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Inventing Unemployment: Labour Market Regulation and the Establishment of the Commonwealth Employment Service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2025

Anthony O'Donnell
Anthony O'Donnell*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Extract

In 1888 the social wing of the Salvation Army in Britain had begun an ambitious program for social reform and spiritual revival focusing on the disciplining and retraining of the unemployed. City workshops in London gave unemployed workmen board and lodgings in return for eight hours work a day. Efficiency, deportment and cleanliness were rewarded by increases in food rations and eventually men were given a cash allowance. Attached to the workshops was a labour bureau which would put men in touch with potential employers. In 1905 the Liberal Magazine suggested that the Army be given a government contract to deal with the unemployed and, four years later, the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission recommended that public authorities work in conjunction with religious organisations in training and reforming the recalcitrant unemployed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Federal Law Review , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 343 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 The Australian National University

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Footnotes

My thanks to Richard Mitchell and Chris Arup for helpful discussion of many of the points raised in this article. The title and the inspiration for my line of inquiry owe a debt to British and French scholars working in this field: see, eg, William Walters, Unemployment and Government: Genealogies of the Social (2000), especially ch 2, 'Inventing Unemployment'; Robert Salais, Nicolas Baverez and Benedicte Reynaud, L'Invention du Chômage: historie et transformations d'une catégorie en France des années 1890 aux annés 1980 (1986).

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22 Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Company (1921) 15 CAR 297, 319.

23 By the second half of the 1920s, this higher rate was written into awards covering wharf workers, builders' labourers, shearers, flour mill workers and those working in the meat export and sugar industries.

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27 Official Year Book of New South Wales 1934-35 (1937) 752.

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32 Several commentators identified casual labour – brought about by the seasonality of work and the proliferation of small enterprises – as a persistent and 'normal' feature of the interwar labour market that would continue after the crisis of the Depression had passed: E Ronald Walker, 'The Unemployment Problem in Australia' (1932) 40 Journal of Political Economy 210 and AG Colley, 'New South Wales Unemployment Statistics' (1939) 11 Australian Quarterly 96. In the early 1940s, social commentators were still blaming income poverty on the prevalence of casual labour: see Barnett, F Oswald, The Poverty of the People in Australia (1944) 8Google Scholar.

33 Whiteside, Noel Gillespie, James, 'Deconstructing Unemployment: Developments in Britain in the Interwar Years' (1991) 44 Economic History Review 665 at 680CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Gregory et al have argued that the drop in labour demand in Australia in the Depression was managed largely through redundancy rather than labour hoarding, short-time work or work rationing. The available figures on durations of individuals' episodes of unemployment support the notion that large pools of jobless labourers accumulated, with little turnover or 'churning'. They support their argument by suggesting that the existence of award coverage prevented any diminution in standard hours for those employed. This reasoning, however, is based on the supposition that all awards set a standard working week, but see my discussion above on the widespread allowance made for casual and short-time work in awards: Gregory, R G et al, 'The Australian and US Labour Markets in the 1930s' in Barry Eichengreen and T J Hatton (eds), Interwar Unemployment in International Perspective (1988) 397CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 For a comprehensive discussion see Endres, Tony Cook, Malcolm, 'Concepts in Australian Unemployment Statistics to 1940' (1983) 22 Australian Economic Papers 68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Commonwealth of Australia, Bureau of Census and Statistics, Labour Report 1925 (1926) 111.

36 Whiteside, above n 6, 52–3.

37 Sheridan, above n 30, 13; Butlin, N G, 'An Index of Engineering Unemployment, 1852–1943' (1946) 22 Economic Record 241CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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39 J Hagan, above n 30, 66–7; Fitzgerald, R T, The Printers of Melbourne: The History of a Union (1967)Google Scholar.

40 Forster, Colin, 'Australian Unemployment 1900–1940' (1965) 41 Economic Record 426CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Commonwealth of Australia, Development and Migration Commission, above n 7, 14.

42 Motor Body and Coach Building Employees Federation v General Motors Holden Ltd (1935) 35 CAR 599 at 602. See also Australian Glass Workers Union v Australian Glass Manufacturers Company Ltd (1927) 25 CAR 289, 291.

