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This department was created and operated under the Whitlam government, with Clyde Cameron appointed as minister. The Department of Labour was a catalyst for the increase in the national minimum wage and pushed for equalising pay rates for men and women. They also worked to reduce the number of industrial disputes for the conciliation and arbitration commission. With Whitlam’s abolition of conscription, the department also worked on the reinstatement of civil employment of national service men.

Department of Labour Minister: Clyde Cameron
In 1972 Clyde Cameron was appointed Minister of the Department of Labour at the age of 59. His central aim involved improving both pay rates and working conditions for Australians. He was known as an ‘accidental feminist’ due to his appointment of barrister Mary Gaudron, who argued before the arbitration commission for equal pay and working conditions for female employees. (“Condolences Hon. Clyde”, 2008)



Cameron also obtained significant responsibility over the labour reform campaigns prior to the 1972 Australian federal election. These reforms lead to the Whitlam government winning after 23 years of conservative rule. (“Gough Whitlam: elections”, n.d.).

In 1974, Cameron was re-appointed minister for labour and immigration. This department obtained the same function as the department of labour, however attained extended responsibilities, and operated under a new name.

In 1975, Gough Whitlam replaced Cameron with Jim McClelland, as miinister of the Department of Labour and Immigration. This decision was made following the start of a national recession, caused by world wide inflationary pressure from the OPEC oil embargo (Hawkins, 2013), and accentuated by national wage increases and harsh tariff reductions.

Cameron was then appointed Minister of Science and Consumer Affairs, which he reluctantly signed.

Whilst Cameron never forgave Whitlam for his dismissal, five months subsequent to this, Whitlam was sacked by the Governor General Sir John Kerr (“Clyde Cameron: Australian Minister”, 2008).

Wage Indexation:
Gough Whitlam, with support from the Department of Labour, increased the minimum wage for both men and women subsequent to a conference with the conciliation and arbitration commission (“National Wage Case”, 1974). Unions persuaded the government to make a full time work week 35 hours, but retain a 40 hour week pay rate (Wanna, 2018). Along with Whitlam, Labour Minister Clyde Cameron was responsible for the 12.2 per cent increase in real wages (“Condolences Hon. Clyde”, 2008). Cameron viewed the public sector as a wage-fixing model for pay rises, and hoped these new reforms would follow into the private sector (Riach & Richards, 1979).

The pressure on the government and labour department to increase wages was largely attributed to a speculation that the general price level would increase in the near future. This speculation resulted in employee organisations making frequent and high claims to compensate for potential inflation. Hence, Whitlam and Cameron believed indexing wages would result in less claims. However, this only lead to a further wage inflation spiral.(“Questions without notice”, 1974)

Wage Increases for Women:
The minimum wage also became equal for men and women working in the same industries, simultaneously supporting the Australian Council of Trade Union’s (ACTU) desire for higher female wages (“National Wage Case”, 1974). The labour department was adamant about equalising women’s pay. Cameron was responsible for appointing Mary Gaurdron to argue before the arbitration commission about equalising the minimum wage for men and women, and simultaneously extending wage indexes to women.(“Senate Debates”, 2008). This resulted in female wages matching a males wage, rising from 0.75 cents to a man's dollar, to full equal pay. (Stevens, n.d.)

Cameron also ensured any future national wage increases would include women. This paved the way for gender equality and a closer gender pay gap in Australia (Riach & Richards, 1979)(Ryan, 2020).

Criticisms:
The rise in wages has been held responsible for Australia's 1974 economic recession (Riach & Richards, 1979). Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser expressed his concerns for the wage increases, particularly on rural communities. Fraser stated that wage increases would not contribute to a raise in living standards and quality of life, and would only escalate the general price level in the community. He also expressed that the long term consequences of high inflation can be ‘immensely serious’ due to… (Fraser, 1973).

With the country heading into recession, firms began laying off thousands of employees. Labour Minister Clyde Cameron quickly realised what was thought to be a “short [economic] shock” would in reality, turn into years of high unemployment. 1975 inflation levels had soared to 15.42%, with unemployment rising to 4.9%% from a low of 2.6% in 1972. Deficits had also hit $2.5 billion, regardless of tax revenue doubling. Despite concerning economic figures, Labour minister Clyde Cameron asked for double digit grants from the Arbitration Commission. Simple Keynesian economics had been ignored, introducing the problem of stagflation- where high unemployment and high inflation occur simultanesouly (Colebatch, 2014).

Commonwealth Employment Service:
The Department of Labour was responsible for the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES). This service was established in 1946, and obtained the central goal of full employment. In 1974, the Whitlam government altered its priority from full employment, to inflation management, following the inflation catalysed by the 1974 global oil shock. With this shift in priority, attention was diverted to individual employment, rather than achieving full employment nationally (Bennet et al, 2018).

The Department of Labour Minister (Cameron), convinced Whitlam that retraining workers, and focusing on individual employment would solve the high unemployment predicament (Bentley, 1974). The Whitlam government quadrupled expenditure on labour market programs in an attempt to upskill the unemployed. However, the end of 1975 saw the ratio of unemployed being six times more than the available job vacancies. With a shortage of job vacancies, upskilling workers only accentuated the issue of excess labour supply (Bennet et al, 2018).

Answers to module 7 questions
This media is a drawing of Clyde Cameron, and is my own work.

License: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 license

Categories: politics in the 1970s, labour reforms