symmetry to your lives.</p>
<p>He didn’t know that about me, but I knew that about him. And I’d discovered that in South Australia too – that his mother wanted him to be a girl. So, all the tension around masculinity. What do you get? Hypermasculinity. All the tension about, well, the disappointment about, not being a girl – well, therefore you’ve got to be prime minister. Over-compensation. And he must be a teetotaller. So for someone who wrote fiction, this was just all magic material, if you had any psychological insight. The rejection, the disappointment. It’s there, imprinted forever, like a dagger.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Empathy over shared problems like this, the novelist’s expert handling of rich source material, and a classic narrative arc emerging during research – the hero nailing himself to the cross of alcohol and then getting himself off in time to pursue the prize – all contributed to the satisfactions of the book from the readers’ standpoint. </p>
<p>“I did believe his virtues far outweighed his vices, and that he had succeeded in this enormously difficult task which was overcoming his drinking”, d’Alpuget says. “So to that extent I thought it was a book about a personal triumph. But I didn’t set out to do that. He did that. I just described what happened.”</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from Chris Wallace’s book <a href="https://unsw.press/books/political-lives/">Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers</a> (UNSW Press/New South).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Wallace has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council but not in relation to this book. </span></em></p>Bob Hawke spent 24 years married to his second wife, Blanche d'Alpuget, whose canny 1981 biography helped make him ALP leader – and one of our most beloved PMs. Chris Wallace tells their story.Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933112022-10-31T19:01:49Z2022-10-31T19:01:49ZEmployers say Labor’s new industrial relations bill threatens the economy. Denmark tells a different story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492451/original/file-20221031-17-p80rqf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C439%2C3224%2C1642&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Labor’s proposed amendment to the Fair Work Act (subtitled its <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6941">Secure Jobs, Better Pay bill</a>) has drawn fire from Australia’s three leading employer groups:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which says it will create <a href="https://www.australianchamber.com.au/news/seismic-ir-shift-means-increasing-strikes-higher-unemployment/">more strikes and unemployment</a></p></li>
<li><p>the Australian Industry Group, which says it threatens decades of national prosperity and will <a href="https://www.aigroup.com.au/news/media-centre/2022/workplace-relations-legislation/">turn workplaces into conflict zones</a> </p></li>
<li><p>and the Business Council of Australia, which says it risks tipping the economy over the edge <a href="https://www.bca.com.au/australia_can_t_afford_workplace_relations_own_goal">while workers wait longer for pay increases</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The Senate has begun an inquiry, but it is already easy to see the worst of these fears are misplaced.</p>
<p>Along with banning pay secrecy clauses, putting gender equity at the heart of the Fair Work Commission’s pay-setting process, and giving it new powers to resolve long-running disputes, the bill expands access to <a href="https://www.tonyburke.com.au/media-releases/2022/-secure-jobs-better-pay-bill">multi-employer</a> bargaining, something that withered away at the start of the 1990s.</p>
<p>While multi-employer bargaining is allowed under current laws, no such agreements have been made since <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/27384/wages-crisis-ebook.pdf">2009</a>, and few since the introduction of enterprise bargaining in <a href="https://theconversation.com/cabinet-papers-1992-93-the-rise-and-fall-of-enterprise-bargaining-agreements-70139">1993</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-unions-and-small-business-want-industry-bargaining-from-the-jobs-summit-and-big-business-doesnt-189394">Why unions and small business want industry bargaining from the jobs summit – and big business doesn't</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Before enterprise bargaining, pay was set by hundreds of awards – most covering more than one employer in a sector or occupation – negotiated between employers and unions before being arbitrated by the Fair Work Commission.</p>
<p>Enterprise bargaining largely replaced that process with agreements individually negotiated in each workplace, and merely registered with the Commission, which checks whether they have passed a “Better Off Overall Test” and meet minimum standards.</p>
<p>A smaller number of awards continued, renamed “<a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/agreements-awards/awards">modern awards</a>”, and used as a backup for enterprises in which agreements couldn’t be reached.</p>
<h2>Enterprise bargains are becoming rarer</h2>
<p>It was thought enterprise bargaining would boost productivity, because workers would be able to suggest changes to the way their enterprise worked that would make things more efficient in return for more pay. However, the extent to which this happened is <a href="https://rest.neptune-prod.its.unimelb.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/9a8a4bfc-55d0-5219-91f4-9c1c2fa753aa/content">unclear</a>.</p>
<p>Lately, enterprise bargaining has been declining, with the number of operational federally-registered enterprise agreeements <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Wages-Crisis-Revisited-WEB.pdf">falling by more than half</a> from 23,500 to 10,000 between the ends of 2013 and 2021.</p>
<p>In part this has been because pay rises offered under enterprise bargains have been too low to represent value for workers in the enterprise or their union. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-one-big-reason-wages-are-stagnating-the-enterprise-bargaining-system-is-broken-and-in-terminal-decline-183818">There's one big reason wages are stagnating: the enterprise bargaining system is broken, and in terminal decline</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Under the current enterprise bargaining rules, introduced by the Rudd government in 2009, employers are <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-one-big-reason-wages-are-stagnating-the-enterprise-bargaining-system-is-broken-and-in-terminal-decline-183818">not legally obliged to offer higher pay</a> in return for demands such as longer working days.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/media-releases/2022/finally-action-on-wage-growth">Australian Council of Trade Unions</a> believes bargaining with multiple employers will enable employers to offer more, knowing others can. It wants the government to be part of the process where it funds the pay rate set, as it effectively does for childcare and aged care.</p>
<p>Employer representatives say it would be a return to the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/bargaining-the-boot-and-a-1970s-economy-decoding-industrial-relations-speak-20220830-p5bduc.html">1970s</a>, or the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/25/what-is-multi-employer-bargaining-could-it-help-lift-wages-growth-in-australia">1960s</a>, when industrial action was common and prices and wages chased each other up.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09596801221132424">Our research</a> on Denmark suggests these fears are misplaced.</p>
<h2>Denmark shows what’s possible</h2>
<p>Denmark has enterprise agreements, similar to Australia’s, but they are linked to multi-employer “sectoral” agreements bargained between unions and employer associations representing workers and employers across a particular sector.</p>
<p>These sectoral agreements provide “frameworks” that can be varied at the level of each enterprise. Like Australia’s awards, the sectoral agreements are the default in enterprises that are unable to strike enterprise bargains.</p>
<p>The difference is that Denmark’s sectoral agreements provide a stronger set of minimum conditions and protections than Australia’s awards, which are more limited by law in what they can cover. </p>
<p>Danish workers have the right to strike and employers have the right to “lockout” their workers by preventing them from working. Despite these powers, industrial action is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351914562_Employment_Relations_in_Denmark">relatively rare</a> in Denmark. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wages-and-women-top-albaneses-ir-agenda-the-big-question-is-how-labor-keeps-its-promises-183527">Wages and women top Albanese's IR agenda: the big question is how Labor keeps its promises</a>
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<p>In recent years <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/international-and-comparative-employment-relations/book269095">fewer days</a> have been lost to industrial disputes in Denmark than in Australia. Taking into account the relative sizes of their workforces, Australia lost about 10 times as many days to industrial action as Denmark in 2021.</p>
<p>This is despite unions being much stronger in Denmark – <a href="https://faos.ku.dk/publikationer/forskningsnotater/rapporter-2019/Rapport_184_-_L_nmodtageres_faglige_organisering_2000-2018.pdf">65%</a> of Danish workers are union members compared to only <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/trade-union-membership/latest-release">14%</a> of Australian workers – and industrial disputes in Australia falling to <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/industrial-disputes-australia/latest-release#:%7E:text=During%20the%20year%20ended%20June,of%20234%2C600%20working%20days%20lost.">historically low levels</a>.</p>
<p>And Denmark does not have out-of-control wages growth. In the past year average Denmark wages climbed <a href="https://www.dst.dk/en/Statistik/emner/arbejde-og-indkomst/indkomst-og-loen/loenindeks">2.5%</a> compared to a similarly-calculated <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/average-weekly-earnings-australia/latest-release">3%</a> in Australia. In August, Denmark’s unemployment rate was <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/denmark/unemployment-rate">2.7%</a>. Australia’s was <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia/aug-2022">3.5%</a></p>
<p>Multi-employer bargaining won’t solve all of Australia’s workplace relations problems, but it’s unlikely to make many of them worse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris F. Wright has previously received funding from the Australian, NSW, UK and Dutch governments, the International Labour Organization, and various employer and trade union organisations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Russell Lansbury and Søren Kaj Andersen do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Denmark has the type of industrial relations system the government wants to move to. It has fewer industrial disputes than Australia, lower unemployment, and similar wages growth.Chris F. Wright, Associate professor, University of SydneyRussell Lansbury, Emeritus Professor in Work and Organisational Studies, University of SydneySøren Kaj Andersen, Associate Professor, University of CopenhagenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1897862022-09-01T05:01:06Z2022-09-01T05:01:06ZGovernment to legislate for multi-employer bargaining, strengthening push for wage increases<p>The government will bring in early legislation for multi-employer bargaining and a range of other changes to the industrial relations system. </p>
<p>Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke announced the reforms the government will make immediately, at the end of the jobs summit’s Thursday sessions on industrial relations </p>
<p>They include making the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) simple, flexible and fair. </p>
<p>Burke said consultations on the various measures would begin next week. He plans to introduce the legislation this year. </p>
<p>The government is taking advantage of the summit’s momentum to launch some major changes to the wage-fixing system, arguing that it looks for “consensus” and co-operation rather than unanimity. </p>
<p>Multi-employer bargaining, which is permitted in only very limited circumstances currently, has been a key ACTU demand in the run-up to the summit. Burke last week indicated the government was sympathetic. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/word-from-the-hill-albanese-announces-more-than-1-billion-in-federal-state-tafe-funding-189776">Word from The Hill: Albanese announces more than $1 billion in federal-state TAFE funding</a>
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<p>The government has not yet indicated whether it will go to allowing full sectoral bargaining.</p>
<p>Multi-employer bargaining is opposed by large parts of the business community, though it has won conditional support from a section of small business. </p>
<p>The employers are especially concerned it could open the way to industrial action across a sector, such as child care, although it is unclear whether the detail the government is contemplating will allow this. </p>
<p>Innes Willox, chief executive of the Ai Group, told the summit: “There is real concern that such a proposal will risk exposing our community to crippling industrial action across crucial sectors of our economy”. </p>
<p>ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the union movement wanted to see “sustainable pay increases so that working people’s pay keeps up with the cost of living and productivity increases”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/treasurer-chalmers-on-boosting-migration-and-a-resilience-budget-189632">Treasurer Chalmers on boosting migration and a 'resilience' budget</a>
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<p>This meant “we have to modernise the collective bargaining system. We need a system that is simple, fair, accessible, does the job of getting wages moving.”</p>
<p>The government has given ground on being willing to make changes to BOOT, which Labor resisted in opposition. The BOOT provides no worker is made worse off when an enterprise agreement is negotiated. The Fair Work Commission has to be satisfied the employee would be better off overall if the agreement applied than if the relevant award applied.</p>
<p>Burke, however, did not spell out how he envisaged the test being altered. </p>
<p>Among other measures Burke said the government would change the Fair Work Act to </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Provide better access to flexible working arrangements and unpaid parental leave so families can share work and care responsibilities </p></li>
<li><p>Increase protection for workers against all forms of discrimination and harassment </p></li>
<li><p>Give the Fair Work Commission the capacity to actively help workers and businesses to reach mutually-beneficial agreements, especially new entrants and small and medium businesses.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government will bring in early legislation for multi-employer bargaining and implement a range of other changes to the industrial relations system.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877632022-08-28T20:05:03Z2022-08-28T20:05:03ZSummits old and new: what was Bob Hawke’s 1983 National Economic Summit about?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481369/original/file-20220826-10884-19czn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/bob-hawke-the-environmental-pm/">University of Manchester</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of The Conversation’s series looking at Labor’s jobs summit. Read the other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/jobssummit2022-125921">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>The Albanese government’s Jobs and Skills Summit this week owes something to Hawke government precedent and inspiration. Held in in April 1983 in what is now Old Parliament House, the National Economic Summit enacted one of the slogans of the campaign that had recently carried Bob Hawke’s Labor Party to victory in a federal election: “Bringing Australia Together.” The National Economic Summit was all about “consensus”, another buzzword of the day.</p>
<p>The implied point of contrast was with the outgoing prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, seen as a divisive figure since the Whitlam dismissal of 1975. “Consensus” was also a contrast with the confrontational industrial relations of Fraser’s time in government. In 1981 alone, a bad year for industrial relations, over four million working days were lost through workplace disputes. By the time Hawke came to office, unemployment, inflation and interest rates were all in double-digits. The economy was in recession. The country was in drought.</p>
<p>In February 1983, before the election, the Labor opposition and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) had signed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Prices and Incomes Accord</a>. Its basic concept was that unions would agree to wage restraint in return for social and economic benefits – a “social wage”. Labour governments in Britain had experimented with such a compact in the 1970s, with disappointing results for the unions that signed up to it. Still, in Australia the accord had widespread support, including on the left of the union movement.</p>
<p>The National Economic Summit was an effort by the Hawke government to turn the accord into a tripartite agreement also involving employers. And amid a sea of men in suits, he largely succeeded. </p>
<p>The economic journalist Max Walsh thought Hawke was “justified in seeing the summit as a stunning political success”. In contrast with government and unions, business leaders were divided. Some wanted future wage increases to be disconnected from the inflation rate, and to be limited to improvements in productivity. Others were more willing to play ball.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481225/original/file-20220826-18850-3mzn98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481225/original/file-20220826-18850-3mzn98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481225/original/file-20220826-18850-3mzn98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481225/original/file-20220826-18850-3mzn98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481225/original/file-20220826-18850-3mzn98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481225/original/file-20220826-18850-3mzn98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481225/original/file-20220826-18850-3mzn98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">By the time Bob Hawke came to power in March 1983, the country was in recession and stricken with drought.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Archives of Australia/AAP</span></span>
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<p>The ACTU vice-president, Simon Crean, warned that in the absence of support for centralised wage determination, there would be a push by individual unions for wage increases – and they were likely to succeed. It was the kind of thing a union leader could say when his members still had serious industrial clout. That is not an asset the current ACTU leadership has at its disposal.</p>
<p>The young ACTU secretary, Bill Kelty, his hair “everywhere”, emerged as the summit’s star. The ACTU would practice wage restraint and accept higher taxes, he promised. Geoffrey Barker of The Age thought the ACTU leaders had “taken all the points as public performers”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-unions-and-the-albanese-government-offer-each-other-at-the-jobs-summit-188535">What can unions and the Albanese government offer each other at the jobs summit?</a>
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<p>Business bosses soon saw that, in the face of such an assault of sweet reasonableness, they would need to be more conciliatory. Sir Keith Campbell, who had chaired a ground-breaking enquiry into the financial system for the Fraser government, said things that were music to the ears of the ACTU and new Labor government. He told the summit that unemployment and inflation should be fought together. </p>
<p>In the United States and the United Kingdom, governments of the right and central bankers were pursuing a policy of fighting inflation first, thereby throwing millions out of work. The National Economic Summit endorsed a different approach, at the same time as it provided cover for the Hawke government in moving away from election promises and what were then considered traditional Labor policies such as higher wages and higher spending. </p>
<p>It also seems remarkable today that in his opening address, Hawke could declare those present as “the representatives of the Australian people”. His critics were unimpressed. Some thought the summit an exercise in “state corporatism”, a threat to “representative democracy”. There was no place at the table for the sick, poor or old, for women, ethnic groups or Aboriginal people, or for consumers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-can-albanese-government-wring-consensus-from-union-business-impasse-over-industrial-relations-189392">Grattan on Friday: Can Albanese government wring consensus from union-business impasse over industrial relations?</a>
