Shadow Treasurer Warns Labor Against Repeating History’s Mistakes

Angus Taylor says a workplace law dispute in the 1980s that nullified union power helped pave the way for decades of prosperity.

Angus Taylor MP at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Feb. 17, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor has warned the Labor government against tilting workplace laws too far in favour of union officials.

Speaking at an event to mark the resurgence of the HR Nicholls Society, Mr. Taylor touched on where he believed the Labor government was going wrong.

“Elite Australia, including senior union officials, has a very large voice and I think Labor is inclined to listen to those voices rather than think about what’s in the interests of middle Australia,” he told attendees in Sydney on Nov. 17.

Mr. Taylor said good workplace laws were the bedrock of economic prosperity, pointing to a major dispute in the 1980s as an example of why industrial relations laws could not go to extremes.

Charles Copeman

In his remarks, the shadow treasurer referenced the efforts of former mining executive Charles Copeman and his negotiations with trade unions.

At the time, Mr. Copeman was the CEO of Peko-Wallsend, a mining company that in 1983 had acquired Robe River Ltd, operating in Western Australia’s Pilbara Region.

When Mr. Copeman took the reins, Robe River was one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore but was nonetheless unprofitable.

The company had over 200 restrictive workplace practices in place, and strikes often occurred over trivial issues including the shortage of ice cream flavours and the temporary failure of air conditioning units.

Mr. Copeman announced that the new management he had installed at Robe would, going forward, honour standard industry-wide standards but would not adhere to what he deemed were unreasonable and unofficial restrictive practices.

In response, the unions made an application to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission in an attempt to restore the practices Mr. Copeman and his team had banned.

After a long process involving extensive tribunal hearings, the commission ruled in Mr. Copeman’s favour, and in August 1986, the workers returned to Robe to work according to pre-existing agreements.

About 18 months following the ruling, Robe’s profits began to spike. The operation began producing three million more tonnes of iron ore with 400 fewer workers.

Mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP followed suit, and adopted similar workplace practices in the following years, experiencing considerable profit improvements.

Mr. Copeman was later appointed a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his achievements in the mining sector.

Mr. Taylor said this example still had ramifications today.

“This Labor Government is seeing the dollars rolling in from the boom in iron ore in the West off the back of that work which was done with the huge support of the HR Nicholls Society,” he said.

Mr. Copeman attributed a lot of his own personal encouragement to take action at Robe River to the support he received from the HR Nicholls Society.

“You all played a vital part in giving me the encouragement to initiate what we did at Robe River, and in turn to give encouragement and support to the wonderful team of people who carried it through,” Mr. Copeman wrote in a letter to society members.

The HR Nicholls Society

The HR Nicholls Society is a think tank focused on workplace policies grounded in free market principles and limited government intervention in the labour market. It is also supportive of individual agreements over industry-wide award systems.

The group was founded by former Treasurer Peter Costello and named after HR Nicholls, an Englishman involved in numerous labour disputes in 19th-century Australia.

Although dormant for many years, it has recently re-emerged under the leadership of former Victorian MP Louise Staley in an attempt to support growing opposition from business community against Labor’s regulation of the gig economy and casual employment.

The think tank has long faced criticism from prominent union leaders and officials.

The former Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council John Halfpenny once described it as “the Industrial Relations Branch of the Klu Klux Klan.”

In September 2022, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Sally McManus criticised the founders of the society.

In an address to the National Press Club, Ms. McManus said that “at the heart of this campaign is the belief that employers should have free reign to decide everything—so workers’ rights, and any body, such as the Industrial Commission, that gets in the way must be removed. The very existence of unions goes against their idea of absolute employer prerogative.”

“To impose their ideological view on Australia they had to demonise unions and union members because we would resist any attempts to weaken workers rights.

“They needed to weaken the opponents of the change in every way they could, but especially in the eyes of the public if reducing workers rights could ever be politically achievable.”