(1992) Industrial Relations: The Year Ahead
It is difficult at the best of times to speak with certainty about the future. It is particularly difficult to do this with industrial relations at this time.
It is difficult at the best of times to speak with certainty about the future. It is particularly difficult to do this with industrial relations at this time.
The NSW government should be more ambitious in tackling the problems of unemployment in NSW. The release of recent unemployment figures consistently show that NSW accounts for the vast majority of job losses.
Perhaps the most valuable role the Lloyd Ross Forum can play is to assist in the promotion of discussion within the labour movement and the wider community about the policy, strategic and practical options facing the union movement. What Should Unions Do? is an attempt to assist that discussion.
When the subject of ‘what should unions do?’ comes up at union gatherings in Australia it is rare that the Japanese experience is seriously discussed. When the topic of Japanese labor unions is raised it is frequently in pejorative tones.
Interview/Debate with Quentin Dempster on the ABC television 7.30pm Report between Michael Easson, Secretary, Labor Council of NSW, and Garry Brack, Executive Director, Employers Federation of NSW.
On the basis of some newspaper reports in the middle of last year, one could easily gain the impression that a large number of business migrants coming to Australia were criminals and that many were characters of suspect behaviour.
A nation’s immigration policy can reveal a good deal about moral and humanitarian issues as well as economic considerations. The recent changes in guidelines for immigration and the numbers allowed to come to Australia illustrate this point.
Anyone who knows Gerry Hand is aware of his sincerity and his integrity. Immigration, thanks to the recession and the evaporation of the post-war consensus that “Immigration is a good thing”, is looming as a significant political issue – and the Opposition’s opportunistic approach doesn’t help the debate focus on some of the crunch issues. In 1992, it is hardly a “plum job” to be Minister for Immigration.
The worst is over. There is still a lot of structural adjustment occurring, and that will lead to more unemployment in some parts of the economy in the next 12 months. But overall employment will grow.
I can remember sitting down in 1977 in Laurie Short’s office at 188 George Street, Sydney, and discussing the origins and development of the Trotskyist movement in Australia in the 1930s.