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<p>Peter Beilharz, in the Marxist journal Arena, saw the summit as committed</p>
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<p>to the principle that those who do not work productively should be maintained by the state, but are to be effectively excluded from political processes.</p>
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<p>By the following year, he had joined with another academic of the left, Rob Watts, in arguing (in the magazine Australian Society) that Hawke’s leadership had </p>
<blockquote>
<p>produced, at best, a right-wing Labor government and, at worst, a Tory government whose policies are indistinguishable from those of its predecessors.</p>
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<p>The summit, some complained, had accepted the continuation of high unemployment, and it marginalised ideas for stimulatory spending or investment in high-tech industry, such as advocated by the new science minister Barry Jones.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481230/original/file-20220826-17-oupsb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481230/original/file-20220826-17-oupsb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481230/original/file-20220826-17-oupsb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481230/original/file-20220826-17-oupsb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481230/original/file-20220826-17-oupsb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481230/original/file-20220826-17-oupsb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481230/original/file-20220826-17-oupsb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This year’s summit is dealing with very different economic conditions from those of 1983, with nowhere near the sense of crisis or malaise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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<p>The Albanese government is unlikely to attract similar criticisms. Its summit will have greater diversity than that of 1983. The nation has its economic problems, but unemployment is low and neither the sense of crisis nor of malaise is anywhere near as deep as forty years ago. </p>
<p>The National Economic Summit was intended to lower public expectations of government. Anthony Albanese has shown interest in modestly raising them in the wake of years of declining political trust. At the very least, his summit continues the orderly, systematic and constructive approach to governing that stands in stark contrast to the confirmed style of his predecessor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s economic state in 1983 was very different from today: Bob Hawke wanted to lower expectations of government; Anthony Albanese is trying to raise them, even just a little.Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1895262022-08-28T12:30:48Z2022-08-28T12:30:48ZView from The Hill: Albanese seeks ‘new culture of co-operation’ out of summit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481406/original/file-20220828-43252-bpgec1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=582%2C265%2C1928%2C1047&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the biggest outcome he wants from this week’s jobs and skills summit “is the beginning of a new culture of co-operation”. </p>
<p>In a Monday speech to mark his first 100 days in office, Albanese will say he is looking for progress on skills and training, wages and apprenticeships, and hopes there will be “some immediate actions” out of the summit. </p>
<p>But the basic aim is “a renewed understanding – between unions and industry and small business and government and community groups – that building a stronger, fairer and more productive economy is our shared responsibility, and our common interest. </p>
<p>"This is how we get employers and employees and small business negotiating for genuine win-win outcomes,” Albanese says in his speech, excerpts of which were released ahead of delivery. </p>
<p>“It’s how we make the federation work better, lifting efficiency, improving services and boosting productivity. </p>
<p>"This is how we sweep aside the persistent, structural barriers that prevent women from securing decent jobs and careers and enjoying financial security over their lives.” </p>
<p>The sharpest issue in the lead up to the Thursday-Friday summit, to be attended by about 140 participants, is the ACTU’s bid for the wages system to allow multi-employer bargaining – that is, bargaining across sectors. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-can-albanese-government-wring-consensus-from-union-business-impasse-over-industrial-relations-189392">Grattan on Friday: Can Albanese government wring consensus from union-business impasse over industrial relations?</a>
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<p>This sectoral bargaining, which could be accompanied by industrial action, would strengthen the hands of unions and employers in winning pay rises. </p>
<p>The government has said it is very interested in the proposal but there has been push back from employers. </p>
<p>Albanese in his speech stresses the end of the summit is not the end of the story. Summit ideas would feed into an Employment White Paper expected to take about a year to complete. </p>
<p>Participants will hope some more immediate initiatives that the government accepts could be included in the October budget.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.aigroup.com.au/news/policies/2022/statement-of-common-interests-between-the-actu-ai-group-acci-and-bca-on-skills--training/">joint statement on skills and training</a>, the ACTU and business groups at the weekend called for the budget to include more funding to reinvigorate the apprenticeship system. </p>
<p>“Investment must increase apprentice wage subsidies, provide incentive completion payments for both employers and apprentices, and payments for mentoring programs for apprentices.” </p>
<p>The groups also called for the Albanese government to work with unions and employers and state and territory governments to “guarantee foundational skills, including digital literacy, for all Australians”, and “support lifelong learning”. </p>
<p>The business groups that signed the joint statement were the Australian Industry Group, the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. </p>
<p>Asked about the union push for multi-employer bargaining. Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Sky: “We don’t kid ourselves that everybody’s got an identical view about it. But if there’s a view about fixing enterprise bargaining, then it should be heard and it should be teased out on the floor at the summit for sure.” </p>
<p>Chalmers said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re not looking for unanimity. We’re just looking for those areas of broad common ground so that we can move forward together, whether it be on getting wages growing again after a decade of stagnation, whether it’s boosting productivity by investing in our people and their skills, whether it’s dealing with these skills and labour shortages. </p>
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<p>“We’ve been really energised and really enthused by the genuine spirit of collaboration and cooperation that has emerged in the lead up to the Summit.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-morrison-inquiry-robodebt-royal-commission-and-the-jobs-summit-189458">The Morrison inquiry, Robodebt royal commission, and the jobs summit</a>
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<p>NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet expressed concern that “it seems to be that the jobs summit to many degrees has been overtaken by the unions”.</p>
<p>On the pandemic, Albanese in his speech spells out the phases the government sees. “We’ve been through the pandemic response. We are in the middle of the recovery. </p>
<p>"And reform will be the key to renewal. From response and recovery, to reform and renewal.” This would be “the guiding focus of government action for the coming years”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the biggest outcome he wants from this week’s jobs and skills summit “is the beginning of a new culture of co-operation”Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1887032022-08-14T12:34:05Z2022-08-14T12:34:05ZBusiness calls for ‘catch up’ migration, as participants position ahead of Albanese’s jobs summit<p>Big business wants a “catch up boost” to permanent migration, with at least two thirds of the places going to skilled workers, </p>
<p>In proposals for next month’s jobs and skills summit, the Business Council of Australia’s chief executive Jennifer Westacott has also stressed the need to immediately address “the backlog of visa approvals across all categories because we simply don’t have enough people to do things”. </p>
<p>Migration, labour market reform, and skills shortages will be central issues at the summit. After a weekend report the government wanted to increase the migrant intake to between 180,000 and 200,000, Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O'Connor told reporters the government had not yet settled on a number. </p>
<p>Under the Morrison government the 2022-23 migration program planning level was 160,000, 109,900 of them in the skilled stream.</p>
<p>Immigration is always a sensitive debate, both in terms of numbers, and the balance between importing skills and training locals. </p>
<p>Westacott said: “We need to move from a short-term, ad hoc system to long-term planned migration with a focus on four year visas, pathways to permanent migration, and future planning of our population growth so we get the housing, transport and health services right”.</p>
<p>On workplace relations, she said the summit must agree on the need “to restore the role of collective bargaining as the centrepiece” of the system “because it delivers better outcomes for both workers and employers”.</p>
<p>It had to “be accessible to different types of employers. It also has to be vastly simpler and easier to navigate”.</p>
<p>“It is by reviving the ability for enterprise agreements to be genuine substitutes for awards that we once again attract innovation and investment to drive growth in productivity and real wages.</p>
<p>"To succeed, we need to remove the red tape and blockages that prevent businesses, unions and workers from negotiating new agreements in a simple and effective way that is easy to use.”</p>
<p>Westacott said, in relation to improving skills, the tertiary education system needed redesigning “so it looks and feels different for learners and employers. It needs to be more interoperable between VET and higher education and centred around learners and their employers.”</p>
<p>Last week the ACTU released the first of its papers ahead of the summit, in which it called for regulation of labour markets “so that real wages rise in tandem with labour productivity”.</p>
<p>It also urged an excess profits levy on companies that had windfall profits as a result of the present inflation, and a cancellation of the legislated stage three tax cuts “which only benefit higher-income households and will exacerbate inflationary pressures”. </p>
<p>The government has ruled out a super profits tax and reneging on the tax cuts, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers quickly distanced himself from these calls from the unions.</p>
<p>The summit has seen the federal opposition at sixes and sevens, with opposition leader Peter Dutton refusing an invitation to attend but Nationals leader David Littleproud saying he is anxious to go to represent regional communities.</p>
<p>Chalmers will release a discussion paper for the summit this week.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Big business wants a “catch up boost” to permanent migration, with at least two thirds of the places going to skilled workers,Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1867432022-07-11T05:32:54Z2022-07-11T05:32:54ZWomen’s job opportunities in the spotlight at Albanese’s summit<p>Ensuring equal opportunities and pay for women is one of the wide range of topics laid down for the federal government’s jobs summit, to be held September 1-2.</p>
<p>About 100 invitees will come from business, unions, civil society groups, and other levels of government. The summit was flagged by Anthony Albanese in the election campaign, and he and Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced details on Monday. </p>
<p>It is modelled on the Hawke economic summit of 1983, although it will only run half as long. </p>
<p>Some of the summit’s outcomes could be implemented in the October budget. </p>
<p>Individual ministers will lead the work in particular areas. </p>
<p>Minister for Women Katy Gallagher will co-ordinate work on the women’s labour market. Employment Minister Tony Burke will lead the job security and wages area. </p>
<p>Other areas will be led by Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil (migration); Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth (workforce participation and barriers to employment); Skills and Training Minister Brendan O'Connor (skills and training); and Industry Minister Ed Husic (renewables, digital and manufacturing). </p>
<p>Apart from women’s employment, topics for the summit include </p>
<ul>
<li><p>keeping unemployment low and boosting productivity and incomes </p></li>
<li><p>promoting secure well-paid jobs and strong, sustainable wages growth </p></li>
<li><p>expanding employment opportunities, including for the most disadvantaged </p></li>
<li><p>addressing skills shortages and getting the skills mix right </p></li>
<li><p>improving migration settings </p></li>
<li><p>maximising jobs and opportunities from renewable energy, tackling climate change, the digital economy, the care economy and a “Future Made in Australia”. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>An employment white paper will be produced following the summit, led by Treasury. It will be informed by the summit’s outcomes, but there will also be a call for public submissions and community consultations. The white paper would be completed in about a year. </p>
<p>Albanese told a news conference there was “a lot of good will and real enthusiasm” from business groups and the ACTU to make the summit a success.</p>
<p>“I’ve said before that people have conflict fatigue. People want less argument and they want more solutions. My government is determined to deliver that.” </p>
<p>Chalmers said the challenges in the economy were “thick on the ground, but so are the opportunities”. The summit was about “picking the brains of people around Australia”. </p>
<p>He said the government changed hands at a time of rising inflation, falling real wages, labour shortages and the attendant challenges. </p>
<p>“We owe it to the Australian people to try and find that common ground so that we can reach the common objectives together. That’s what the summit will be about.”</p>
<p>“Our goal is to build a better trained workforce, boost incomes and living standards, and try to create more opportunities for more people in more parts of Australia.”</p>
<p>Invitations will be sent out about the start of August and discussion papers will be issued. </p>
<p>The Business Council of Australia said this was “a chance to seize the opportunity and end the deadlock on workplace relations, restore the Hawke-Keating enterprise bargaining system to lift productivity and let Australians earn more.</p>
<p>"And, we need a migration system that fills workforce shortages across the economy with the right targeting and incentives.”</p>
<p>The ACTU said the summit was “an opportunity to fix an underfunded and neglected skills sector, ensure that migration is providing opportunities rather than exploitation and address a broken bargaining system which has failed to deliver wage growth for almost a decade and has inflicted real wage cuts on workers during a cost of living crisis”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Melbourne Institute’s Taking the Pulse of the Nation report, released Monday, found a significant difference between employers and employees over working from home, as well as a gender difference among workers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Figure 2" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473324/original/file-20220711-22-il5wrf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473324/original/file-20220711-22-il5wrf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473324/original/file-20220711-22-il5wrf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473324/original/file-20220711-22-il5wrf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473324/original/file-20220711-22-il5wrf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473324/original/file-20220711-22-il5wrf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473324/original/file-20220711-22-il5wrf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Over one third of workers would like to spend more time working from home than their employer would permit,” the survey found. </p>
<p>“Women are 25% more likely than men (8 percentage point difference) to want to spend more time working from home than their employer would allow. </p>
<p>"This is not because women are more likely to be caregivers. A 7-percentage point gender gap remains even after accounting for having children in the household.” </p>
<p>The research was done by Roy Morgan.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ensuring equal opportunities and pay for women is one of the wide range of topics laid down for the federal government’s jobs summit, to be held September 1-2.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1698372021-10-20T23:24:07Z2021-10-20T23:24:07ZWhy Australian unions should welcome the new Agricultural Visa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427445/original/file-20211020-19-qtmvw1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=514%2C191%2C2993%2C1682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">F Armstrong Photography/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unions have been quick to condemn Australia’s new <a href="https://minister.awe.gov.au/littleproud/media-releases/history-made-ag-worker-visa-created">Agricultural Visa</a>, which will give approved employers access to “skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled” workers from ASEAN nations and the UK from late this year.</p>
<p>ACTU president Michelle O’Neill has warned of a “<a href="https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/7449906/ag-visas-will-throw-locals-out-of-work-unions-claim/">second-class workforce</a>” with “none of the protections or rights that all Australian workers should be able to rely on”. But many aspects of the visa are actually a step in the right direction and could provide unions with organising opportunities.</p>
<p>The scheme is being sold as a complement to two existing schemes, the <a href="https://www.njl.org.au/seasonal-workers">Seasonal</a> Worker Programme and the <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/news/media-release/submissions-invited-streamlined-pacific-labour-mobility-initiative">Pacific</a> Labour Scheme. </p>
<p>In reality, it’s a concession to farmers who lost rights to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9712949/Major-change-Australian-working-holiday-visa-holders-allowing-work-bars.html">British backpackers</a>.</p>
<p>Australia waived the requirement for backpackers to extend their working holiday visas to complete three months of work in regional Australia as part of negotiations for a UK-Australia free trade agreement.</p>
<p>In filling the gap left by backpackers, the visa program has introduced provisions that will protect the interests of incoming workers. </p>
<p>One is the ability to move <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/australian-agriculture-visa-fact-sheet.pdf">between employers</a>. </p>
<p>The Seasonal Workers’ Program and the Pacific Labour Scheme bond workers to single employers, making it hard for them to escape mistreatment.</p>
<p>As the president of the Vanuatu Association of Public Service Employees, Dr Basil Leodoro, told me in my research, this leaves workers in trouble with no choice but to hide.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think that’s, that’s their way of protesting the conditions that they have […] their way of saying they miss home, and they’d rather not do anything than work even more </p>
</blockquote>
<p>By allowing movement between approved employers, the agricultural visa will give workers the ability to leave bad situations without having to abscond and endanger their migration status.</p>
<h2>Better, but no silver bullet</h2>
<p>Another feature of the Agricultural Visa which will separate it from the Seasonal Workers’ Program and the Pacific Labour Scheme is that it will offer a pathway to permanent residency. </p>
<p>The time limits on other visas have created problems for unions in the past, with mistreated workers keen to keep their heads down until they go home. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1217&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1217&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427442/original/file-20211020-26249-k7xxu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1217&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horticulture is one of the few industries in which piece work is still legal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">F Armstrong</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Low unionisation, underpayment and illegal overtime are realities for agricultural employees regardless of their visa status. </p>