43 Commonwealth of Australia, Social Insurance: Report by the Commonwealth Statistician, G H Knibbs, to the Hon F G Tudor MP, Parl Paper No 72 (1910) 69.

44 Ibid 70–1.

45 Llewellyn-Smith, Hugh, 'Economic Security and Unemployment Insurance' (1910) 20 Economic Journal 513CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 Mansfield, Malcolm, 'Labour Exchanges and the Labour Reserve in Turn of the Century Social Reform' (1992) 21 Journal of Social Policy 435, 458CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Whiteside and Gillespie, above n 33, 674.

48 For example, economist Arthur Pigou's definition of involuntary unemployment in his 1913 book, Unemployment, was itself largely inspired by Britain's National Insurance Act 1911: see Kahn, Richard, 'Unemployment as Seen by the Keynesians' in G D N Worswick (ed), The Concept and Measurement of Involuntary Unemployment (1976) 19–20Google Scholar.

49 Commonwealth of Australia, Development and Migration Commission, above n 7, 16.

50 Ibid 27.

51 Commonwealth of Australia, Royal Commission on National Insurance, above n 8, 21.

52 See Goodwin, C D W, Economic Enquiry in Australia (1966) 226Google Scholar; Victoria, Report of the Board of Inquiry on Unemployment, Papers presented to Parliament (1900) vol 2, 335.

53 Mansfield, above n 46; William, Walters, 'The Discovery of “Unemployment”: New Forms for the Government of Poverty' (1994) 23 Economy and Society 265Google Scholar.

54 Cited in Harris, above n 1, 20.

55 Evidence to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws 1907, cited in Whiteside, above n 6, 62.

56 Harris, above n 1, 285.

57 Mansfield, above n 46, 456.

58 Beveridge, William, Unemployment: A Problem of Industry (first published 1909, 1931 ed) 204Google Scholar.

59 Walters, above n 53, 281.

60 Beveridge, above n 58, 237. The extent to which the reality of British industrial relations in the first decades of the twentieth century refused to conform to the economic theory embodied in the national labour exchange system is explored in Mansfield, Malcolm, 'Flying to the Moon: Reconsidering the British Labour Exchange System in the Early Twentieth Century' (2001) 66 Labour History Review 24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Beveridge, above n 58, 215.

62 Ibid.

63 Beveridge thought that the 'genuinely seeking work' test did not so much catch out the work-shy or malingering man as provide a weapon 'against claims by women who on marriage had practically retired from industry and were not wanted by employers, but tried not unnaturally to get something for nothing out of the fund'. Moreover, he saw the 'genuinely seeking work' formula as undermining his original plan for labour exchanges, as it would drive men back into the 'hawking of labour' and 'fruitless journeys' for work outside of the ambit of the exchange: ibid 280.

64 Mansfield, Malcolm, 'The Why Work? Syndrome' (1988) 22 Social Policy and Administration 235, 238CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Beveridge's 1909 book on unemployment was republished, with additional chapters, in 1930 with the claim that unemployment was still related to 'the flux of employment', with the latter remaining a problem because his original policy prescriptions had not been carried through: Beveridge, above n 58, 401s–3. However, in neither the original nor republished versions did Beveridge produce any empirical evidence as to actual patterns of job search to support his claims.

66 Endres, Tony Cook, Malcolm, 'Administering “The Unemployed Difficulty”: The NSW Government Labour Bureau 1892–1912' (1986) 26 Australian Economic History Review 56, 58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 William Pember Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand (first published 1902, 1969 ed) vol 2, 219–20.

68 Endres and Cook, above n 66, 60–61.

69 See, eg, Government Relief Administration Act 1930 (NSW); Unemployment Relief Administration Act 1932 (Vic); for an overview of the functions and scope of State labour exchanges immediately prior to World War II, see Commonwealth of Australia, Bureau of Census and Statistics, Labour Report 1939 (1941) 134–41.

70 Wallace Wurth, Control of Manpower in Australia: A General Review of the Administration of the Manpower Directorate, February 1942-September 1944 (1944) 14, 39–40.

