Abstract
Over the last several decades tbe role of incomes policy has been a critical issue in an understanding of Australian workplace and macroeconomic relationships. A significant institutional reform was the Prices and Incomes Accord, which began with the election of the Labor government in 1983, and ended with the change of govern ment in 1996. What follows is a discussion of the circumstances that led to the adoption of the Accord, and an analysis of some of its consequences for strikes and wages. Several themes are explored. One is that the success of incomes policies depends on economic, political and industrial relations factors. A second is that the origin and maintenance of the Accord depended on the Labor government's commitment to wage restraint, which had its intellectual underpinnings in corporatism. The Accord changed over thirteen years, and the industrial system became more directed to enterprise bargaining. While this might imply that it became increasingly difficult to have low strike and wage outcomes, the changes in industrial and economic relationships seem to be permanent. Conjectures are offered to explain this outcome.
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