<p>Asmarina, an Australian citizen of Eritrean background whose family lives on the Mid North Coast of NSW, started working on the berry farms at the age of 10.</p>
<p>“People” she told me, “don’t know their legal rights on these farms.” </p>
<p>Many Eritreans work on the farms because language barriers make it difficult to find other work. The hours are long, the conditions are harsh and the pay is low. </p>
<p>Horticulture is one of the few industries in which piece work is still legal. </p>
<p>This is corroborated by Daisy, who travelled from Wollongong to Coffs Harbour for the harvest season at the end of 2020. She says though contractors promised workers could earn over the minimum wage if they worked hard enough, most were paid something nearer A$15 per hour. </p>
<p>Only the most experienced could pick enough to earn as much as a café worker.</p>
<p>The Agricultural Visa won’t solve these problems by itself, but it might make the recipients more receptive to organising than have other visas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-global-battle-for-low-skilled-workers-looms-after-covid-australia-needs-to-be-part-of-it-168296">A global battle for low-skilled workers looms after COVID. Australia needs to be part of it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Unions could make the visa work</h2>
<p>In Vanuatu, Dr Leodoro is gearing up for greater union involvement. </p>
<p>The Vanuatu National Workers Union has been collaborating with Australia’s United Workers’ Union to ensure that temporary migrants know their rights. </p>
<p>With union involvement, the Agricultural Visa could be a step in the right direction for agricultural migrant workers. </p>
<p>Rather than dismiss it out of hand, Australia’s union movement could ensure that the workers on it don’t become “second class” workers in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I know one of the interviewees personally through a charity group to which we both contribute- the Community Union defence League. This group has been involved in farmworker activism before. </span></em></p>The new visa for farm workers comes with more rights than past schemes, including making it easier to escape mistreatment by bad employers.Giacomo Bianchino, Ph.d Candidate, Graduate Teaching Fellow, Lehman College, CUNYLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1683672021-09-21T20:14:23Z2021-09-21T20:14:23ZWhat are the protests against Victoria’s construction union all about?<p>After violence on Monday outside the Melbourne offices of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy union, the Victorian government ordered a snap two-week shutdown of the construction industry. Yesterday these protests continued, with up to 2,000 demonstrators holding up traffic around Melbourne’s CBD and clashing with police.</p>
<p>The shutdown of building sites is a perverse outcome for those protesting primarily over vaccination mandates but who also oppose lockdowns. </p>
<p>So why were they directing their fury not at the government that imposed the mandate, nor the employers who will enforce the rules, but the union that represents construction workers? Let’s work through it.</p>
<h2>What was Monday’s protest about?</h2>
<p>The ostensible catalyst was the Victorian government’s <a href="https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/news/news/2021/important-covid-19-update-mandatory-vaccination-for-construction-workers">announcement on September 16</a> that by Friday (September 23) all construction workers must show their employer:</p>
<ul>
<li>evidence they have received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine </li>
<li>proof of vaccine appointment to receive a first dose by October 2</li>
<li>or a medical exemption from an authorised medical practitioner.</li>
</ul>
<p>The government also announced new site rules that include the closure of tearooms and a ban on consuming food or drinks indoors. This led to workers on sites around the city <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/construction-workers-close-streets-in-protest-of-tearoom-closures-20210917-p58slm">setting up tables and chairs</a> in the street last Friday, causing minor inconvenience to motorists. The CFMMEU was sympathetic to these protests.</p>
<h2>So why the protest against the union?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-records-445-new-local-cases-as-government-eyes-mandatory-jabs-for-construction-workers-20210914-p58rdt.html">the days before</a> the vaccination mandate was announced, the CFMMEU’s state secretary, John Setka, said the union did not support mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="An example of memes about John Setka being shared on social media." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422316/original/file-20210921-17-1c7e4fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422316/original/file-20210921-17-1c7e4fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422316/original/file-20210921-17-1c7e4fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422316/original/file-20210921-17-1c7e4fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422316/original/file-20210921-17-1c7e4fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422316/original/file-20210921-17-1c7e4fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422316/original/file-20210921-17-1c7e4fu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of memes about John Setka being shared on social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in a <a href="https://www.3aw.com.au/union-boss-reacts-to-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-for-construction-sector/">radio interview on Thursday</a> he described the mandate as a unfortunate reality of living in a pandemic. “Extreme circumstances sometimes call for extreme measures,” he told 3AW radio host Tom Elliott. “It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.”</p>
<p>These comments were turned into memes and shared by social media activists on platforms such as Telegram, fomenting anger against Setka as a traitor.</p>
<h2>What is the CFMEU’s position on vaccines?</h2>
<p>Setka and the union have strongly promoted construction workers getting vaccinated. In August the CFMMEU launched a media campaign encouraging its members to get vaccinated. Setka has had himself <a href="http://www.medianet.com.au/releases/205857/">photographed getting vaccinated</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="The CFMEU's Victorian state secretary John Setka shows his vaccination card." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422304/original/file-20210921-21-1lkuci2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422304/original/file-20210921-21-1lkuci2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422304/original/file-20210921-21-1lkuci2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422304/original/file-20210921-21-1lkuci2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422304/original/file-20210921-21-1lkuci2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422304/original/file-20210921-21-1lkuci2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422304/original/file-20210921-21-1lkuci2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The CFMEU’s Victorian state secretary John Setka shows his vaccination card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Setka/CFMEU</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the union has also opposed mandatory vaccination — particularly vaccine mandates imposed by employers. Its public position has been it will “always advocate for safety, jobs, and freedom of choice”. That includes freedom of choice about whether to be vaccinated. It has threatened action against any employer seeking to make vaccination a job requirement without a government-imposed mandate.</p>
<p>In August, for example, the union’s NSW state secretary <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/unions-are-supposed-to-represent-all-their-members-how-does-that-work-with-anti-vaxxers-20210901-p58nv3.html">Darren Greenfield said</a>: “We call on the government to release the pressure on members that do not want to get the vaccination, never will get the vaccination because that’s their personal choice, and allow them to get back to work.” </p>
<p>However, the union sees a government-imposed vaccine mandate as something it can’t do much about — nor one it wants to expend energy on.</p>
<h2>Is this the same or different to other unions?</h2>
<p>Each union has its own leadership and there are different positions being adopted. But the construction union’s approach has been broadly the same as the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which has supported vaccination but also consistently opposed individual companies having the power to mandate vaccines.</p>
<p>The ACTU and the Business Council of Australia have issued <a href="https://www.bca.com.au/joint_statement_on_mandatory_covid_19_vaccinations">a joint statement</a>
that vaccination “should be free and voluntary” and that “for the overwhelming majority of Australians your work or workplace should not fundamentally alter the voluntary nature of vaccination”. </p>
<p>They have called on governments to “ensure that where mandatory vaccination requirements are necessary (in a small number of high-risk workplaces), they are implemented through the use of nationally consistent Public Health Orders”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-unions-support-vaccination-but-not-employer-mandates-167970">Why unions support vaccination — but not employer mandates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What do the protesters want the union to do?</h2>
<p>The protesters’ agenda appears straightforward. They want the union to oppose the government’s vaccine mandate at all costs, by any means at the union’s disposal. </p>
<p>What exactly the union could do even if it wanted to, though, isn’t all that clear. Industrial action — that is, striking — is not an option. </p>
<p>The Fair Work Act allows for protected (i.e. lawful) industrial action only when collective bargaining negotiations are at play. If a union took unprotected industrial action, an affected employer could apply to the Fair Work Commission have this stopped, and dock employees’ pay for a minimum four hours a day for any unprotected industrial action.</p>
<p>The union has said it will “represent members if their employment is affected” by vaccine mandates. This could include funding legal challenges to state or employer vaccine mandates.</p>
<h2>So who organised this protest?</h2>
<p>This is still unclear. Setka has said <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/absolutely-outrageous-protesters-weren-t-union-says-setka-20210921-p58tde.html">only a minority</a> of those at Monday’s protest were construction workers or union members, with the rest being far-right activists and professional protesters. Other sources have said <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/inside-the-insurrection-why-construction-workers-took-to-the-street-20210921-p58tiy.html">most were construction workers</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-almost-like-grooming-how-anti-vaxxers-conspiracy-theorists-and-the-far-right-came-together-over-covid-168383">'It's almost like grooming': how anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, and the far-right came together over COVID</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is evidence that notable anti-lockdown activists were in the crowd, as well as at least <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/26/where-freedom-meets-the-far-right-the-hate-messages-infiltrating-australian-anti-lockdown-protests">one far-right organiser</a>. </p>
<p>Anti-vaccination and fringe political groups have also previously sought to foment protests and other action by aged-care workers, truck drivers and teachers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giuseppe Carabetta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even if the construction union wanted to oppose the government’s vaccine mandate, there’s not a lot it could do.Giuseppe Carabetta, Senior Lecturer, Sydney University Business School, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1679702021-09-19T20:11:49Z2021-09-19T20:11:49ZWhy unions support vaccination — but not employer mandates<p>The American union movement has split over President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/how-will-bidens-vaccine-mandate-impact-workers-companies-2021-09-13/">proposal</a> for companies with more than 100 employees to vaccinate their workforces against COVID-19. </p>
<p>With increasing numbers of employers mandating COVID-19 vaccination, will something <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/tens-of-thousands-of-lives-saved-hunt-says-as-national-cabinet-to-talk-mandatory-vaccines-20210916-p58s7c.html">similar play out</a> in Australia?</p>
<p>Despite a <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/inner-city-teachers-push-for-mandatory-jabs-ahead-of-return-to-class-20210914-p58rjq.html">push for mandatory workforce vaccination</a> by some union members, the Australian trade union movement has been remarkably cohesive in opposing employer mandates.</p>
<p>Four interlocking principles underpin this position. They are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>high vaccination rates should be attained through encouragement and facilitation, not employer mandates</p></li>
<li><p>where strictly necessary, mandates should be implemented through public health orders</p></li>
<li><p>effective access to vaccines should be secured</p></li>
<li><p>the voices of workers should be respected.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-australian-employers-make-you-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-mostly-not-but-heres-when-they-can-165755">Can Australian employers make you get a COVID-19 vaccine? Mostly not — but here's when they can</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Encourage and facilitate, don’t coerce</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.bca.com.au/joint_statement_on_mandatory_covid_19_vaccinations">joint statement</a> with the Business Council of Australia opposing employer mandates, the Australian Council of Trade Unions said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] for the overwhelming majority of Australians your work or workplace should not fundamentally alter the voluntary nature of vaccination.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This emphasis on choice aligns with <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/standards/WCMS_780445/lang--en/index.htm">international labour standards on workplace immunisation</a> as well as the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-are-covid-19-vaccines-mandatory-in-australia">federal government’s policy</a> of COVID-19 vaccination being free and voluntary.</p>
<p>It also recognises the invasive nature of vaccinations and the fact that employer mandates involve compulsion. In some cases, this would mean risking workers’ jobs and livelihoods. </p>
<p>However, it does not mean being agnostic about vaccination. On the contrary, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus has <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/media-releases/2021/actu-launches-national-vaccination-campaign">acknowledged</a> high vaccination rates are necessary for workplace and community safety and for avoiding lockdowns. </p>
<p>The ACTU recently launched a <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/media/1449688/actu-media-release-070921-vax-campaign.pdf">national vaccination campaign</a> to encourage workers to be vaccinated. It has also advocated for effective access to vaccination (including paid vaccine leave).</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1435166476101513218"}"></div></p>
<p>This approach aligns with the World Health Organisation, which does not support vaccine mandates. Instead, the WHO <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Policy-brief-Mandatory-vaccination-2021.">argues for</a> a focus on information campaigns and making vaccines accessible.</p>
<p>Encouragement and facilitation do not guarantee workforces are 100% vaccinated (in the short term). But they may have more enduring public health benefits than forcing vaccination. </p>
<p>Discussing and encouraging vaccination can be effective in overcoming vaccine hesitancy. For instance, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/unions-are-supposed-to-represent-all-their-members-how-does-that-work-with-anti-vaxxers-20210901-p58nv3.html">meetings of the health sector union</a> have resulted in many initially reticent members deciding to be vaccinated.</p>
<p>The ACTU’s focus on “uniting” people to get behind vaccination, highlighting how vaccination is <a href="https://www.australianunions.org.au/2021/09/08/vaccination-is-an-act-of-solidarity/">“an act of solidarity”</a>, touches on something deeply important. Both <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-09/pope-francis-general-audience-pandemic-solidarity-faith.html">Pope Francis</a> and the <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/30-12-2020-covid-19-anniversary-and-looking-forward-to-2021">WHO director-general</a> have emphasised that solidarity – a mindset that thinks in terms of community – is vital in the pandemic. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-australian-employers-make-you-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-mostly-not-but-heres-when-they-can-165755">Can Australian employers make you get a COVID-19 vaccine? Mostly not — but here's when they can</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Limited mandates through public health orders</h2>
<p>The BCA-ACTU statement calls on governments to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>ensure that where mandatory vaccination requirements are necessary (in a small number of high-risk places), they are implemented through the use of nationally consistent Public Health Orders.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the statement recognises, mandating vaccinations involves “serious decisions that should not be left to individual employers”. Any decision to limit fundamental rights is best done through accountable public institutions, rather than private entities motivated by commercial considerations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421724/original/file-20210916-13-b3ahzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421724/original/file-20210916-13-b3ahzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421724/original/file-20210916-13-b3ahzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421724/original/file-20210916-13-b3ahzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421724/original/file-20210916-13-b3ahzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421724/original/file-20210916-13-b3ahzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421724/original/file-20210916-13-b3ahzx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unions argue that, if vaccine mandates are necessary, they should not be imposed by individual employers, but by accountable public bodies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Public health orders also give the community confidence that such decisions have been informed by expert advice, and various stakeholders have had a chance to be heard (as employer groups and unions have had with the federal vaccine roll-out).</p>
<h2>Effective access to vaccines</h2>
<p>With the difficulties plaguing the vaccine roll-out, a key focus of unions has been on vaccine supply, particularly for <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/media-releases/2021/failed-vaccine-rollout-leaves-frontline-workers-exposed">front-line health workers</a>. The ACTU and the nursing and health sector unions have also <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/media-releases/2021/morrison-must-support-two-thirds-of-aged-care-workers-still-trying-to-get-vaccinated">highlighted</a> the inequity of employer mandates when there are acute vaccine supply issues, as with aged care and disability workers. </p>
<p>Unions have called for all workers to be given paid vaccination leave (to be vaccinated and recover from its side effects). This would ensure workers are not deterred from being vaccinated because of a loss of pay. It’s particularly important for those in low-paid and precarious work (including casual employees who do not have paid annual and sick leave).</p>
<h2>Giving workers a voice</h2>
<p>The ACTU as well as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-18/qantas-mandatory-vaccinations-covid19-workers-pandemic/100386206">transport</a>, <a href="https://www.workplaceexpress.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&nav=10&selkey=60333&utm_source=instant+email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=subscriber+email&utm_content=article+headline&utm_term=Union%20cautions%20over%20employer%27s%20mandatory%20vax%20requirement">manufacturing</a> and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/deakin-head-flags-mandatory-vaccination-state-says-public-servants-won-t-follow-20210809-p58h7b.html">tertiary education</a> unions have insisted workers be consulted on employer vaccination policies.</p>
<p>At stake is the fundamental principle of worker voice. This principle is integral to the right of workers, as recognised in the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/legacy/english/inwork/cb-policy-guide/declarationofPhiladelphia1944.pdf">International Labour Organisation’s 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia</a>, to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Worker voice is also central to workplace health and safety legislation, which requires consultation with workers and trade unions on employer vaccination policies. The underlying insight is that worker education and empowerment are key to workplace safety.</p>
