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A turning point for labour market policy in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Jim Stanford
Jim Stanford*
Affiliation:
The Australia Institute, Australia; McMaster University, Canada
*
Jim Stanford, Centre for Future Work, The Australia Institute, Level 3, 4 Goulburn St., Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia. Email: jim@tai.org.au
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Abstract

Australian labour market and industrial relations policies are poised for fundamental change. A combination of political and macroeconomic factors has created a historic opportunity to turn away from the individualised, market-driven labour market policy that has prevailed since the 1980s, in favour of a more interventionist and egalitarian approach. Factors contributing to this moment include the breakdown of bipartisan consensus around key neoliberal precepts; growing public anger over inequality, insecure work and stagnant wages; and a weakening of macroeconomic conditions. Australia’s labour market is now marked by underutilisation of labour in various forms, a deterioration in job quality (especially the growth of insecure and precarious work) and unprecedented weakness in wages. The deterioration in job quality and distributional outcomes is the long-term legacy of the post-1980s shift away from Australia’s earlier tradition of equality-seeking institutional structures and regulatory practices. The current malaise in labour markets should be confronted with a comprehensive strategy to both increase the quantity of work available to Australian workers and improve its quality. The major components of such a strategy are identified, and their prospects considered, in light of the economic and political forces reshaping Australia’s labour market.

Keywords

J28J38J53J58J83Australiacollective bargaininginequalityinsecure worklabour market policy reformneoliberalismprecarious workwage stagnation
Type
Regulating the labour and banking practice
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 30 , Issue 2: Symposia: Australian Regulatory Failure: Labour Markets and Banking Practice Youth Precarity , June 2019 , pp. 177 - 199
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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