Industrial Reform in Australian Building and Construction: Theory and Practice

Abstract

This paper considers the nature and process of industrial relations reforms in the building and construction industry, focusing on recent initiatives of the Commonwealth and New South Wales Governments from the late 1980s to 1996. Two theoretical models—one concerning the role of the state in the economy, the other dealing with strategies of forcing', ‘fostering’ or ‘escaping’ change—are adapted to grasp the differences evident in the mechanisms and instruments of reform developed by the two Governments. It is argued that the Commonwealth Government adopted a consensual, ‘fostering’ strategy, whilst the approach of the New South Wales Government was more proscriptive, a forcing’ strategy. These different approaches to reform reflected underlying differences in the perspectives of the two Governments.