Federal Labor Government Research Articles

The ACTU Congress of 1989

When the biennial congress opened in the Sydney Town Hall on Monday, 25 September, only 100 affiliated unions were represented, as against the 142 that had attended the preceding congress.1 The number grew to 114 on the second day, and eventually reached 120; while a grand total of 815 delegates (934 in 1987) was officially recorded.2 The contrast with 1987 testified to the impact of the airline pilots' dispute that had crippled domestic air services since early August. But this dispute, despite its magnitude and the recurring references to it by congress speakers, was in fact ancillary to one of the two major themes that dominated the proceedings of the congress ?the fate of the Accord with the federal Labor government. The other theme was the fate of the trade union movement itself, as a representative body.

The New South Wales doctors' dispute 1984–85: An interpretation

Abstract The NSW doctors’ dispute 1984–85 has had a lasting effect on the Australian health care system. Militant surgeons were effective in securing some modifications to regulations and administrative arrangements governing the role and remuneration of certain groups of doctors in NSW public hospitals and some changes to the federal government's Medicare scheme. This paper examines the causes, actors, issues and outcome of the dispute. The key to understanding the dispute is a knowledge of both the specific issues debated by militant doctors and the federal and NSW Labor governments and the broader historical forces that have shaped the politics of national health insurance throughout the twentieth century. In contrast to media reports, the outcome of the dispute is interpreted as a compromise rather than a victory for the doctors. It is further argued that a theoretical generalisation formulated by two American political scientists, Marmor and Thomas, about disputes between doctors and governments over...

Left right out: Australian education and the politics of signification

In recent years there has been a shift in popular thinking and government policy on education in Australia, away from the social democratic consensus of the Karmel era, towards a Rightist perception. While a number of sources of this movement may be identified, in this paper I will focus on the politics of discourse. Drawing on Laclau's and Mouffe's developments of Gramsci's theory of hegemony, I will explore the ways in which various educational lobby groups have sought to produce a ‘common‐sense’ concerning Australian schooling. The examination of a critical historical incident is a useful way of illustrating the strategies employed by these groups, as their political efforts are particularly concentrated at such times. In its 1983 Education Guidelines the federal Labour government announced, amongst many things, that it intended to reduce funds to Australia's ‘best resourced’ private schools. A bitter debate between supporters of private schools and state schools ensued. On the surface each party sough...

The 1984-85 Australian Doctors' Dispute

Gq%*# HERE has never been much love lost between the medb ~ ical profession in Australia and Labor Governments, be 1 they State or Federal. The profession has viewed Labor as being obsessively controlling, while the Government e c) has had an image of doctors as being free-marketeere#*0 ing, laissez-faire entrepreneurs. When taken to extreme limits these stances have led to vitriolic exchanges which in 1984, in the most populous State of New South Wales, caused a mass withdrawal of services by specialist surgeons and others from the public hospital system. Since 1952, Australian medicine had functioned with a voluntary private health insurance scheme heavily subsidized by the Federal Government. This scheme matched the philosophy of successive Liberal (conservative) Federal Governments in that while putting the onus on the individual to insure, it recognized the responsibility of Government to assist to a limited extent and to provide care for those unable to afford insurance. However, by the early 1970S it was clear that some 1i per cent of the Australian population had no insurance cover, and the first Federal Labor Government in decades came to power in 1972 promising to introduce compulsory tax-supported health insurance for all Australians. The introduction of this universal health insurance plan (known as Medibank) was tempestuous and was opposed by the organized medical profession at every turn, despite the fact that, for many doctors practicing in poorer areas in particular, Medibank proved to be a financial bonanza. Following the fall of the Labor Government in 1975, the incoming Liberals set about dismantling Medibank, promising to resurrect the private insurance agencies and to return to the individual the responsibility for medical and hospital insurance. It was not until March 1983 that the Labor Party was returned to power in Canberra, again with a strong mandate for reintroducing universal health insurance. This time it was to be called Medicare and was to be supported by a 1 per cent levy on taxable income. Medicare was to be intro-

CAPITAL GAINS TAX IN THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY

Eleven years after a previous abortive attempt, another Federal Labor Government has announced its intention to incorporate into the Australian fiscal scene a capital gains tax. The tax is to be levied at marginal and corporate income tax rates on 100 per cent of inflation adjusted gains realised on assets acquired on and after 20 September 1985.Whilst the Government expects its revenue yield to be low even at the end of five years of operation, the cost of protective administration and compliance to be incurred by taxpayers will be substantial.There are substantial areas of uncertainty in the capital gains tax proposals generally, and in particular as they relate to the petroleum industry. These issues, coupled with the prospect of significant legislative delay, will detract further from Australia's appeal as a focal point for essential exploration dollars.The capital gains tax proposals outlined to date deal, superficially, with basic and very tangible property. However, they do not come to grips with issues such as the potential duplication of this tax and resource rent tax, the need to protect the position of non-residents from double taxation, the basis for imposition of capital gains tax upon changes in licence and permit interest through direct or indirect transfers, to avoid bunching distortions, and to more fully provide for rollover relief.The capital gains tax proposals will exacerbate the substantial stress upon the Australian Taxation Office and, coupled with the forthcoming requirement of the Income Tax Assessment Act to accommodate the proposed resource rent tax, will only serve to highlight the fact that in reality the petroleum industry has not been a winner in this area of the tax reform process.The scope for unexpected capital gains tax exposures to arise is marked and will require a clear analysis of several long-established legal concepts to ensure that even reasonable results are obtained.

