Waterfront warrior’s IR warning: Australia is ‘going backwards’

One of the warriors of the 1998 Waterfront Dispute, former National Farmers Federation president Donald McGauchie, says Australia’s industrial relations regime has gone backwards over the last two decades.

As a Senate committee prepares to convene its last session on the Albanese government’s industrial relations reforms on Monday, against the backdrop of escalating union conflict at Australia’s ports, Mr McGauchie urged politicians to continue the deregulation of the 1990s.