<p>Respecting worker voice is also essential to the collaborative approach to workplace vaccination urged by the <a href="https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/media/media-releases/covid-19-vaccinations-and-workplace-12-august-2021">federal government</a> and the <a href="https://coronavirus.fairwork.gov.au/coronavirus-and-australian-workplace-laws/covid-19-vaccinations-and-the-workplace/covid-19-vaccinations-workplace-rights-and-obligations#managing-vaccinations-in-the-workplace">Fair Work Ombudsman</a>. As the International Labour Organisation has pointed out, such collaboration helps build <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---normes/documents/publication/wcms_780445.pdf">a climate of trust</a> essential for the unprecedented workplace adjustments occurring in the pandemic.</p>
<p>We see in the unions’ opposition to employer-mandated vaccinations a framework of principles that places public health as its centre, together with respect for bodily autonomy, workers’ rights, fairness and democracy. </p>
<p>This approach may prove to be more far-sighted than employer mandates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joo-Cheong Tham has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. He is the Deputy Director of the Migrant Workers Centre and a National Councillor of the National Tertiary Education Union.</span></em></p>Unions are encouraging all workers to be vaccinated, but not through employment mandates. Instead, they support bodily autonomy, workers’ rights, fairness and democracy.Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1552882021-02-14T12:43:53Z2021-02-14T12:43:53ZVictorians struggle to exit JobKeeper, as the scheme’s end looms<p>As JobKeeper enters its final weeks, the government has released the latest Tax Office breakdown of the numbers coming off the program, amid concerns its end in late March will see a rise in unemployment.</p>
<p>With attention currently on Victoria, in a five day lockdown due to a COVID outbreak that started with a hotel quarantine breach, the JobKeeper numbers underline the impact of that state’s long lockdown last year.</p>
<p>In Victoria about 1.1 million workers received JobKeeper in its first phase, which ran from April to September, falling to 626,000 in the second phase, October to December.</p>
<p>This was a reduction of just 44%, substantially less than the declines in every other state and territory.</p>
<p>Elsewhere the falls between the two phases were: NSW, 60%; Queensland, 64%; South Australia, 67%; Western Australia, 70%; Tasmania, 65%; Northern Territory, 69%; and ACT 62%. </p>
<p>The figures included substantial reductions in various regions with a reliance on tourism, despite the problems faced by that industry.</p>
<p>Some 18% of the Victorian pre-COVID workforce was on JobKeeper in the second phase, substantially above the proportions in other states and territories.</p>
<p>Nationally, 1.54 million individuals were being supported by the program in the month of December. This compared with 3.6 million in the month of September.</p>
<p>The number of employees on JobKeeper in the month of December fell 65,000 compared to November. In November there had been a fall of 30,000 compared with October.</p>
<p>There was a 56% fall in employees on JobKeeper in its second phase compared with its first phase. Some 520,000 firms and 2.13 million employees went off the scheme after the end of September.</p>
<p>Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has anticipated some job shedding after JobKeeper ends. This could cause brief rises or slower falls in unemployment, he said this month. He advocated an increase in the JobSeeker base rate, on fairness grounds. The government has yet to announce its long term plans for JobSeeker, but there is general support for it not going back to the old rate after the Coronvirus supplement ends.</p>
<p>ACTU Secretary Sally McManus told the ABC on Sunday JobKeeper should be extended for those businesses still affected by COVID. </p>
<p>Releasing the latest figures, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said with 785,000 jobs created in the last seven months, the government’s focus “continues to be getting people back into work”. But “we know that some families and businesses are still doing it tough and my message to those people is that the Morrison government continues to have your back.”</p>
<p>All industries saw marked reductions in employees on JobKeeper in the December quarter, compared with its first phase, with most falling by at least half.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384121/original/file-20210214-15-1239nmp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average number of employees receiving a JobKeeper 1.0 payment over April to September, versus average number of employees receiving a JobKeeper 2.0 payment over October to December, by selected industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Treasury</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Retail trade saw a 68% decrease, taking those on the support from an average of 26% of the workforce over the first phase to 8% over the second phase.</p>
<p>In accommodation and food services the fall was 52%, to 17% of the workforce in phase two.</p>
<p>Education and training saw a 50% fall, to 6% of the workforce.</p>
<p>Other declines between phases were: wholesale trade, 71% (to 12% of the workforce), construction 48% (to 18%), transport, postal and warehousing 36% (to 17%).</p>
<p>The government insists it will not extend the program although it will look at further assistance where there is a particular need.</p>
<p>The JobKeeper figures come as Health Minister Greg Hunt said the first doses of vaccine will arrive from overseas “before the end of the week, if not earlier”, and Victoria announced two new local cases and another one in hotel quarantine.</p>
<p>At the front of the queue to get the vaccine will be quarantine and border workers, as well as aged care residents and staff.</p>
<p>Hunt said once the vaccines arrived they would be examined to make sure there hadn’t been “any inflight actions that damage quality such as a loss of temperature”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384120/original/file-20210214-21-r2fc7w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Total number of employees receiving a JobKeeper 1.0 payment over April to September, versus total number of employees receiving a JobKeeper 2.0 payment over October to December, by selected region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Treasury</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government has released the latest Tax Office breakdown of the numbers coming off the program, amid concerns its end in late March will see a rise in unemployment.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1516682020-12-09T08:37:28Z2020-12-09T08:37:28ZSo much for consensus: Morrison government’s industrial relations bill is a business wish list<p>“We are all in this together,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison solemnly <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/247e20e8-7bbe-4712-afcb-c8833dc6a228/&sid=0013">intoned in April</a> – and for a brief few months, in the face of the economic crisis wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia’s industrial relations protagonists agreed. </p>
<p>Business groups, unions and governments put aside their usual differences and worked together to minimise job losses. </p>
<p>They quickly negotiated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/union-agrees-to-alter-hospitality-award-in-bid-to-save-job-losses-due-to-coronavirus">alterations</a> to dozens of awards and enterprise agreements, adjusting rules and rosters to help keep Australians on the job.</p>
<p>Then, in late May, seeing opportunity in that spirit of cooperation, Morrison heralded a new consensus-based approach to industrial relations. </p>
<p>The federal government set aside its effort to impose more legal restrictions on unions and established new “<a href="https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/media/media-releases/roundtable-kicks-ir-reform-process-3-june-2020">industrial relations reform roundtables</a>” for employer groups, unions and government officials to work together on reforming workplace laws Morrison said were “not fit for purpose”.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to put down our weapons,” he declared. The change in approach was even compared to <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/morrison-s-ir-pitch-sparks-accord-comparisons-20200526-p54wl6">the historic Accords</a> of the 1980s, in which the Hawke-Keating Labor government convinced unions to accept wage freezes in return for enhanced social benefits (like Medicare and superannuation).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Australian politics explainer: the Prices and Incomes Accord</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Well, the Kumbaya moment didn’t last long. </p>
<p>Within weeks the parties retreated to their corners and their standard speaking points. No meaningful consensus emerged on any issue from any table.</p>
<p>Even tentative proposals – like an idea supported by unions and the Business Council of Australia to combine fast-track approval of union-negotiated enterprise agreements with greater flexibility in determining their suitability – were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/18/workplace-deal-between-big-business-and-unions-provokes-furious-reaction-from-employer-groups">shot down in partisan gunfire</a> by more strident business lobbyists.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/morrison-government-invites-unions-to-dance-but-employer-groups-call-the-tune-139469">Morrison government invites unions to dance, but employer groups call the tune</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Now, in the absence of consensus, the government has picked up its traditional hymn book and is once again singing the praises of “flexibility”.</p>
<p>Today federal industrial relations minister Christian Porter revealed the rotten fruit of the roundtable process, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6653">Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020</a>. </p>
<p>If passed, it will further skew the already lopsided balance of power towards employers.</p>
<p>The bill doesn’t just take the employers’ side in the five issues debated at those roundtables (award simplification, enterprise agreements, casual work, compliance and enforcement, and “greenfields agreements” for new enterprises).</p>
<p>One of its biggest changes is to suspend rules that prevent enterprise agreements from undercutting minimum award standards. This proposal wasn’t even discussed at the roundtables. </p>
<p>This confirms the gloves are off once again in Australia’s interminable IR wars. </p>
<p>Here are the most significant ways the bill will weight the scales further to the disadvantage of workers.</p>
<h2>Suspending the BOOT</h2>
<p>As the law now stands, enterprise agreements cannot undercut minimum standards in industry awards. This is known as the “better off overall test” – or BOOT. The new bill instructs the Fair Work Commission to approve agreements even if they fail this test, so long as the deal is nominally supported by affected workers (more on this below) and deemed to be in the “public interest”.</p>
<p>Australia is unique among wealthy nations in allowing employers to unilaterally implement enterprise agreements, without involvement by a union. The BOOT is thus necessary to prevent enterprise agreements from undermining award rights. </p>
<p>The bill proposes suspending BOOT for two years. But even if it were restored after that (which is uncertain), agreements approved during that window would remain in effect (enterprise agreements typically last four years). Even after they expire, under Australian law they remain in effect until replaced by a new agreement, or terminated by the FWC – neither of which is likely in a non-unionised workplace.</p>
<p>Apparently in anticipation that unions will actively oppose non-BOOT-compliant agreements, the bill also includes measures to speed their approval by the Fair Work Commission. The process must be completed within 21 days (with some exceptions). This will limit the ability of affected workers to learn about and resist their loss of benefits and conditions. Unions will be restricted from intervening around agreements they were not directly involved in negotiating (including intervening against agreements that had no union involvement at all). </p>
<h2>Broadening the definition of casual work</h2>
<p>The growing use of “casual” employment provisions was a hot topic at the IR reform tables. The new bill clarifies the definition of casual work in the most expansive way possible: a casual job is any position deemed casual by the employer, and accepted by the worker, for which there is no promise of regular continuing employment. </p>
<p>In other words, any job can be casual, so long as workers are desperate enough to accept it. This will foster the further spread of insecure employment without paid leave entitlements. Most importantly, it removes a big potential liability faced by employers as a result of <a href="https://www.cbp.com.au/insights/insights/2020/may/what-the-workpac-ruling-on-casual-employment-means">recent court decisions</a>, under which they might have owed back pay for holidays and sick leave to employees improperly treated as casual workers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-defines-casual-work-federal-court-ruling-highlights-a-fundamental-flaw-in-australian-labour-law-139113">What defines casual work? Federal Court ruling highlights a fundamental flaw in Australian labour law</a>
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<h2>Casualising part-time workers</h2>
<p>Further casualisation will be attained through new rules regarding rosters and hours for permanent part-time workers. The bill extends flexibility provisions originally implemented earlier this year – during that brief moment of pandemic-induced cooperation. The rules allow employers to alter hours for regular part-timers without incurring overtime penalties or other costs (currently required under some awards). This will allow employers to effectively use part-time workers as yet another form of casual, just-in-time labour.</p>
<h2>Doubling new project agreement times</h2>
<p>Finally, the bill grants one more big wish from the business list.</p>
<p>It allows super-long enterprise agreements at major new projects. Agreements can last for up to eight years – double the time now allowed – and be signed, sealed and delivered before any workers start on the job (thus denying them any input into the process). </p>
<p>Under revised BOOT provisions, they could also undercut the minimum standards of any industry awards.</p>
<h2>Back to business as usual</h2>
<p>These changes are being advertised as a spur for post-pandemic job creation. But this claim is hollow. </p>
<p>In reality, the changes in part-time and casual rules will actually discourage new hiring. Since existing workers can be costlessly “flexed” in line with employer needs, there is no need to hire anyone else. </p>
<p>Weaker BOOT protections will spur a wave of new enterprise agreements, most union-free, and aimed at reducing (not raising) compensation and standards. This makes a mockery of the goals of collective bargaining, and grants employers further opportunity to suppress labour costs (already tracking at their slowest pace in postwar history).</p>
<p>So what to make of that short-lived spirit of togetherness that purportedly sparked this whole process? In retrospect, it seems to have been just an opportunity for the Coalition government to pose as visionary statesmen during a time of crisis. </p>
<p>Now, mere months later, the government is back to its old ways – and the pandemic is just another excuse to scapegoat unions, drive down wages and fatten business profits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Stanford works for the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute which receives funding from a range of philanthropic, individual, and organisational donors. Jim Stanford consulted as an external expert for one of the industrial relations roundtables mentioned in the article.</span></em></p>The Morrison Government has picked up its weapons again, with an industrial relations bill that will tip the scales further against employees.Jim Stanford, Economist and Director, Centre for Future Work, Australia Institute; Honorary Professor of Political Economy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1394622020-05-27T20:07:36Z2020-05-27T20:07:36ZMorrison wants unions and business to ‘put down the weapons’ on IR. But real reform will not be easy.<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337862/original/file-20200527-141295-pjc0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=141%2C100%2C5359%2C3409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a bid to repair the economy, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-can-scott-morrison-achieve-industrial-relations-disarmament-139408">industrial relations overhaul</a>. </p>
<p>Business groups and unions will be brought together to try to change a system that Morrison says is “not fit for purpose”. </p>
<p>This is a positive step after years in which industrial relations has substantially divided interested parties. As Morrison <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/weve-got-to-put-down-the-weapons:-morrison/12289830">told the ABC</a> on Wednesday, “we’ve got to put down the weapons”. </p>
<p>But reaching meaningful agreement will not be simple or straightforward. </p>
<h2>Accord 2.0?</h2>
<p>Morrison’s move has <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/morrison-s-ir-pitch-sparks-accord-comparisons-20200526-p54wl6">invited comparisons</a> with the Accord between the Labor Party and the ACTU when Bob Hawke became prime minister in 1983. </p>
<p>This was the basis for economic reform built on wide consensus between employers, unions and government. </p>
<p>However, there are many differences between the special circumstances of the Accord and now, which may indicate the chances of success for the current initiative. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Australian politics explainer: the Prices and Incomes Accord</a>
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<p>Hawke had the advantage of high levels of trust from both unions and employers, based on his years as a successful negotiator as ACTU president and industrial officer. </p>
<p>While Morrison talked positively about to the “<a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-national-press-club-260520">constructive approach</a>” between unions and employers during the coronavirus pandemic, he does not have any such record of trust to build on.</p>
<p>Another difference with the Accord is that in the 1980s, the industrial relations system was more centralised. So, employer organisations and the ACTU enjoyed greater coverage and authority among their own constituents to bring them to an agreement. </p>
<p>One indication of that difference now is the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/pay-cuts-to-keep-jobs-the-tertiary-education-unions-deal-with-universities-explained-138623">Jobs Protection Framework</a> negotiated between the National Tertiary Education Union and the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association. </p>
<p>It has fallen over as a sectoral agreement because many universities have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-26/uow-rejects-national-job-protection-framework/12287288">refused to participate</a> and it has attracted criticism among some union members. </p>
<h2>What needs to be fixed in 2020</h2>
<p><a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/work/2020/05/27/workplace-reforms-sally-mcmanus/">Unions</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/business-ready-to-get-the-job-done-on-ir-reform/12289796">business</a> and government all agree that reform of the current system is needed. Finding common ground on what those changes are will be more difficult.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337865/original/file-20200527-141303-4j0etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337865/original/file-20200527-141303-4j0etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337865/original/file-20200527-141303-4j0etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337865/original/file-20200527-141303-4j0etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337865/original/file-20200527-141303-4j0etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337865/original/file-20200527-141303-4j0etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337865/original/file-20200527-141303-4j0etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">ACTU secretary Sally McManus says she wants to make jobs more secure for workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Morrison has announced five working groups, to be chaired by Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter. The groups will look at award simplification, casual and fixed-term employment, greenfield projects, and compliance and enforcement for wages and conditions. </p>
<p>Most of the working group topics relate to employer groups’ reform agenda.
