The Hancock Report: False Prescription for a Wrong Diagnosis

Abstract

For many, the Hancock Report is the definitive work on Australia's industrial relations system. Those who welcomed the findings of the report, even with qualifications, saw it as laying to rest all the arguments for change towards a decentralized, enterprise- bargaining model. This paper argues that the Hancock Report is the beginning and not the end of significant debate. It argues that the central tenet of the Hancock Report—that there is a need for an incomes policy, and that the centralized conciliation and arbitration system is the best way of achieving that incomes policy—is misconceived. It also argues that orderly, evolutionary change towards a new model for an industrial relations system is both possible and desirable.