71 Australian Constitution s 51(vi) enabled the federal Parliament to enact any laws that had a real connection with the defence of the Commonwealth or which were associated with the prosecution of the war, greatly extending the valid scope of the federal Parliament's legislative power compared with peacetime.

72 Statutory Rule No 34 of 1942 (Cth); Statutory Rule No 345 of 1942 (Cth). A number of exemptions were made, including the engagement of casual labour for periods less than three consecutive days, waterside workers (whose employment was under the control of the Stevedoring Industry Commission) and women aged over 45, but the effect was to sharply curtail the advertising of vacancies through newspapers and the activities of private employment agencies.

73 Statutory Rule No 113 of 1942 (Cth).

74 Wurth, above n 70, 95.

75 Ibid 95, 132.

76 Ibid 132.

77 Ibid 95.

78 Walker, E Ronald, The Australian Economy in War and Reconstruction (1947) 318-19Google Scholar.

79 Shaver, Sheila, 'Design for a Welfare State: The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Social Security', (1987) 22 Historical Studies 411CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The shift in taxing power was achieved through a suite of legislation which gave priority to Commonwealth taxes over State-levied taxes, authorised the transfer of State public servants to collect the new Commonwealth income taxes and made Commonwealth grants to States conditional on the States not raising income taxes of their own: Income Tax Act 1942 (Cth); State Grants (Income Tax Reimbursement) Act 1942 (Cth); Income Tax (Wartime Arrangements) Act 1942 (Cth). The constitutional grounds on which the legislation was found to be valid extended beyond the defence power, suggesting future federal governments could make such a uniform tax scheme permanent – which they did: see South Australia v Commonwealth (First Uniform Tax Case) (1942) 65 CLR 373 and Victoria v Commonwealth (Second Uniform Tax Case) (1957) 99 CLR 575.

80 Parliamentary Committee on Social Security, Minutes of Evidence (1943) 234–5.

81 Ibid 235, 237.

82 Commonwealth of Australia, Joint Committee on Social Security, Third Interim Report, Parl Paper No 72 (1940–43), para 25, para 18.

83 Curtin to Holloway, 18 September 1944, National Archives of Australia, Series B551, ItemNo 43/101/5246, 'Unemployment and Sickness Benefits Act, Administration of'.

84 Unemployment And Sickness Benefit Circulars, No 1, 1 December 1944, National Archives

of Australia, Series MP 243/3, Box 2.

85 Ibid, Director General of Manpower Minute 13 February 1945.

86 Ibid, Cabinet Agendum 790, 14 February 1945.

87 Harris, above n 1, 11.

88 'Employment, Production and Expenditure in the Transition from War to Peace', Draft, 27 February 1945, National Archives of Australia, Series B551, Item No 45/78/12162, 'White Paper on Full Employment'.

89 Funnell to Coombs, 13 March 1945, National Archives of Australia, Series B551, Item No. 45/78/12162, 'White Paper on Full Employment'.

90 Commonwealth of Australia, Full Employment in Australia, Parl Paper No 11 (1945). The proposed Employment Service was given eight paragraphs under the subheading 'Mobility of Resources'. Paragraph 59 made the kind of categorical statement that Funnell was after, referring to the government's commitment to building a 'thoroughly efficient service' staffed by 'suitably qualified and experienced personnel' using the 'best modern practice in placement, training and vocational guidance'. The government wished to make it clear 'that no effort will be spared in building a service of the highest quality in both its personnel and procedures, and accordingly invites both employers and employees to collaborate in ensuring its success'.

91 Walters, above n 9, 103. Writing in the mid-1940s, Beveridge admitted that his earlier writings on the role of labour exchanges in alleviating unemployment had ignored the question of aggregate demand – a position 'in accord with all academic economists and most practical men' of the time. In the wake of the Keynesian revolution, he now insisted that his and Keynes' approaches were complementary rather than in opposition: William Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society (1944) 106-107.

92 Funnell to Coombs, 4 April 1945, National Archives of Australia, Series B551, Item No 45/78/12162, 'White Paper on Full Employment'.

93 Coombs to Funnell, 7 April 1945, ibid.

94 National Archives of Australia, Series B550, Item No. 46/82B/310, 'Re-Establishment and

Employment Act 1945'.