The <a href="https://www.bca.com.au/making_the_right_choices_will_be_crucial_to_recovery">Business Council of Australia</a> has advocated for greater flexibility and simplification of the award system for the economy to successfully rebuild.</p>
<p>Employment relations professor David Peetz <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-simplify-our-industrial-relations-system-but-not-in-the-way-big-business-wants-137607">warns that this is code</a> for shrinking the award safety net. Unions are likely to interpret this similarly. </p>
<p>Unions may be more interested in simplification of the enterprise bargaining system to benefit workers. They are concerned with the ease with which employers have increasingly terminated agreements and moved employees onto lower paid awards. </p>
<h2>Casual workers</h2>
<p>The casual workforce is likely to be a contentious area for discussion. </p>
<p>The Australian Industry Group has called for <a href="https://www.aigroup.com.au/policy-and-research/industrynewsletter/industry-extras/qld-insights-feb19-casual-employee/">tighter legislative definition</a> of casual worker status, after recent court decisions granted leave for long-term casuals. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337867/original/file-20200527-141283-9yjics.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337867/original/file-20200527-141283-9yjics.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337867/original/file-20200527-141283-9yjics.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337867/original/file-20200527-141283-9yjics.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337867/original/file-20200527-141283-9yjics.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337867/original/file-20200527-141283-9yjics.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337867/original/file-20200527-141283-9yjics.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox is concerned about the definition of workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Meanwhile, the ACTU has long sought a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-21/actu-pushing-for-more-rights-for-casual-workers/9570226">general right of conversion</a> to permanent employment for long-term casuals of six to 12 months standing, whom they consider to be exploited. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-economy-must-come-out-of-icu-scott-morrison-139347">Australian economy must come 'out of ICU': Scott Morrison</a>
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<p>Notwithstanding the casual loading for casual workers, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/casuals-paid-less-than-permanent-workers-despite-loadings-20181117-p50gpi.html">they earn less</a> on average than permanent employees.</p>
<p>There may be grounds for agreement on this issue. Employers would need to concede a formula for long term casuals’ easy conversion, if they choose, to permanent employment. Unions would need to concede no leave entitlements for employees who choose to remain casuals.</p>
<h2>Greenfields sites</h2>
<p>Greenfields sites - which involve a genuine new business, activity or project - have <a href="https://corrs.com.au/insights/a-fine-line-fwc-rejects-proposed-greenfields-agreements-for-west-gate-tunnel-project">been a battleground</a> in the Fair Work Commission for years. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/enterprise-agreements-benchbook/what-is-an-enterprise-agreement/greenfields-agreement">Greenfields agreements</a> on large construction sites have enabled employers to reach enterprise bargaining agreements with a small number of employees before most workers are hired. Workers who are hired when the project gets fully underway are then bound by the agreement.</p>
<h2>Compliance and enforcement</h2>
<p>There may be more common ground over improved compliance and enforcement for wages and conditions. Employers and unions have condemned <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-16/woolworths-agm-underpaid-staff-backpayments-have-begun/11804692">major cases of underpayment</a> recently uncovered by the Fair Work Ombudsman. </p>
<p>However, better compliance may be difficult to reconcile with the government and employers’ desire for less regulation. </p>
<h2>Where to now?</h2>
<p>Unions and employers have indicated willingness to participate in good faith, despite the huge challenges they face. But the omens are poor.</p>
<p>There is already disagreement over the Fair Work Commission’s annual minimum wage decision, due in July. </p>
<p>The ACTU is arguing for a 4% increase, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/look-the-word-crisis-up-in-a-dictionary-businesses-attack-union-minimum-wage-rise-calls-20200515-p54tel.html">angering business groups</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337868/original/file-20200527-141303-cpuatj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/337868/original/file-20200527-141303-cpuatj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337868/original/file-20200527-141303-cpuatj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337868/original/file-20200527-141303-cpuatj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337868/original/file-20200527-141303-cpuatj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337868/original/file-20200527-141303-cpuatj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/337868/original/file-20200527-141303-cpuatj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter will chair five working groups to try and overhaul the IR system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span>
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<p>The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has argued the minimum wage <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/business-wants-minimum-wage-frozen/news-story/0e8deee889ffca70d2ac9ae476de2180">should remain frozen</a> until at least mid-2021. It has even cited a precedent of the 10% reduction awarded on the basis of capacity to pay during the Great Depression. </p>
<p>The fact that wages growth had been at <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-28/why-workers-are-getting-the-smallest-pay-rises-since-wwii/10942530">record lows before the COVID-19</a> crisis will not help matters. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-can-scott-morrison-achieve-industrial-relations-disarmament-139408">View from The Hill: Can Scott Morrison achieve industrial relations disarmament?</a>
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<p>There is also a serious question as to whether industrial relations reform is the right place to be looking to reboot the economy. </p>
<p>Former top public servant Michael Keating was head of the Employment, Finance and Prime Minister’s departments during the Accords era. </p>
<p>Writing <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2020/04/30/coronavirus-economic-policies/">last month</a>, he said Australia’s industrial relations regulation was more flexible than that in the United States, and the reforms of the past 25 years have had little substantial impact on productivity, labour market adjustment, wages growth or industrial disputation. </p>
<p>Keating also warned that industrial relations reform is mainly “camouflage for lower wages, which is the last thing this economy needs right now”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Markey has received funding for past projects from the Australian Research Council, Australian Government, ACTU, Unions NSW, and some businesses.
He is a life member of the National Tertiary Education Union
</span></em></p>Unions, business and government will sit down to try to overhaul our industrial relations system. Past and recent history tell us this is a tough ask.Ray Markey, Emeritus Professor, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1237982019-09-18T10:40:39Z2019-09-18T10:40:39ZView from The Hill: Now the senators are taking on John Setka<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292975/original/file-20190918-187940-1ld6170.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">John Setka is battling attacks from all sides after union meeting recording leaks.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rogue construction union boss John Setka is already in fights with the Labor party and the ACTU leadership. Now he faces a battle with parliament.</p>
<p>Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick is moving to refer an alleged Setka threat against CA to the privileges committee. Patrick has also sent the matter to the Australian Federal Police.</p>
<p>The reference to the privileges committee will sail through. The ALP, which is battling to expel Setka, will support it as enthusiastically as the government. The Greens are considering their position before the Thursday vote.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-one-step-closer-in-long-march-towards-john-setkas-expulsion-122457">Albanese one step closer in long march towards John Setka's expulsion</a>
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<p>Setka attracts condemnation across the spectrum. But so far his critics have found actually landing outcomes – whether expulsion from the ALP or resignation from his union office – elusive.</p>
<p>The latest chapter in the Setka story arose from a union meeting where his inflammatory comments were recorded, and then <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/john-setka-uncut-refuses-jacqui-lambie-s-demand-to-quit-20190913-p52r37.html">leaked to Nine media</a>. (While Setka rages about leaks against him out of these meetings, it doesn’t seem to occur to him to avoid making comments worth leaking.)</p>
<p>On the recording, Setka is heard recounting what he’d told senator Jacqui Lambie – who had cooked him a roast and tried to persuade him to quit his union job – when they discussed the government’s Restoring Integrity bill. This legislation contains sweeping powers to deal with recalcitrant unions and officials.</p>
<p>“If them fucking other crossbenchers want to fucking vote for this Integrity bill, let ‘em fucking vote for it but they will wear the consequences of it. Because [with] the money we are saving by not giving to the ALP, we will start a fucking campaign,” he said.</p>
<p>Setka went on to say that when Nick Xenophon had voted for the Australian Building and Construction Commission “we launched a campaign in South Australia … we fucking destroyed that fucker”.</p>
<p>Centre Alliance is the old Nick Xenophon Team rebadged.</p>
<p>If the Centre Alliance senators voted for this bill, Setka said, in 20 years time someone would point to them in the street, saying they had “fucked up” not just construction workers but all workers in Australia. It is this part of the Setka tirade on which Patrick is basing the case about his making a threat.</p>
<p>On radio on Wednesday Setka claimed there was nothing to hear in all this. Perfectly normal. “It’s called campaigning. It has actually been around for a few hundred years.</p>
<p>"There has been no threat made. We don’t go around threatening politicians or senators,” he said.</p>
<p>As it happens, Patrick has some first hand knowledge of what had happened to Xenophon. He says he was witness to two CFMEU workers “accosting” Xenophon at a Perth airport lounge around the time of the ABCC legislation being voted on.</p>
<p>Setka told the ABC he had “always treated people with respect” and if the crossbenchers thought differently “maybe they should toughen up a little bit because it is called campaigning and if they’re not used to campaigning, maybe they are in the wrong job”.</p>
<p>Actually, Patrick is quite tough. Certainly he is willing to take on those he thinks are seeking to challenge or stand over him in any way.</p>
<p>A while ago, Patrick made a big fuss when Mike Pezzullo, secretary of the Home Affairs department, rang him. Pezzullo had taken exception to Patrick’s comment about him in the wake of the police raid on a News Corp journalist’s home. The senator said Pezzullo hated media scrutiny. Patrick accused Pezzullo of trying to silence him by the phone call (an accusation Pezzullo strongly rejected).</p>
<p>On the Labor front, Setka’s ALP membership is already suspended and Anthony Albanese is adamant that he will have him expelled from the party. But getting him out of the party hasn’t been so easy. Setka launched court action. He lost, but he’s appealing the decision.</p>
<p>Now that he will be defending himself against the claims in the privileges committee, he’s become a one-man lawyers’ picnic.</p>
<p>He has also turned into the best friend the Morrison government could have in its effort to get through that Ensuring Integrity legislation.</p>
<p>Although the legislation would not apply to Setka’s past action, his current carryings-on give, from the government’s point of view, an ideal backdrop to its argument against parts of the union movement, most notably the CFMMEU.</p>
<p>The government needs crossbench support to get the bill through the Senate. Lambie plans to vote for the legislation if Setka doesn’t step down from his union role. Centre Alliance has concerns about the bill but Patrick said Setka “has done his own cause a disservice because I am now privy to exactly [what] some members of the Victorian construction industry tell me that they have to put up with when dealing with the CFMEU”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fall-out-from-setka-affair-could-give-coalition-easier-passage-of-union-bill-120586">Fall-out from Setka affair could give Coalition easier passage of union bill</a>
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<p>Setka saya he’ll stay “as long as the members want me”. The loyalty of his members to a man who is doing so much damage to the union movement defies reason.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rogue construction union boss John Setka is already in fights with the Labor party and the ACTU leadership. Now he faces a battle with parliament. Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick is moving to refer…Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1195942019-07-01T07:40:06Z2019-07-01T07:40:06ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: ACTU president Michele O'Neil on John Setka and the government’s anti-union legislation<p>The ACTU leadership has pushed controversial construction boss John Setka to quit his union job but its president Michele O'Neil says the final decision on his leadership rests on the union membership. </p>
<p>She told The Conversation “members of unions elect their leadership and that’s an important principle”. </p>
<p>In this podcast episode O'Neil denounces the government’s plan to bring back to parliament the Ensuring Integrity Bill - which would give the government greater power to crack down on union lawbreaking - saying it is a “very extreme and dangerous bit of law”. </p>
<p>“It is not about integrity, it’s a political attack,” she says, citing the ability of banks and politicians to adopt voluntary codes of practice.</p>
<p>O'Neil is highly suspicious of Scott Morrison putting industrial relations back on the policy agenda, with a review now in train, to which the unions, unlike business, haven’t yet been invited to contribute. But she flags they will strongly argue their case over coming months, saying “we’ve written to Christian Porter asking why he hasn’t asked to meet with us…[this] won’t stop us advocating and putting forward what we think because it’s important for workers”. </p>
<h2>New to podcasts?</h2>
<p>Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click <a href="http://pca.st/BVa3#t=3m34s">here</a> to listen to Politics with Michelle Grattan on Pocket Casts).</p>
<p>You can also hear it on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Politics with Michelle Grattan.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/politics-with-michelle-grattan/id703425900?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL3BvbGl0aWNzLXdpdGgtbWljaGVsbGUtZ3JhdHRhbi5yc3M"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation-4/politics-with-michelle-grattan"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Politics-with-Michelle-Grattan-p227852/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-WRElBZ"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5NkaSQoUERalaLBQAqUOcC"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237984/original/file-20180925-149976-1ks72uy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" width="268" height="82"></a> </p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score/Lee_Rosevere_-_The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score_-_10_A_List_of_Ways_to_Die">A List of Ways to Die</a>, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.</p>
<p><strong>Image:</strong></p>
<p>AAP/PETER RAE</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>ACTU President Michele O'Neil says that the decision over Setka's leadership lies with the union membership, and denounces the government's plans to bring back anti-union legislation.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1190262019-06-18T12:12:56Z2019-06-18T12:12:56ZSetka gets backing from group of unions as split deepens<p>Several unions made a concerted strong stand of support for John Setka on Tuesday, as the executive of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union discussed the push against its embattled official.</p>
<p>Statements came from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union Victorian branch, the Electrical Trades Union of Australia, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s Victorian branch, the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union, and the Victorian branch of the United Firefighters Union.</p>
<p>Setka, who is the construction union’s Victorian secretary, is under pressure on two fronts.</p>
<p>Anthony Albanese is moving to have him expelled from the ALP for allegedly denigrating anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty and generally bringing the party into disrepute by his behaviour.</p>
<p>ACTU secretary Sally McManus has told him he should resign his union position for causing reputational damage to the union movement. Setka is facing court this month charged with using a carriage service to harass a woman.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/lambies-vote-key-if-government-wants-to-have-medevac-repealed-118905">Lambie's vote key if government wants to have medevac repealed</a>
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<p>The Setka affair has split the union movement with many unions calling for him to stand down.</p>
<p>He has been backed by the Victorian branch of his union this week called for the national executive to issue a statement of support and instigate an investigation of the leak from the union executive meeting at which he allegedly denigrated Batty – which he denies. If Setka was expelled from the ALP all financial support to the ALP from the union’s Victorian branch would cease, a resolution said.</p>
<p>The state branch also struck back at those unions which have called for Setka’s resignation, saying it “will no longer recognise traditional long-held membership coverage and demarcation lines with unions that have attacked this branch.”</p>
