Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End?
Over the last fifteen years, a number of developed countries have pursued an agenda seeking to develop more collaborative management-union arrangements often labelled as partnerships. This article reviews the Australian road to partnerships by situating it within the context of developments in the U...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Kluwer Law International
2013
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| Online Access: | http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/abstract.php?area=Journals&id=IJCL2013016 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8276 |
| _version_ | 1848745609852354560 |
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| author | Townsend, K. Wilkinson, A. Burgess, John Brown, Kerry |
| author_facet | Townsend, K. Wilkinson, A. Burgess, John Brown, Kerry |
| author_sort | Townsend, K. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Over the last fifteen years, a number of developed countries have pursued an agenda seeking to develop more collaborative management-union arrangements often labelled as partnerships. This article reviews the Australian road to partnerships by situating it within the context of developments in the UK and New Zealand. In 2009, Australia’s then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, suggested that Australian Industrial Relations were about to undergo a shift towards a new model of workplace interaction that included more collaboration and partnerships. We argue that rather than a substantial shift, this approach can be viewed as an evolution from the Accord years, disrupted for a period by the Howard Government. However, unlike similar regulatory regimes in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the Australian Government has done little to entrench a system of partnerships at the workplace level. This article assesses the extent to which collaboration and partnership in Australia’s modern IR system provides a roadmap to a new Australian IR landscape, or whether the failure of policy-makers to act has led to a dead-end for Australian partnerships. The practical implications of this agenda for the conduct of industrial relations are considered. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:20:05Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-8276 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T06:20:05Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Kluwer Law International |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-82762018-12-14T00:47:14Z Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End? Townsend, K. Wilkinson, A. Burgess, John Brown, Kerry Australian industrial relations collaborative management-union arrangements workplace partnerships fair work legislation Over the last fifteen years, a number of developed countries have pursued an agenda seeking to develop more collaborative management-union arrangements often labelled as partnerships. This article reviews the Australian road to partnerships by situating it within the context of developments in the UK and New Zealand. In 2009, Australia’s then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, suggested that Australian Industrial Relations were about to undergo a shift towards a new model of workplace interaction that included more collaboration and partnerships. We argue that rather than a substantial shift, this approach can be viewed as an evolution from the Accord years, disrupted for a period by the Howard Government. However, unlike similar regulatory regimes in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the Australian Government has done little to entrench a system of partnerships at the workplace level. This article assesses the extent to which collaboration and partnership in Australia’s modern IR system provides a roadmap to a new Australian IR landscape, or whether the failure of policy-makers to act has led to a dead-end for Australian partnerships. The practical implications of this agenda for the conduct of industrial relations are considered. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8276 http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/abstract.php?area=Journals&id=IJCL2013016 Kluwer Law International restricted |
| spellingShingle | Australian industrial relations collaborative management-union arrangements workplace partnerships fair work legislation Townsend, K. Wilkinson, A. Burgess, John Brown, Kerry Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End? |
| title | Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End? |
| title_full | Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End? |
| title_fullStr | Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End? |
| title_short | Has Australia’s Road to Workplace Partnership Reached a Dead End? |
| title_sort | has australia’s road to workplace partnership reached a dead end? |
| topic | Australian industrial relations collaborative management-union arrangements workplace partnerships fair work legislation |
| url | http://www.kluwerlawonline.com/abstract.php?area=Journals&id=IJCL2013016 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8276 |