The process of embedding the Fair Work system was interrupted briefly in 2010 by high political drama. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was successfully challenged by his Deputy, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard. With its first female leader, the Australian Labor Party attempted to run a campaign echoing the anti-Work Choices theme of 2007. This was stymied by the new leader of the opposition Tony Abbott’s insistence that Work Choices was ‘dead, buried and cremated’. Subsequently, a minority Labor government was formed. This article provides an overview of industrial relations in 2010, with an emphasis on politics.
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