An unexpected, but very welcome, acknowledgement of the value of the Society’s work came in November 1989, when a report by two officers of the NSW Labor Council was leaked to the press. In this report, which comprises a sophisticated analysis of the problems facing the trade union movement, the authors conclude that “the HR Nicholls Society is winning the intellectual and political debate.”

Australia, a century ago, was the richest country in the world in per capita terms. In the 21st century, however, we face the prospect of continuing economic decline and a further reduction in our standards of living.

The driving force behind the Society’s efforts to raise the standard of debate and public understanding of our industrial relations problems is the knowledge that a major factor in our nation’s economic decline and increasingly gloomy economic outlook is our outmoded, straight-jacketing, economically debilitating, industrial relations institutions.

Australia is a country in which political life is carried out through debate and argument. The Society’s ambition is to bring about, through the processes of debate and argument, urgently needed reform in Australia’s industrial relations attitudes, law and institutions, and thus to transform our labour market into a job-creating and wealth-generating engine of growth and prosperity.