The First Half-Century of Australian Wage Policy—Part II

Abstract

The Commonwealth Court began with little conception of an economic role for itself but the Piddington Commission, the economic stringencies of the 1920s and the Depression of the 1930s forced it to recognise that role. During the 1940s the wages policy of the Court became confused because of the change in membership of the Court, the changed economic climate in which it functioned. Also, until 1950, the Court had not defined for itself the implica tions that wage increases had on a full-employment economy. After 1950 there was a single-minded commitment to avoiding inflation which over-simplified the economic consequences of wages policy and, so uncomfortably did the economic role sit on the shoulders of the Court, that this role was often denied to exist. The conclusion is that the Court developed a capacity for absorbing economic ideas and analysing the condition of the economy but the evaluation of policies for relativities lagged behind the development of policies for relating labour costs to economic conditions: a comprehensive wage policy includes a specific role for wage structure but the Court failed to develop it.

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