The State of Industrial Relations

The Evatt Foundation's new book.

Foreword

It is fitting that this first publication by the Evatt Foundation following the election of the Rudd government is about the single issue that dominated politics during the Howard government's final term. The WorkChoices laws will live in Australian history -- not just as an infamous attack on working people and their unions, but because they also represented the unqualified triumph of neo-liberal ideology over good policy, good politics and diligent law-making.

For the unions, community groups and the old and new activists alike who came together in such an extraordinary and determined way in the name of salvaging the rights of Australians at work, this volume is about the most eagerly awaited assignment of the new government. The transition from the Howard legacy to the Rudd promise is nowhere more urgent than in the nation's workplaces.

This collection is also published at a time when the Evatt Foundation is once again in transition. The Foundation has entered into an association with the University of Sydney in recognition of our common interest in public research, discussion and debate. Meanwhile, in a physical sense, the Foundation has returned home to the Sydney Trades Hall, symbolising and strengthening our deep connection with the Australian labour movement.

More generally, the Evatt executive is reviewing directions in light of the change in government and the broader course of events. Our longstanding series, The State of the States, for instance, has clearly run its course after 14 years as an annual fixture in the nation's political calendar. Nominally at least, no government or opposition in Australia to-day would deny the importance of attending to the triple bottom-line of social, environmental and economic performance, as distinct from the pronounced emphasis on accounting to financial markets which inspired the series in the first place. We will consider fresh ways to draw national public attention to policy at the sub-national levels of government, along with the many other issues of relevance to the ideals of the labour movement.

In the meantime, we have revived our occasional journal, Evatt Papers, to provide a more flexible home for our titles. On behalf of the executive, my thanks to the contributors to this first revived issue on 'The State of Industrial Relations', which completes the Foundation's analysis of the widely despised WorkChoices and begins the new story of industrial relations in Australia. With the Howard government seen off, it is with a good deal of pleasure that I also thank the unions that generously helped to fund this project.

Buy the book online

You can purchase The State of Industrial Relations 2008 securely online using your credit card via Paypal. Simply click on the button below and follow the instructions.

See also on the Evatt site:

• The State of Industrial Relations book launch by John Robertson with John Buchanan.
• Read the introduction to The State of Industrial Relations, by Christopher Sheil.

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