<p>The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union Victorian branch declared it “strongly condemns any external interference in union matters. Unions are for members, by members, and are not to be used as pawns for political clout.</p>
<p>"John Setka should remain in his position until such a time as the members of the CFMMEU decide otherwise.”</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/video-michelle-grattan-on-john-setka-press-freedom-adani-approval-and-tax-118845">VIDEO: Michelle Grattan on John Setka, press freedom, Adani approval and tax</a>
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<p>The ETU attacked “the anonymous leak from the CFMMEU national executive meeting two weeks ago” and “the media circus of disinformation which has followed it.”</p>
<p>“John Setka has been a tireless leader of the CFMMEU and wider union movement for over 20 years and has always supported his members and advocated tirelessly for their health and wellbeing.”</p>
<p>The Victorian branch of the RTBU said Setka “should have a right to a fair trial, the right to address personal issues with his family” and condemned “the conflation of alleged comments leaked from the CFMMEU national executive”.</p>
<p>The PPTEU committee of management denounced “the manufactured leak stemming from the CFMMEU NEX and the anonymous individual behind it. Their actions have caused a great deal of harm to John and his family, as well as the reputation of the general union movement.”</p>
<p>The Victorian branch of the United Firefighters Union said Setka should not resign, “as that is clearly a matter that is decided solely by his members, and not third parties.”</p>
<p>It added in its statement, “With the current public debate, one has to question ‘solidarity forever’”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Setka has been backed by the Victorian branch of his union who this week called for the national executive to issue a statement of support.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1188032019-06-13T13:19:12Z2019-06-13T13:19:12ZGrattan on Friday: The battle to stare down the defiant John Setka<p>In his first days as leader Anthony Albanese has taken two decisive actions to reset Labor’s relationship with the militant Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union.</p>
<p>Reshuffling Labor’s frontbench, he removed responsibility for industrial relations from Brendan O'Connor, whose brother Michael is the CFMMEU’s national secretary. This was always a huge conflict of interest, but one that Bill Shorten as opposition leader declined to address.</p>
<p>Then this week Albanese moved to turf out of the ALP the construction union’s Victorian secretary John Setka, whose behaviour over a long period has been notorious. Albanese had Setka’s party membership suspended, and he flagged he’ll ask for his expulsion at next month’s ALP national executive meeting.</p>
<p>Under Shorten, the CFMMEU had what many regarded as a special position. The union formed part of his base, and protected and helped him when he needed numbers.</p>
<p>Albanese has had no such relationship, and he repeatedly emphasises that he’s come to his position without any deals or obligations.</p>
<p>That has made it all the easier for him to take on Setka, who should have been called out a very long time ago.</p>
<p>The trigger point Albanese used was a report that Setka had denigrated anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, in remarks he made at a meeting of the union executive. Setka was talking about charges he’s facing of using a carriage service to harass a woman – he has already said he’ll enter a guilty plea. He was reported to have told the union meeting that Batty’s work had led to men having fewer rights.</p>
<p>Albanese was well aware the Setka affair was about to become a lot uglier in coming days, and the ALP needed to shake him off.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-a-soft-reprimand-from-one-hard-man-to-another-118619">View from The Hill: A soft reprimand from one hard man to another</a>
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<p>Setka’s initial fightback took the form of appearing hand-in-hand with his wife at a news conference, in which they said they’d been to hell and back and people should lay off them.</p>
<p>Setka denied he’d denigrated Batty, a denial quickly backed by a couple of officials at the meeting. This potentially complicated the situation for Albanese (who insisted he’d checked out the report) in the event of Setka fighting the expulsion move.</p>
<p>But precisely what he’d said or not said about Batty became fairly irrelevant once ACTU Secretary Sally McManus weighed in, meeting Setka on Thursday to tell him he should quit his union position.</p>
<p>McManus, incidentally, believed Setka’s denial; she too had checked out the report, and was satisfied “he never said anything to denigrate Rosie Batty”. Rather, she argues he should quit as an official because of his behaviour (which she stresses she can’t comment on in detail for legal reasons) and the damage being caused.</p>
<p>For the union movement, the Setka affair goes to the heart of its strong pitch against domestic violence, and its credentials in championing women’s rights. The ACTU currently is led by two women – its president is Michele O'Neil – making it even more imperative to match words with actions.</p>
<p>“There is no place for perpetrators of domestic violence in leadership positions in our movement,” McManus said in her Thursday statement.</p>
<p>“We have already put on record the union movement’s values and our principles regarding family and domestic violence.</p>
<p>"We also believe in equality for women and know that instances of violence against women are not just unacceptable, they stand in the way of achieving equality.”</p>
<p>She told the ABC the Setka issue was “about the broader reputation of the union movement, and I think it means that we are in a position where we can’t continue to advocate in the way we want to on issues while John Setka is the main story”.</p>
<p>McManus, who consulted widely with union leaders in taking her stand, is reflecting the position of a number of important unions, such as the Australian Services Union, which represents those who work in domestic violence services and the SDA (the “Shoppies”), which has many female members.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-israel-folau-case-could-set-an-important-precedent-for-employment-law-and-religious-freedom-118455">Why the Israel Folau case could set an important precedent for employment law and religious freedom</a>
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<p>Unsurprisingly, Setka says he won’t resign, and he has the backing of Victorian branch delegates, making it uncertain how things will play out.</p>
<p>It’s a safe bet the ALP executive will back Albanese’s expulsion move – not to do so would be an inconceivable repudiation of his leadership.</p>
<p>With her authority on the line, McManus’s gamble is that as the story unfolds, Setka will be more isolated and will eventually step down or be forced to do so.</p>
<p>Asked whether the ACTU could disaffiliate the union if it would not get rid of its rogue official, McManus said this wasn’t something that had been thought about. She pointed out it would be a very serious course to take over one official.</p>
<p>But one thing the ACTU has been thinking about is the ammunition Setka is giving the government for its fresh push to bring in tough legislation – the Ensuring Integrity bill – to crack down on unions and officials that break the law.</p>
<p>Among its provisions, the legislation would “allow the Federal Court to prohibit officials from holding office who contravene a range of industrial and other relevant laws, are found in contempt of court, repeatedly fail to stop their organisation from breaking the law or are otherwise not a fit and proper person to hold office in a registered organisation”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-protect-press-freedom-we-need-more-public-outrage-and-an-overhaul-of-our-laws-118457">To protect press freedom, we need more public outrage – and an overhaul of our laws</a>
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<p>The bill was before the last parliament; it was opposed by Labor, and there wasn’t sufficient crossbench support to pass it.</p>
<p>But now the government is hot to trot. Assuming Labor continues to oppose, the question will be whether the government can get it through a Senate likely in general to be easier for the Coalition than the last one was.</p>
<p>It would come down to the votes of One Nation and Centre Alliance. One Nation would be on board. Centre Alliance would want changes that applied equivalent provisions to misconduct in the corporate sector.</p>
<p>If the union movement can’t deal with its Setka problem, the government’s argument, and its hand, certainly will be strengthened in its battle for the bill.</p>
<p>As one union man put it succinctly, “John Setka has bought the naming rights to the Ensuring Integrity legislation”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>John Setka says he won’t resign, and he has the backing of Victorian branch delegates, making it uncertain how things will play out.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1186992019-06-12T08:42:53Z2019-06-12T08:42:53ZACTU’s Sally McManus to confront CFMMEU’s John Setka<p>ACTU secretary Sally McManus will meet union leader John Setka on Thursday to discuss his “words and actions”, as Setka’s union allies push back against Anthony Albanese’s move to have him expelled from the ALP.</p>
<p>The controversial Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy union appeared with his wife Emma Walters at a news conference and on radio on Wednesday to deny he had denigrated anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty.</p>
<p>Last week Nine newspapers reported Setka told a meeting of the CFMMEU national executive Batty’s work had led to men having fewer rights.</p>
<p>At Albanese’s instigation, Setka’s ALP membership has been suspended. Albanese will move for his expulsion when the party’s national executive meets on July 5. Before that, Setka will be in court late this month on charges of harassing a woman, to which he has said he will plead guilty.</p>
<p>The Labor party is currently working out a procedure by which he gets natural justice when his expulsion come up.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-asylum-seeker-policy-history-a-story-of-blunders-and-shame-118396">Australia's asylum seeker policy history: a story of blunders and shame</a>
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<p>The Setka affair is now dominating discussion at the highest level of the union movement. McManus returned from Geneva early to deal with it.</p>
<p>She said in a statement on Wednesday she had “consulted with union leaders who are concerned by Mr Setka’s words and actions, which are not compatible with our values, and have impacted on our movement.</p>
<p>"The ACTU condemns all acts of family and domestic violence. Australian unions have made ending family and domestic violence a priority.</p>
<p>"I have heard what Mr Setka had to say today. I have sought a meeting with him tomorrow to discuss these matters. I will have more to say following this meeting.”</p>
<p>Earlier she had said that if any allegations relating to harassment were correct, “John Setka must resign. There is no place for perpetrators of domestic violence in leadership positions in our movement.” </p>
<p>Albanese has said he is not reflecting on the court case.</p>
<p>Setka said the report of what he said at the CFMMEU national executive meeting about Batty was “completely false. I have always been a huge supporter of Rosie Batty and admired her tireless work”.</p>
<p>“The member who leaked these false allegations, for nothing more than political gain, should be the one who hangs their head in shame. I completely agree with Mr Albanese [that] any comments denigrating Rosie Batty are completely unacceptable.”</p>
<p>Pressed on what he had said, Setka replied, “It was just going into what lawyers had told me in regards to some of the laws and had nothing to do with Rosie Batty changing the laws or anything. … There was nothing denigrating and nothing terrible said about Rosie Batty at all”.</p>
<p>He said would not be stepping down from his union position, which is an elected one.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-a-soft-reprimand-from-one-hard-man-to-another-118619">View from The Hill: A soft reprimand from one hard man to another</a>
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<p>Labor frontbencher Kristina Keneally told Sky she did not believe Setka’s union position was tenable.</p>
<p>Albanese took steps to verify the story about what Setka had been reported as saying at the meeting before announcing his move against him.</p>
<p>But Chris Cain, national president of the Maritime Union (a division of the CFMMEU), who was at the executive meeting said the allegations about what Setka had said were false and “misinformation”. He said Albanese should apologise.</p>
<p>Setka also got backing from the state secretary of the Electrical Trades Union Victoria, Troy Gray, who said Albanese’s remarks about Setka were based on a “complete fabrication”. “Albanese needs to withdraw,” Gray said.</p>
<p>However other unions, including the Australian Services Union, which has members working in domestic violence services, are particularly concerned with the Setka situation. The ASU said in a statement: “John Setka should resign if any of the allegations against him are true. The comments attributed to him do not reflect the values of our union movement or the ASU. The alleged comments are abhorrent to victim survivors of family violence and thousands of ASU members who work on the frontline in the family violence sector.”</p>
<p>United Voice has said it supports the ACTU’s position that if any of the reported allegations against Setka were correct “he must resign”. It has also expressed concern about the alleged statements about Batty.</p>
<p>Setka told his news conference that over recent years he and his wife had “been to hell and back, with relentless attacks on us personally for what is nothing more than some people seeking their own political gain. The result of this was
our relationship hit rock bottom.</p>
<p>"We’ve both said and done things that we aren’t proud of. But this is
not an opportunity to get John Setka. My family should not be used as political bait. We’re working very hard together to rebuild our marriage and are confronting the issues that led to the breakdown of our marriage”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Setka affair is now dominating discussion at the highest level of the union movement.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1175832019-05-22T19:48:29Z2019-05-22T19:48:29ZWhere to now for unions and ‘change the rules’?<p>Very few people saw the Coalition’s win coming. If it was, as opposition leader Bill Shorten contended, “a referendum on wages” then it follows that Australians were content with sluggish wage growth and didn’t want a more substantial pay rise.</p>
<p>But that would be a great oversimplification. Labor had a more ambitious program of workplace reform, part of a much wider agenda for economic change and wealth redistribution, that it simply couldn’t sell to the electorate.</p>
<p>Where does this leave the industrial wing of the labour movement, which pushed the Labor Party to adopt sweeping re-regulation of the labour market?</p>
<p>For two years through its “change the rules” campaign the Australian Council of Trade Unions has had remarkable success in entrenching in public consciousness the twin themes of wage theft and insecure work.</p>
<h2>Broken rules on repeat play</h2>
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<p>It seemed to have a deliberate strategy of repeating its talking points and examples to reinforce the view that something is “broken” and needs to change.</p>
<p>But it provided very little detail about the type of change it wanted. </p>
<p>Whether it should have provided more or less detail is now very much up for debate as it and the Labor Party try to work out what went wrong on Saturday.</p>
<p>Rather than getting what they wanted, they are both on the defensive. Already business groups are weighing in, urging the Morrison government to “simplify” the industrial relations system and prevent casual workers from “double-dipping” – obtaining both a casual loading and leave entitlements.</p>
<p>Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey put it this way on Monday, perhaps revealing something about <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/relieved-ceos-have-a-busy-agenda-for-morrison-20190518-p51oso">how he sees his workforce</a>: “The economy works best when all the little ants out there are left to get on and do great things.”</p>
<h2>Now it’s up to the Coalition</h2>
<p>The Coalition did not advocate workplace law changes in the election campaign. It gained a mandate to do no more than implement the recommendations of the <a href="https://docs.jobs.gov.au/documents/government-response-migrant-workers-taskforce-report">Migrant Workers Taskforce</a> which it accepted back in March. As it happens, they are mostly worker-friendly measures directed at systemic underpayment and other forms of exploitation.</p>
<p>However, given the pressure that is already coming from the business community, don’t be too surprised if the Government dusts off some of the recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s 2015 <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/workplace-relations#report">inquiry into workplace relations</a>.</p>
<p>These include “enterprise contracts” that allow businesses to vary award terms, and a relaxation of the “better off overall test” for enterprise agreements.</p>
<p>The Australian Building and Construction Commission and Registered Organisations Commission will remain in place as “cops on the beat” to combat union power, probably with increased resources.</p>
<h2>Unions have a choice of strategies</h2>
<p>So what room is there for unions in the new environment? In my view, plenty. The deep problems that “change the rules” and Labor’s policies sought to address haven’t gone away.</p>
<p>We still have a culture of wage theft in many sectors of the economy. We still have a proliferation of dodgy labour hire contractors. We still have misuse of the labour hire business model at companies like Amazon, with many workers trapped in long-term casual engagement. We still have widespread use of rolling fixed-term contracts.</p>
<p>We still have the collapse of effective collective bargaining in much of the private sector, and employer ‘work-arounds’ to avoid negotiating an enterprise agreement or get out of an existing one. We still don’t have the basis for a proper living wage.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-major-parties-stack-up-on-industrial-relations-policy-116256">How the major parties stack up on industrial relations policy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As the results unfolded ACTU secretary Sally McManus has <a href="https://twitter.com/sallymcmanus/status/1129892454868574208">made it clear</a> that the union movement would “never give up, never stop fighting for fairness for working people”. That said, it will doubtless revisit the change the rules campaign and its accompanying communications and electoral strategies.</p>
