Australian Industrial Relations in 1992: Another Turning Point?

Abstract

During 1992 each of the major parties in the Australian industrial relationssystem affirmed their support for a move towards enterprise-based agreements.In both New South Wales and Victoria non-Labor governments began theimplementation of alternatives to the established approach to industrial relations,with considerable controversy developing over the more radical Victorian approach.At the national political level, the main differences over industrial relations reformalso became clearer. The federal opposition announced its policy on industrialrelations which, among other things, foreshadowed a wholesale change in therole of unions in negotiating agreements. The federal government amended theIndustrial Relations Act to reduce the discretionary power of the Industrial RelationsCommission in approving Certified Agreements. However, its amendments alsoaffirmed a role for the trade union movement in negotiating such agreements.This legislative change and statements by the ACTU suggested that the Accordpartners had moved strongly to hasten the spread of enterprise-based negotiationin industrial relations, leaving the Industrial Relations Commission to provideminimal standards.

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