Unequal Partner: Trade Unions and Industry Policy Under the Hawke Government

Abstract

The article surveys Australian industry policy over the course of the 1980s. It concludes that the ambitious objectives of the early Hawke government and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (regeneration and expansion of the manufacturing sector; enhanced union influence over investment flows) have been frustrated. This has partly arisen from contradictions of policy and from the limits of union power. More critically, the 1980s policies have been too narrow in focus: Australian manufacturing industry suffers from an economic environment which is still fundamentally hostile to the pursuit of manufacturing excellence.