Recession restructuring and workplace reform: Unemployment and the underclass in australia in the 1990s

During the 1980s, the 'long boom' in the Australian economy faded to a whimper. The effects of structural changes in the world economy, the internationalisation of production, trade by multinational firms and the deregulation of capital markets filtered through to Australia. Regions and cities competed with each other as sites of production and sites of consumerism, but increasingly investment decisions were vested in authorities outside Australia. Hence, state and federal governments gradually lost their fiscal and regulatory powers. In this new climate, the Hawke government entered upon a period of deregulation, including the dereg· ulation of labour markets, deemed necessary to make Australia internationally competitive (Fagan and Bryan 1991: 10-11). However, this micro-economic reform of labour markets has had an inequitable impact on the regions of Australia and on particular sectors of the labour force. It has also had the effect of increasing the number of people unemployed and of creating increasing poverty and socioeconomic marginalisation. The impact on the unemployed has been exacerbated by government policy. For example, unemployment benefits have been replaced by new contract agreements, while NSW has suffered the introduction or extension of other economic rationalist 'user-pays' poli· cies in social fields such as education and health.