The economic planning advisory council: The reality of consensus

Abstract The Hawke federal Labor government continued the process of national reconciliation and consensus‐formation begun by the National Economic Summit by institutionalizing group/government intermediation and consultation within the Economic Planning Advisory Council (EPAC). This paper looks at the development of the policy which led to the establishment of EPAC to determine what was expected of such a body. The objects and functions of the council are then examined to determine whether its operation increases the efficacy of consensus in government policy‐making. The formal institutionalization of interest groups into the policy process opens up questions about the relevance of theories of corporatism to this innovation in the Australian political system and the findings of this paper in regard to EPAC are discussed in this context to ascertain whether there is evidence of corporatism inherent in these arrangements. Finally, consideration has been given to the question of whether EPAC and consensus h...

The Federal Labor Government and Criminal Justice Policy

The Federal Labor Government and Criminal Justice Policy

The ACTU Congress of 1983

The biennial congress that opened in Melbourne on Monday, Sep tember 12, was attended by 845 delegates holding a total of 1,164 votes.1 It will probably be remembered by most as the first biennial congress to endorse a formal wages restraint policy, and the first at which a woman was elected to the ACTU's executive body. One other obvious distinction is that the man whose personality for a decade dominated congress pro ceedings (if not always its decisions) returned to address it as Prime Minister?which, of course, also meant that it was only the third congress in over thirty years that had to cope with the ambivalences a federal Labor government forces on trade union leaders. In addition, this con gress is likely to prove something of a watershed in relation to the ACTU's leadership.

The Preparation of Further Educators in South Australia

Introduction • In Australia, post-compulsory education is organised as a three tier system. After world war 2, quite considerable developments took place in this system. Universities grew in range of programmes offered and numbers of students attracted. Also new universities were established in the period of post-war optimism which coincided with rapid economic growth. Colleges of Technology and Teachers Colleges grew in a manner that saw them become a significant force in the post-compulsory school sector from the mid-1960's. This was particularly the case when they were recognised as Colleges of Advanced Education. These tertiary level vocationally oriented colleges were viewed by government strategists as having a key role in a rapidly developing economy. The third part of the post-compulsory education sector experienced later, but similar expansion, with change largely being an outcome of the Report of the Australian Committee on Technical and Further Education (ACOTAFE) in 1974. The Report, more commonly referred to as the Kangan Report, was the result of a major enquiry initiated by the Federal Labor Government. Labor had won government, at the national level in 1972. This was the first time Labor had been in power at that level for almost a quarter of a century. Social conditions in Australia during the late 1960's and early 1970's were such as to render conservative (Liberal/Country Party) control of government almost untenable in the short term. Internal divisions in the ruling party, polarisation of society over Australian involvement in the Vietnam war, the radicalisation of youth, women and aboriginals and the collapse of the mining boom all contributed to this situation. Labor won government and immediately set about a number of initiatives. Importantly for this discussion, it appointed a committee to enquire into the state of technical and further education (TAFE) in Australia. Hence the Kangan Report of 1974. The acceptance of some of the Committee's recommendations led to the Government's eventual creation of a national Technical and Further Education Commission and the injection of significant finance into the development of what has often been seen as a neglected area of post-compulsory school education provision.

The Effect of the Great Depression on the Federal Labor Governments, 1941–49.

Australian Journal of Politics & HistoryVolume 22, Issue 2 p. 258-270 The Effect of the Great Depression on the Federal Labor Governments, 1941–49. DAVID STEPHENS, DAVID STEPHENSSearch for more papers by this author DAVID STEPHENS, DAVID STEPHENSSearch for more papers by this author First published: April 1976 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8497.1976.tb00914.xCitations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume22, Issue2April 1976Pages 258-270 RelatedInformation

Collingwood, Wren Left-Overs and Political Change: Aspects of Local-Level Politics in the 1970s

The affairs of the inner-city Labor councils have long been the subject of legend. But they have been little studied. Nor are there many accounts of local-level politics in other areas of Australia. Those that do exist have often been concerned principally with other things. The character of the institutions and processes of local government has not encouraged attention. It has been all too easy to dismiss them as trivial or venal or both.1 However, recently some significant studies have appeared and there is the promise of more to come.2 The former federal Labor government's many-sided interest in urban and regional affairs, the activities of state governments and their instrumentalities, and the emergence of 'green bans' and residents' action and protest groups should all encourage further work. This article is about politics in Collingwood. It is not the result of a formal research project but of a fact of residence. For about four years I lived in Clifton Hill?known to some as the Toorak of Colling wood?and took part in local affairs. This meant taking specific stands and making friends and foes accordingly. My account reflects this. The purpose of the article is to discuss five main areas: the social and demographic background; present patterns of political activity; links between these patterns and other levels of politics; forces inducing adaptation and change; and the implications of each of these for the making of policy in the municipal council. I do not intend to give a blow by blow account of particular local engagements. This would have