95 Bland to Dr P Curtin, 17 May 1945; Bland to Dr P Curtin, 26 May 1945, ibid. Bland was referring to the ILO's 1933 Convention on Fee Charging Employment Agencies which called for the regulation and eventual abolition of most forms of private employment agencies.

96 Sharp to Bland, 14 February 1946, ibid.

97 'The Commonwealth Employment Service and Its Public Relations', 5 March 1946, report commissioned from the J Walter Thompson advertising agency National Archives of Australia, Series B550/0, Item No 46/27A/112 Pt 1 – 'CES Publicity at inception and in immediate post war years'.

98 Canberra Times, 3 May 1946.

99 'The Commonwealth Employment Service and Its Public Relations', 5 March 1946, National Archives of Australia, Series B550/0, Item No 46/27A/112 Pt 1 – 'CES Publicity at inception and in immediate post war years'.

100 Esther Stern, 'Industrial Disputes' and the Jurisdiction of the Federal Industrial Tribunal, (LLM Thesis, University of Melbourne 1993) 115-16; Federated Clothing Trades of the Commonwealth of Australia v Archer (1919) 27 CLR 207; Amalgamated Clothing and Allied Trades Union of Australia v Chas F Hawkins Pty Ltd (1930) 29 CAR 182; Amalgamated Engineering Union v Metal Trades Employers Association (1931) 30 CAR 734.

101 Frances, Raelene, The Politics of Work: Gender and Labour in Victoria, 1880–1939 (1993) 143Google Scholar.

102 See Australian Timber Workers' Union v John Sharp and Sons Ltd (1920) 14 CAR 811, 836, 887.

103 Arup, Chris, 'The Power of the Employer to Stand down: Latitude and Constraints' (1978) 20 Journal of Industrial Relations 463, 466CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Weekly hiring had been inserted into the federal Metal Trades Award in 1921: Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co (1921) 15 CAR 297, 319, 338. The following year some employers complained of lack of orders and so requested insertion of a standdown clause: Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co (1922) 16 CAR 231, 247, 285.

104 Pickard v John Heine & Son Ltd (1924) 35 CLR 1 at 8; Federated Engine Drivers and Fireman's Association of Australasia v Albany Bell Ltd (1922) 16 CAR 1248, 1249.

105 Anderson, above n 28, 491.

106 Wright, above n 12, 44–50.

107 Ibid 50-65. Another response, prevalent in the automotive and steel industries, was to rely on a steady stream of newly-arrived immigrant labour to address the problem of high turnover: Constance Lever-Tracy and Michael Quinlan, A Divided Working Class: Ethnic Segmentation and Industrial Conflict in Australia (1988) 103, 196-7; Robert Tierney, 'The Pursuit of Serviceable Labour in Australian Capitalism: The Economic and Political Contexts of Immigration Policy in the Early Fifties, with Particular Reference to Southern Italians' (1998) 74 Labour History 137.

108 Robert Salais, 'Labour Conventions, Economic Fluctuations and Flexibility' in Storper, M Scott, A (eds), Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development (1992)Google Scholar. Certain large, highly-capitalised Australian enterprises of the pre-war period, often enjoying monopolies, were also able to offer stable employment, such as the New South Wales Railways and various banking and insurance firms: see Patmore, Greg, 'Systematic Management and Bureaucracy: The NSW Railways prior to 1932' (1988) 1 Labour and Industry 306CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Merrett, David Selzer, Andrew, 'Personnel Practices at the Union Bank of Australia: Panel Evidence from the 1887–1900 Entry Cohorts' (2000) 18 Journal of Labor Economics 573Google Scholar. As noted above, these were the exception rather than the rule.

109 Labour and Industry (Amendment) Act 1966 (Vic); Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 12 October 1966, 943. On the licensing of private employment agencies in Australia, see Anthony O'Donnell and Richard Mitchell, 'The Regulation of Public and Private Employment Agencies in Australia: A Historical Perspective', Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, forthcoming.