<p>Rather than shrinking back to a “small target”, as Labor is now contemplating in some policy areas, I think the ACTU should consider remaining bold in its vision for workplace reform.</p>
<p>It could prepare a clearly articulated case for “changing the rules” using detailed research that precisely measures the extent of problems employers like to downplay such as insecure work and wage theft.</p>
<p>And it should outline precisely how it wants the rules changed and what those changes would do to working lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-unions-so-unhappy-an-economic-explanation-of-the-change-the-rules-campaign-105673">Why are unions so unhappy? An economic explanation of the Change the Rules campaign</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of course, campaigning for legal changes can only be one part of the unions’ playbook.</p>
<p>Organising and connecting with workers on the ground in new and innovative ways is also essential, as shown by the United Voice’s new digital union [Hospo Voice] which campaigns against wage theft and sexual harassment in the hospitality industry and the <a href="http://www.youngworkers.org.au/">Young Workers Centre</a> and <a href="https://www.migrantworkers.org.au/">Migrant Workers Centre</a> which are one-stop shops run by the Victorian Trades Hall Council.</p>
<p>As the National Union of Workers and United Voice put it in the context of their <a href="https://anewunion.org.au">current amalgamation proposal</a>: “we need to change the rules, but we also need to change the game”. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Anthony Forsyth blogs on workplace issues at: <a href="https://labourlawdownunder.com.au/">labourlawdownunder.com.au</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Forsyth has received research funding from organisations including the Business Council of Australia, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Fair Work Commission and Victorian Government. The views expressed in this article are his own.</span></em></p>Dealing with the Coalition will more difficult than arguing than the rules are wrong.Anthony Forsyth, Professor of Workplace Law, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937192019-05-16T09:51:52Z2019-05-16T09:51:52ZVale Bob Hawke, a giant of Australian political and industrial history<p>If Bob Hawke had never become prime minister, he would still be recalled as a major figure in Australian political and industrial history. As president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Hawke was as instantly recognisable as any pop star. But it is as prime minister of Australia (1983-1991) that he made his greatest mark.</p>
<p>Robert James Lee Hawke was born in Bordertown, South Australia, on December 9 1929, the younger of two sons of Clem Hawke, a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Ellie. The family – minus Neil, who was at boarding school in Adelaide – moved to South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula in 1935. Clem had always doted on Bob, regarding him as “special”. But following Neil’s tragic death from meningitis, Ellie’s passionate love and missionary purpose focused with a new intensity on her remaining son.</p>
<p>The family moved to Perth in 1939. Hawke was educated at the selective Perth Modern School and, from 1947, the University of Western Australia, where he completed degrees in arts and law. He also threw himself into student politics, eventually being elected president of the Guild of Undergraduates.</p>
<p>Clem’s younger brother Albert, a Labor member of the Western Australian parliament and premier from 1953 until 1959, was in these matters his nephew’s mentor and guide. </p>
<p>Bob’s survival of a near-death experience in a motorcycle accident confirmed his parents’ conviction that God had spared their son for a high public purpose. Hawke would abandon Christianity after witnessing poverty in India, but never lost the zeal that dictated he must fully use his talents to make a better world.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251447/original/file-20181219-27767-1jxvgwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251447/original/file-20181219-27767-1jxvgwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251447/original/file-20181219-27767-1jxvgwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251447/original/file-20181219-27767-1jxvgwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251447/original/file-20181219-27767-1jxvgwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251447/original/file-20181219-27767-1jxvgwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251447/original/file-20181219-27767-1jxvgwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob and Hazel Hawke on their wedding day in 1956.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://john.curtin.edu.au/hawkeh/about_hh.html">John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While Hawke was at university he met the attractive and intelligent Hazel Masterson, to whom he became engaged in 1950. The following year, Hawke failed to win the Rhodes Scholarship, but was determined to make another bid. Hazel then became pregnant: if they had married – as was usual for a courting couple in such straits – Bob would have been ineligible. Instead, Hazel underwent a traumatic abortion, the first major sacrifice in a marriage that would demand much of her. </p>
<p>Awarded the Rhodes Scholarship in 1952, Hawke travelled to Oxford, where he completed a Bachelor of Letters thesis on Australian wage determination, learned to fly, and broke a world beer-drinking record. Hazel joined him in England. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251439/original/file-20181219-27779-r7sd9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251439/original/file-20181219-27779-r7sd9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251439/original/file-20181219-27779-r7sd9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251439/original/file-20181219-27779-r7sd9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251439/original/file-20181219-27779-r7sd9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251439/original/file-20181219-27779-r7sd9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251439/original/file-20181219-27779-r7sd9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob Hawke soon after he was elected ACTU president in 1969.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41528871">Uwe Kuessner/ Wikicommons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They married in Perth in 1956 and moved to Canberra, where Hawke had a scholarship to research a doctorate in law at the Australian National University. In 1958, the offer of a position as ACTU research officer led him to abandon his studies and the Hawkes – including Susan, the first of their three children – moved to Melbourne. He proved a pugnacious, knowledgeable and persuasive advocate, becoming a hero in union circles after some notable successes in the Arbitration Commission. In 1963, he narrowly missed winning the federal seat of Corio.</p>
<p>In 1969, Hawke was elected ACTU president, receiving the left’s support in what turned out to be a closely fought contest. During the 1970s, he became a towering figure in national political and industrial life. </p>
<p>Hawke was peculiarly popular at a time when unions were not, perhaps partly on account of his reputation for having the magic touch in the resolution of industrial conflict. His arched eyebrows and dark wavy hair gave him a striking, handsome appearance seemingly made for television. His educated yet unmistakably Australian speech resonated with the era’s more assertive national identity. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251452/original/file-20181219-27764-1c72nne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251452/original/file-20181219-27764-1c72nne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251452/original/file-20181219-27764-1c72nne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251452/original/file-20181219-27764-1c72nne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251452/original/file-20181219-27764-1c72nne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251452/original/file-20181219-27764-1c72nne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251452/original/file-20181219-27764-1c72nne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The relationship between Bob Hawke and Gough Whitlam was fraught.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tvtonight.com.au/2014/10/abc-screens-whitlam-the-power-and-the-passion-tonight.html">TV Tonight</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hawke was also ALP president from 1973 until 1978, and he served as a governor of the Reserve Bank from 1973 until 1980. His relationship with Gough Whitlam was fraught – there was hardly room on the national stage for two egos on this scale – but Hawke was a calming influence after the dismissal, resisting calls for a general strike.</p>
<p>To many, Hawke’s rise to the prime ministership appeared inexorable, yet by the late 1970s there were in place some formidable personal barriers. Hawke was a champion womaniser and boozer. He was an unpleasant drunk. And his widely admired charm and charisma came with a volcanic temper, sometimes on display in his television appearances.</p>
<p>Some flamboyantly boorish behaviour at the 1979 ALP National Conference in Adelaide – involving intemperate criticism of party leader Bill Hayden in the presence of journalists – briefly imperilled his career. But having decided to enter parliament, he gave up the grog. A 1982 biography written by his former lover and future wife, Blanche d’Alpuget, made a clean breast of his personal excesses and family failings. By this time Hawke was the federal member for Wills and shadow minister for industrial relations, having entered parliament at the 1980 election.</p>
<p>Hawke’s pursuit of the federal Labor leadership showed that he was prepared to be ruthless in dealing with an opponent when they stood in the way of what he saw as his destiny. Piece by piece, he and his allies undermined Hayden’s confidence and standing. An unsuccessful bid for the party leadership in mid-1982 was followed by elevation to the leadership in February 1983 after key party powerbrokers lost confidence in Hayden’s prospects, virtually forcing his resignation. Hawke led his party to a comfortable victory on March 5.</p>
<p>In government, he was fortunate to have inherited the Prices and Incomes Accord, finally agreed by the federal ALP and ACTU after Hawke assumed the leadership. The accord committed unions to wage restraint in return for benefits such as Medicare. </p>
<p>Hawke was also endowed with a talented frontbench. But he proved himself a skilled cabinet chair, with a flair for getting the best out of people. His popularity was a valuable asset; Hawke’s approval rating soared, giving weight to his conviction that he had a special relationship with the Australian people. </p>
<p>Hawke was also lucky. The drought ended. The worst of the recession would soon be over. And Australia II’s victory in the America’s Cup seemed as much Hawke’s victory as that of the successful syndicate, after a jubilant prime minister announced that any boss who sacked a worker for not turning up that day was a “bum”.</p>
<p>An emboldened government floated the dollar – in essence, the joint decision of a highly productive partnership with his treasurer, Paul Keating. The government, helped by a High Court decision, prevented the damming of the Franklin River in Tasmania, while Hawke steered the country through a divisive debate about Asian immigration. But in the face of opposition from some states and the mining sector, the government abandoned national Aboriginal land rights legislation, and Hawke’s later commitment to a treaty, similarly abandoned, further damaged the government’s reputation in Aboriginal affairs.</p>
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<p>In 1984, Hawke shed public tears over the heroin addiction of his daughter, Rosslyn. He was not at his best in the subsequent election campaign. Hawke won, but had lost some of his shininess. </p>
<p>A balance-of-payments crisis and plunge in the dollar in the mid-1980s provided the backdrop for greater financial stringency and further free-market reform. Welfare carefully targeted those most in need, university fees were reintroduced, and tariffs were lowered. Some public assets were sold. </p>
<p>Critics complained of the abandonment of Labor tradition and criticised Hawke’s closeness to his “rich mates”, along with his alleged subservience to the United States. Electorally, though, Hawke remained a winner, enjoying further victories in 1987 and 1990. No federal Labor leader had won three elections, let alone four.</p>
<p>Hawke’s prime ministership came to grief over his rivalry with Keating and the deterioration of Australia’s economy, culminating in the worst recession since the 1930s. After an unsuccessful tilt at the leadership in mid-1991, Keating defeated Hawke in a ballot shortly before Christmas. Hawke resigned from parliament. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251449/original/file-20181219-27746-bd6odf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251449/original/file-20181219-27746-bd6odf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251449/original/file-20181219-27746-bd6odf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251449/original/file-20181219-27746-bd6odf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251449/original/file-20181219-27746-bd6odf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251449/original/file-20181219-27746-bd6odf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251449/original/file-20181219-27746-bd6odf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bob Hawke and Blanche d'Alpuget at the Labor campaign launch in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsiakis</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>His memoirs, published in 1994, attracted considerable interest not least for his continuing hostility to Keating who was still then prime minister. In 1995, following a divorce from Hazel, he married d’Alpuget. Hawke subsequently worked in the media, pursued a business career and served as chairman of the committee of experts of Education International, a global voice of the teaching profession.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Australia">2010 survey</a> of historians and political scientists, Hawke came second, just behind his hero, John Curtin. Hawke’s historical reputation has risen as his record has been viewed in light of the more modest achievements of every one of his successors.</p>
<p>He is survived by his second wife, Blanche d’Alpuget, his children by his first marriage, Susan, Stephen and Rosslyn, six grandchildren, as well as great-grandchildren.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From doted-on child to Rhodes Scholar, ACTU president and ultimately prime minister, Robert James Lee Hawke had a significant impact on Australian life.Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1056732018-10-31T23:11:11Z2018-10-31T23:11:11ZWhy are unions so unhappy? An economic explanation of the Change the Rules campaign<p>In October <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/23/actu-rallies-tens-of-thousands-of-workers-march-for-better-deal-on-pay">hundreds of thousands of workers</a> took to the streets to campaign for better wages and conditions as part of the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ <a href="https://changetherules.org.au/">Change The Rules</a> campaign. </p>
<p>The response from critics of the movement, including <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/actu-wants-a-return-to-the-dark-days-of-mass-union-militancy-20181022-p50b4e.html?ignorePublicState=true&pcrypt=aGZyZT1xYWJqdnB4dkBzbnZlc25renJxdm4ucGJ6Lm5oJmd2enJmZ256Yz0xNTQwMTg4ODM0">the Commonwealth government</a>, has been to decry the temporary loss of economic output and to blame the rallies on a mix of union anarchy and militancy.</p>
<p>But they’ve missed the point.</p>
<p>The evidence shows that conditions for Australian workers have been getting worse as trade union membership has declined.</p>
<p>There are five ways to look at this.</p>
<h2>Wage growth</h2>
<p>The Australian Bureau of Statistics tally of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6302.0">average weekly earnings</a> has grown impressively since 1995, from around A$550 to A$1,200.</p>
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<p>But changes in the average wage don’t tell us much about changes in the typical wage.</p>
<p>That’s because, being an average, it is highly sensitive to changes in the composition of the workforce and to increases in the very high pay earned by Australia’s highest earners.</p>
<p>If low-income workers lose their jobs the average wage will go up. </p>
<p>If high-flying executives <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/do-ceos-deserve-their-huge-wages/news-story/36194fae9ea99679ece149702950ef7e">get paid even more</a> it will also go up.</p>
<h2>Real wage growth</h2>
<p>A better measure of typical wages, the ABS wage price index, is also growing. </p>
<p>But it too is misleading. </p>
<p>Real wage growth – which is the amount wages have been growing over and above prices – tells us much more.</p>
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<p>While the wage price index has grown by 65% over the past two decades, real wages have increased by only 12%. </p>
<p>For many young people, it’s even worse: <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/end-of-the-smashed-avo-lie-graph-proves-those-under-35-are-screwed/news-story/6d98e62bb83e53c9c2f13bd7550d21b1">their share of wage growth has been negligible or even negative</a>. </p>
<p>This means that for an increasing number of Australians wages are failing to keep pace with the cost of living.</p>
<h2>Share of gross domestic product</h2>
<p>Another way to measure wages is to look at how much of what Australia produces is being paid out to workers.</p>
<p>The most common measure of what’s produced is gross domestic product. </p>
<p>That very basic measurement suggests that the economy has been growing for 27 years – a fact The Economist newspaper celebrates when describing Australia as <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/10/27/what-the-world-can-learn-from-australia">the most successful economy in the developed world</a>. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/theausinstitute/pages/1500/attachments/original/1497298286/Labour_Share_Hits_Record_Low.pdf?1497298286">wage earners are sharing in the success less than others</a>.</p>
<p>While GDP has certainly been rising every year, the percentage of it spent on wages has been falling. </p>
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<p>Those who praise Australia’s economic growth sometimes miss the wood for the trees.</p>
<p>Gross domestic product has indeed grown over the past 27 years, but in that same period the share of it paid to workers has fallen by four percentage points. </p>
<p>The pie has been growing, but the slices for workers have been getting thinner.</p>
<h2>Inequality</h2>