Australia´s Relations with Southeast Asia Since 1972*

The period since the election of a Federal Labor Government in Australia in December 1972 has witnessed a significant public deemphasis on those military aspects which so prominently characterized Australia's traditional involvement in Southeast Asian affairs. Partly this lack of emphasis has been because of altered international circumstances, amongst which can be included Britain's withdrawal of its hitherto sizeable military presence from Southeast Asian bases, American disengagement from the Vietnamese and Cambodian conflicts, China's entry into the community of nations, Soviet diplomatic and economic initiatives among the littoral states of the Indian Ocean, and the emergence of an international climate of superpower accommodation and d?tente to replace the bipolar rigidities of an earlier era. Because of these dramatic movements in global and regional relationships, there was a growing tendency to bipartisanship in domestic Australian attitudes towards the Southeast Asian states by the end of the .1960s. This tendency towards convergence in attitude was reflected in policy decisions. Thus it was a Liberal Party Prime Minister, John Gorton, who refused to increase Australian troop numbers for the Western cause in Vietnam (despite strong American pressures for him to do so), and it was Gorton's immediate successor, William McMahon, also a Liberal, who presided over the withdrawal of the bulk of Australian forces from that same country. It was Gorton, too, who began a series of varied and faltering negotiations with Chinese diplomats with a view to ultimate Australian recognition of the People's Republic. As well, it appears that leaders of both the major Australian political parties have been persuaded, if not comforted, by the advice of professional Australian defence planners that they can perceive no observable or significant external threats to the security of the Australian continent for a period of ten to fifteen years hence. The military strategists claim, further, that there will be no major conflicts in the Asian and Pacific region during the same period which will oblige Australian involvement. Such optimistic prognoses contrast in stark fashion with Sir Robert Menzies' fears of an earlier generation that world war was imminent, and that the communist forces in China had embarked on a thrust southwards

Difficulties Facing Federal Labor Governments: Reasons for Frustration and Pessimism

Difficulties Facing Federal Labor Governments: Reasons for Frustration and Pessimism

The Dawson Government in Queensland, the First Labour Government in the World

Although there were Labour parties formed in three of the Australian colonies?New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia ?early in the 1890s and similar parties were to emerge in the other three states by the time of the first federal Labour government in 1904, it was not really until the close of the first decade of the twentieth century that there was a Labour party in the present sense, nor was it clear until then that labour would form one half of the Australian political spectrum and coalitions or alliances of antiand non-labour parties the other half. The decision of the 1908 interstate conference to adopt the title Australian Labour Party and the concluding of the lib-lab coalitions in South Australia and Queensland together with the ending of the federal lib-lab agreements were the outward manifestations of this change. But for almost the first twenty years of their existence the state Labour parties had debated within their ranks the nature of their politics and the best tactics to use. Should they try to seek power, quickly, in their own right or should they remain part of an anti conservative opposition? If the opportunity to assume office presented itself, should this be accepted as part of a lib-lab coalition or should the party maintain a certain exclusiveness and go it alone? The formation of the Labour government of Anderson Dawson which held office briefly in Queensland at the end of 1899 reflects these debates in the party and in the labour movement. Though there w7ere to be similarities among the Labour parties as they evolved, there were also to be differences in organisation, ideology and tactics which were dictated by the economic and political differences in the colonies themselves. In Queensland, it was clear before the maritime and shearing strikes that labour was going to form its own political organisation and not merely be a part of the Liberal party as its leader Sir Samuel Griffith had tried to effect throughout 18881. In April and May 1893, the first opportunity at which the new Labour party could test its organisation, sixteen Labour members w7ere returned in a house of twenty-two. However, since the two political groups of the 1880s vaguely liberal under Griffith and conservative under Sir Thomas Mclhvaith, had coalesced in August 1890 to form a kind of national government to face the depression, only a rump of seven Griffith liberals remained, to be known as the Independent Opposition, which made the Labour party at its entry to parliament the second largest party in the house and the largest opposition party. It did not immediately assume the role of formal opposition and indeed it was not until the 1909 election that it became clear that Queensland politics would be conducted between labour oriented and capital oriented parties.

Union compliance and incomes policy: The Australian Social Contract, 1983-87

Australia has a lang experience of centralised wage-fixing through the federal and state systems of conciliation and arbitration but unti/1975 this machinery was not embedded in a more general incomes policy. Although this was undermined progressively and finally abandoned in 1981 a further incomes policy was introduced two years later following the election of a federal Labour government. Overseas experiences indicates that the structural features of the union movement are important determinants of the success of an incomes policy. Australian experience since 1983 however, indicates that, despite large numbers of competing unions and a union peak council lacking formal control over affiliates, an incomes policy may be viable. This reasoning was supported by empirical evidence pertaining to the role of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in securing compliance from affiliated unions.