110 Weeks, Phillipa, Trade Union Security Law: A Study of Preference and Compulsory Unionism (1995) 18–19Google Scholar. See also Richard Mitchell, 'Union Security and the “Hiring Hall”: A Note on the Sanctioning of Union Labour Supply Arrangements in Australian Labour Law', (2003) 16 Australian Journal of Labour Law, forthcoming. Interestingly, on the docks, one of the areas where trade union administration of the labour pool was reasonably entrenched, the CES succeeded until 1951 in operating a pick-up centre in Melbourne for shipwrights, painters and dockers, displacing the trade union agency: Morris, Richard, 'The Employer's Free Selection of Labour and the Waterfront Closed Shop' (1981) 23 Journal of Industrial Relations 49, 52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

111 Butler, WP, 'Recruitment and Selection Procedures in Australian Industry' (1954) 10(2) Personnel Practice Bulletin 34, 35Google Scholar.

112 The average number of workers on unemployment benefit at the end of each week was 5839 in the CES's first year of operation, dropping to 1573 in the year ending 30 June 1949 and rising to 13 057 the following year. This last figure is largely explained by a general coal strike; numbers dropped to 739 for the year ending 30 June 1951: see Kewley, T H, Social Security in Australia 1900–72 (1973) 278Google Scholar.

113 Isaac, JE, 'Manpower Planning in Australia' (1960) 82 International Labour Review 403, 424–5Google Scholar.

114 Commonwealth Employment Service, District Office Manual, January 1949, section 5711, National Archives of Australia, Series MP 243/2.

115 See generally John Kirkwood, Social Security Law and Policy (1986); Terry Carney and Peter Hanks, Social Security in Australia (1994). For one of the few accounts to discuss the work test specifically in the context of labour market regulation, see Terry Carney, 'Contractual Welfare and Labour Relations in the “Contracting” State' in Andrew Frazer, Ron McCallum and Paul Ronfeldt (eds), Individual Contracts and Workplace Relations, Working Paper No 50, ACIRRT, University of Sydney (1997).

116 Invalid and Old Age Pension Act 1908 (Cth) s 22(d).

117 See, eg, Unemployment Relief (Administration) Act 1932 (Vic) s 7(1)(b).

118 Unemployment and Sickness Benefit Circular No 8, 2 January 1946, National Archives of Australia, Series MP 243/3.

119 Ibid. See also CES District Office Manual, January 1949, section 10,004.

120 Funnell to Coombs, 13 March 1945, National Archives of Australia, Series B551, Item No 45/78/12162, 'White Paper on Full Employment'.

121 For a discussion of this point in the New Zealand context, see Endres, Tony, 'Designing Unemployment Statistics in New Zealand: A History Study in Political Arithmetic c1860–1960' (1982) 22 Australian Economic History Review 151, 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

122 Cf Walters, above n 9, 64.

123 As Funnell put it in a letter responding to a query from MP Eddie Ward in December 1946, the result of Cabinet's approval of the work test formula (as subsequently incorporated into the 1949 Manual) was that 'a tradesman may be offered a job as a labourer if better paid employment is not available and he is not allowed Benefit if he declines to accept this position, provided the Registrar considers he is capable of undertaking labouring work'. In practice, though, there was still room for discretion at the branch office level as to directing unemployed workers to take up work outside their trade. In February 1952 opposition leader H V Evatt pointed out in correspondence to the then Minister of Labour and National Service, Harold Holt, that some CES officers would apply this aspect of the work test 'most ruthlessly. Others are more humane and will readily endorse the claim form “No suitable employment available”. The latter, I would say are a minority'. Holt replied merely by referring to the District Office Manual as authority for the notion that the unemployed must in the last resort be prepared to accept any job on offer, subject to the qualifications outlined: National Archives of Australia, Series MP537/1, Item No 251/57/2, 'Unemployment and Sickness Benefits: Application of the Works Test 1946-1952'.

124 See generally Sheridan, Tom, Division of Labour: Industrial Relations in the Chifley Years 1945- 1949 (1989)Google Scholar. Large-scale industrial disputation had clear implications for unemployment benefit administration: before the financial year 1952-53, annual expenditure on unemployment benefit exceeded £1 million on only one occasion, for the year 1949-50, when 161 101 benefits were granted, the increase being principally due to a general coal strike: see Kewley, above n 112, 278–9.