<p>The most common measure of income inequality is the Gini coefficient.</p>
<p>A coefficient of 1 would mean all the income was all in one person’s hands. A coefficient of zero would mean it was evenly distributed. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, Australia’s Gini coefficient has been climbing further away from zero.</p>
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<p>The International Monetary Fund has found that there is a <a href="https://t.co/0Mh9pykFc8">likely causal relationship</a> between low trade union density and high income inequality. </p>
<p>In Australia income inequality has grown as trade union membership has fallen.</p>
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<h2>Union militancy</h2>
<p>The minister for jobs and industrial relations, Kelly O’Dwyer, says the union movement wants a return to the “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/actu-wants-a-return-to-the-dark-days-of-mass-union-militancy-20181022-p50b4e.html">dark days of mass union militancy</a>”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It wants workplace division and disruption, it wants the ability to flagrantly break any industrial laws it doesn’t like, and it demands union officials be given the power to subject businesses up and down the country to their every demand, regardless of the capacity of those businesses to accede to those demands.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is certainly true that more trade union activity leads to more days lost per year to industrial action. </p>
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<p>However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence to support O'Dwyer’s claim that any increase in the days lost to strikes will wreak havoc on the economy.</p>
<p>For example, in 1988 Australia reached the height of “industrial militancy” and lost a total of 1,641 days to industrial action across all industries. </p>
<p>Yet in that year GDP grew by 3.4%. </p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-questions-and-answers-about-casual-employment-105745">Five questions (and answers) about casual employment</a>
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<p>Compare this to 2017, when only 148 days were lost to industrial action and GDP grew by only 2.3%. </p>
<p>In the past few months GDP growth has since bounced back to 3.4% with no noticeable change in the days lost to strikes.</p>
<p>While there doesn’t seem to be a link between declining industrial action and GDP, there does seem to be one between industrial action and the share of GDP paid out in wages. </p>
<p>The recent resurgence of the union movement is an attempt to get the share back up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shirley Jackson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the National Tertiary Education Union and the Australian Labor Party.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Rennie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As unions have shrunk, conditions for workers have got worse.Shirley Jackson, PhD Candidate in Economic Sociology, The University of MelbourneGeorge Rennie, Lecturer in Politics, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/930742018-03-16T00:51:47Z2018-03-16T00:51:47ZGed Kearney’s candidacy shows the relationship between Labor and the unions remains mutually beneficial<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210238/original/file-20180314-113479-1h8j3gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor's candidate for the Batman byelection, Ged Kearney, is a past president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/David Crosling</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Former Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) president Ged Kearney is <a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-podcast-the-batman-byelection-battleground-93310">facing an uphill battle</a> to retain the federal seat of Batman for Labor at Saturday’s byelection. While ACTU officials entering parliament as Labor MPs is a well-trodden career path, Kearney’s predecessors usually stood for safe seats.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-podcast-the-batman-byelection-battleground-93310">Politics podcast: the Batman byelection battleground</a>
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<p>Bob Hawke (who was ACTU president between 1969 and 1980) became Labor leader and prime minister in 1983. Simon Crean (president 1985-90), Martin Ferguson (president 1990-96), Jennie George (president 1996-2000), and Greg Combet (secretary 2000-07) all left the ACTU for parliamentary careers. </p>
<p>Almost half of Labor MPs generally <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-the-influence-of-trade-unions-on-the-labor-party-is-overestimated-57476">have had union connections</a>, and many have been senior union leaders at state or federal level. The Liberal and National parties routinely argue the career path from senior union leader to parliament demonstrates how much the unions influence the Labor Party. </p>
<p>There are undoubtedly advantages for unions in terms of access and policy influence by having former officials as MPs. However, this influence <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-influence-of-trade-unions-on-the-labor-party-is-overestimated-57476">can be overestimated</a>. Unions frequently complain that former officials develop broader perspectives in parliament, because the party needs to balance competing political and community interests to be effective in government.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-influence-of-trade-unions-on-the-labor-party-is-overestimated-57476">How the influence of trade unions on the Labor Party is overestimated</a>
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<h2>What it means for Labor</h2>
<p>It is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14443058.2012.757277?journalCode=rjau20">often claimed</a> that the influence runs from party to the unions through former union officials, rather than vice versa. This leads to a moderation of union demands. </p>
<p>This process may be exacerbated by MPs now rarely coming through union ranks. Many are in fact political appointments to unions before becoming staffers for ministers and then entering parliament. </p>
<p>Nor do former union officials vote as a bloc within the Labor Party’s internal deliberations. As with other MPs, they usually align with one of the competing party factions.</p>
<p>Generally, the parliamentary Labor Party benefits from recruitment of senior union officials. ACTU leaders have already developed a high profile in the community, and to that extent test their potential electoral appeal. </p>
<p>If they lack public appeal they are unlikely to become parliamentary candidates. But if they do, they are likely to have a short career as ACTU leader regardless: success in that position is highly politicised and requires significant media skills.</p>
<p>Kearney’s effective media presence fits this general profile, if not quite to the same extent as Hawke’s legendary media skills and broad public appeal he built before entering parliament and successfully leading the Labor Party into the 1983 election.</p>
<p>Another advantage for Labor is that senior union officials undoubtedly represent an injection of talent into the parliamentary ranks.</p>
<p>Apart from media profiles, they are already experienced in dealing with a range of complex policy issues and in managing a variety of perspectives within the union movement and beyond.</p>
<p>An indication of this talent is that all bar one of the ACTU leaders who entered parliament soon took on ministerial positions. The exception – George – was hindered by factors other than a lack of talent.</p>
<h2>What it means for the unions</h2>
<p>Labor’s gain does not necessarily represent a loss for the unions.</p>
<p>All the ACTU leaders who entered parliament held union office for reasonably substantial terms. A regular turnover of leaders represents a positive trend in democratic organisations; it also allows the development of new talent within the union movement.</p>
<p>There do not appear to have been any major problems in the ACTU with gaining adequately qualified replacements for those entering parliament. </p>
<p>Finally, there is the issue of representativeness of union leaders in the broader community given the decline in union membership in recent years. ACTU leaders are representative of unions as a whole, since virtually all are affiliated to the ACTU. But <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/policy/industrial-relations/union-membership-hits-new-lows-in-private-sector-20170502-gvxukh">total union membership</a> now barely exceeds 1.5 million. Unions represent only 10% of private sector workers and 39% of the public sector.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8165.0">unions remain</a> Australia’s largest representative civic institutions. Their membership exceeds those who regularly attend religious services of any denomination, and is almost double the number of small business owners who employ workers. And unions <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/PrimaryMainFeatures/6306.0?OpenDocument">collectively represent</a> 59% of the workforce in bargaining for conditions through enterprise agreements or awards.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-influence-of-trade-unions-on-the-labor-party-is-overestimated-57476">Surveys also show</a> 20% of non-unionists would join unions if they had the opportunity; 60% believe unions are important for working people; and almost half believe workers would be better off if unions were stronger.</p>
<p>ACTU leaders like Kearney, therefore, potentially reach a large audience in the electorate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Markey is a life member of the National Tertiary Education Union.</span></em></p>There are undoubtedly advantages for unions in terms of access and policy influence by having former officials as MPs.Ray Markey, Emeritus Professor, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/869272017-11-10T05:50:14Z2017-11-10T05:50:14ZExplainer: what exactly is a living wage?<p>Australia’s national minimum wage should become a “living wage”, according to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/02/unions-seek-dramatic-pay-increases-to-ensure-minimum-living-wage">new campaign</a> from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). But what exactly is a living wage?</p>
<p>In theory, a living wage is no different to a minimum wage. Both set a binding “floor” on wages, below which no employee can (legally) be paid. But in practice there are several differences between minimum and living wages, in their value, purpose, and adjustment. </p>
<p>A living wage is set higher than a minimum wage and may be “pegged” to (fixed as a percentage of) some other measure of living standards, such as average weekly earnings. This ensures that the living wage holds its relative value over time.</p>
<p>Essentially, while the minimum wage sets a <em>bare minimum</em>, the living wage aspires to be a <em>socially acceptable minimum</em>. Typically, this is seen as a level that keeps workers out of poverty.</p>
<p>But the point at which workers fall into poverty varies widely, due to differences in family responsibilities, and complex interactions between low wages and welfare payments. These factors necessarily affect how the level of the living wage would be set and adjusted.</p>
<p>The idea to shift to a living wage follows a string of bad news about pay. Many vulnerable workers <a href="http://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/home/newsroom/the-gig-economy-and-migrant-workers-changing-the-face-of-work-2017-foenander-lecture">have been denied</a> their minimum entitlements by employers. Wage growth is so slow that even the Reserve Bank Governor has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/19/rise-up-and-demand-pay-increases-reserve-bank-chief-urges-workers">encouraged</a> workers to demand pay increases. And workers are <a href="https://blogs.imf.org/2017/04/12/drivers-of-declining-labor-share-of-income/">getting less</a> of the national income, as capital owners increase their share.</p>
<h2>Living vs. minimum wages</h2>
<p>Australia’s national minimum wage is set each year by an expert panel of the Fair Work Commission (FWC). The panel <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/awards-and-agreements/minimum-wages-conditions/annual-wage-reviews">receives submissions</a> from a wide range of organisations and <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/resources/research/annual-wage-review-research/previous-research">conducts research</a> to inform its decisions. </p>
<p>Increases to the minimum wage are based on <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fwa2009114/s284.html">objectives</a> enshrined in law. These refer to different factors, including business competitiveness, employment growth, and the needs of the low paid. There is no specific mention of poverty in the current objectives. Nor is there a fixed relationship with any other measure of living standards. </p>
<p>In other countries, minimum wages and living wages co-exist. In the United States, <a href="http://www.epi.org/minimum-wage-tracker/">long periods can pass</a> without increases in the federal minimum wage, as there is no mechanism for its regular adjustment. This has led many local governments to set their own mandatory <a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/minimum-wage-living-wage-resources/inventory-of-us-city-and-county-minimum-wage-ordinances/">living wage ordinances</a>, above the federal (and state-level) minimum wages. </p>
<p>The situation is different in the United Kingdom, where the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/low-pay-commission">Low Pay Commission</a> recommends a national minimum wage increase each year. Even there, the movement for a voluntary “<a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk/what-real-living-wage">real living wage</a>” has strong support from employers.</p>
<p>If the ACTU plan became law, Australia’s living wage would differ from the US and UK models. It would <em>replace</em>, rather than complement, our national minimum wage, substantially raising the wage floor. This would require the FWC’s expert panel to have different wage-setting objectives, with its primary goal being to eliminate working poverty.</p>
<h2>Would a living wage help the poor?</h2>
<p>Regrettably, poverty is the reality for many of Australia’s lowest-paid workers. Some struggle to make ends meet and go without basic necessities, such as meals and heating - particularly those <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022185610397138">in single-income families</a>.</p>
<p>Neither our current minimum wage, nor the proposed living wage, is a pure “anti-poverty” tool. This is because the poorest people <a href="http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/storage/Poverty-Social-Exclusion-and-Disadvantage.pdf">do not have paid jobs</a> - often due to serious socioeconomic disadvantage. A living wage only helps those who rely on paid work (their own or someone else’s) for an income.</p>
<p>The intention of a living wage is therefore not to eradicate all poverty, but to end poverty among those who work - “the working poor”.</p>
<p>This laudable ambition is complicated by differences in personal and family circumstances. A living wage cannot vary from person to person, yet low-paid workers <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/sites/afpc2006wagereview/research/AFPCResearchSeries0406AnUpdatedProfileontheMWWorkforceinAus.pdf">are not all alike</a>: some live alone, some have children, and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2007.00432.x/abstract">many are in</a> dual-income families.</p>
<p>Who should a living wage be set for? The income needed to prevent poverty is inevitably much higher for workers with families than for those who live alone. </p>
<p>The Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) produces “<a href="http://apo.org.au/node/103781">budget standards</a>” that show the minimum income required by different types of families to reach a healthy living standard. Their evidence has been widely used by <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/sites/wagereview2010/downloads/healy_phd_thesis.pdf">the ACTU</a> and <a href="http://www.acoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ACOSS-minimum-wage-submission-2017_FINAL.pdf">other advocacy groups</a> in submissions to the Fair Work Commission.</p>
<p>According to their analysis, an employed single adult <a href="http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:46141/binaaacbcf3-915f-40bc-a70f-2052746ab643?view=true">currently needs</a> A$597 per week (before tax, and including housing costs) to live healthily. A couple with two young children needs almost twice as much: A$1,173. </p>
<p>The national minimum wage <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/decisionssigned/html/2017fwcfb3501.htm">is currently</a> A$695 for a full-time worker. So, according to the SPRC’s research, that worker already earns enough for a healthy life if they live alone, but not nearly enough if they have a family. This highlights the difficulty of setting a single living wage that would universally prevent working poverty.</p>
<p>Families with children also receive other government assistance through targeted welfare payments. This further complicates the task of setting a living wage.</p>
<h2>What are the alternatives?</h2>
<p>There are other ways to tackle working poverty. In the US, an “earned income tax credit” reduces the taxes of low-paid workers, so their wages stretch further. Such a scheme <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/40576/3/DP450.pdf">has been recommended</a> for Australia.</p>
<p>Another very different approach to welfare is a universal basic income (UBI). This would provide a guaranteed minimum income, regardless of whether someone works, and without eligibility tests like those behind Centrelink’s recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/10/centrelink-debt-scandal-report-reveals-multiple-failures-in-welfare-system">“robo-debt” debacle</a>. </p>
<p>Supporters of UBI also <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/why-we-should-all-have-a-basic-income/">see it as</a> a solution to job losses caused by rapid automation.</p>
<p>Living wages and UBI are radically different ways of tackling poverty. Work remains vital for a living wage, but is optional for a UBI. A living wage would raise the value of paid work, but might make life harder for some jobseekers whose labour becomes more expensive. A UBI would provide income <em>without</em> work, which might encourage more people to drop out of the labour force altogether. </p>
<p>In pushing to “make work pay”, the ACTU is hoping to capture both the public imagination and, for workers, a larger slice of the economic pie.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ACTU has proposed Australia adopt a “living wage”. This might improve the incomes of some people, but it wouldn’t solve “working poverty”.Josh Healy, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of MelbourneAndreas Pekarek, Lecturer in Management, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.