Book Review : Australian wage policy: Infancy and Adolescence, by Keith Hancock (University of Adelaide Press, Adelaide, 2013)

Abstract

This robust volume (also available as a free e‐book at http://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/titles/wage-policy/wage-policy-ebook.pdf) seeks to document and interpret the operations of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration from the 1907 Harvester decision to the Second World War, as they relate to wages policy. As indicated by its title, Hancock portrays this as a period of infancy and adolescence, as the court began to develop a more systematic – and possibly a more economics‐literate – approach to wages policy. Again reflecting on the title, the book focuses on the role of the court with respect to wages, and to a lesser extent conditions, leaving aside its functions with regard to strikes and lockouts and other such industrial matters.