125 See the discussion on the establishment of the British exchange in Desmond King, Actively Seeking Work? The Politics of Unemployment and Welfare Policy in the United States and Great Britain (1995) 41–43. Coghlan notes early criticism of the original New South Wales government Labour Bureau for its failure to insist on union rates of pay from employers and its supplying labour to take the place of strikers. The allegations, he claimed, were 'true only to a very slight extent': Timothy Coghlan, Labour and Industry in Australia (first published 1918, 1969 ed) 1456–57.

126 Beveridge, above n 58, 299.

127 CES, District Office Manual, January 1949, section 4400.

128 Cabinet Agendum 1127, prepared by JM Fraser, Minister for Social Services, 21 March 1946, discussed at Cabinet 2 April 1946, National Archives of Australia, Series B 550/0, Item 46/48/195, Payment of Unemployment Benefit During Industrial Disputes.

129 Ibid.

130 Ibid.

131 Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 11 April 1972, pp 1403-5. Note, however, eventual changes to the administration of the unemployment benefit scheme in 1979: see Social Services Amendment Act 1979 (Cth) and the discussion in Joo- Cheong Tham, 'Industrial Action and Unemployment Income Support' (2002) 15 Australian Journal of Labour Law 40, 44–7.

132 Funnell to Deputy Director of Employment, Brisbane, 31 December 1946, National Archives of Australia, Series MP537/1, Item No 251/57/2, 'Unemployment and Sickness Benefits, Application of the Works Test 1946–1952'.

133 Funnell to Rowe (Director-General of Social Services), 25 November 1946, National Archives of Australia, Series MP537/1, Item No 251/57/2, 'Unemployment and Sickness Benefits, Application of the Works Test 1946–1952'.

134 O'Donnell, above n 2.

135 Funnell to Rowe (Director-General of Social Services), 5 March 1947, National Archives of Australia, Series MP537/1, Item No 251/57/2, 'Unemployment and Sickness Benefits, Application of the Works Test 1946–1952'.

136 Ibid, memo from N J O'Heare (Deputy Director Manpower) to all District Employment Officers, 23 July 1947.

137 Mansfield, above n 46, 462.

138 Mansfield, above n 60, 29.

139 Social Security Act 1959 (Cth), s 137A.

140 See Will Sanders, 'The Politics of Unemployment Benefit for Aborigines: Some Consequences of Economic Marginalisation' in Deborah Wade-Marshall and Peter Loveday (eds), Employment and Unemployment: A Collection of Papers (1985).

141 On the Northern Territory, see ibid; on Central Australia, see Tim Rowse, White Power, White Flour: From Rations to Citizenship in Central Australia (1998); on the Kimberley, see Mary Anne Jebb, Blood, Sweat and Welfare: A History of White Bosses and Aboriginal Pastoral Workers (2002).

142 For articulations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 'Active Society' framework, see Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Employment Outlook (1987) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Employment Outlook (1989). For a more recent account of how such a framework is being implemented by public employment services in four countries, see Mark Considine, Enterprising States: The Public Management of Welfare-to-Work (2001).

143 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Status and Other Characteristics of Families, Cat No 6224.0; Reference Group on Welfare Reform, Participation Support for a More Equitable Society (2000).

144 Reference Group on Welfare Reform, above n 143.

145 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Employment Arrangements and Superannuation, Cat No 6361.0 (2001).

146 Anh Le and Paul Miller, Job Quality and Churning of the Pool of the Unemployed, Cat No 6293.0.00.003 (1999); John Landt and Jocelyn Pech, 'Work and Welfare in Australia: The Changing Role of Income Support', Paper presented at the Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, Sydney, 24–6 July 2000.

147 For a discussion of some aspects of the link between welfare reform and labour market regulation, see Anthony O'Donnell and Joo-Cheong Tham, 'Participation for All? The McClure Report on Welfare Reform' (2000) 13 Australian Journal of Labour Law 297.

148 William Walters, 'The Demise of Unemployment?' (1996) 24 Politics and Society 197, 203.

149 Whiteside, above n 6, 66.