Elizabeth Humphrys, "How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia's Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project" (Haymarket, 2019)
New Books in Economics
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The Australian Labour Party and the Australian Council of Trade Unions on Prices and Incomes
The accord was an agreement between the Australian Labour Party and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. It says that wages are going to be held down to the level of inflation. And in return for workers sort of showing their willingness to have that happen, there'll be an expansion of the social wage. Is it implemented? Not really. The suppression of wages, the union's agreement to not take industrial action, this is absolutely implemented and ruthlessly enforced. But higher education is sort of expanded, but only through the introduction of fees. The tax system actually becomes more unequal. There's a whole range of privatizations, free trade agreements and other policy reforms against the spirit of the accord.
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