About the Society
The H.R. Nicholls Society was established at a seminar held at the CWA Hostel in Toorak, Victoria, on the weekend of 28th February – 2nd March 1986.
This inaugural conference was organised by four people: John Stone, then a financial and economic consultant; Peter Costello, barrister and later Treasurer of Australia; Barrie Purvis, industrial advocate; and Ray Evans, an executive with WMC Ltd.
John Stone
Peter Costello
Ray Evans
The purpose of the seminar was to discuss the Report of the Committee of Review into Australian Industrial Relations Law and Systems (the Hancock Report) and the prospects of Commonwealth legislation based on that Report; the significance of the Mudginberri dispute; the economic impact of industrial relations practices in Australia; and similar matters.
The papers presented were subsequently published in a volume entitled Arbitration in Contempt, which was launched by Professor Geoffrey Blainey, with considerable publicity, in September 1986. It was also agreed to incorporate the Society, with John Stone elected as the foundation President.
Since 1986, The H.R. Nicholls Society has organised numerous conferences and published their proceedings.
From time to time, the President has also commented publicly on industrial relations issues.
“The HR Nicholls Society is winning the intellectual and political debate”
— NSW Labor Council
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.