ABSTRACT
Australia’s federal unfair dismissal law has been subject to persistent revision since its inception in 1993. Only eight weeks after the introduction of a statutory scheme for resolving unfair dismissal disputes, and then nearly every subsequent year up until 2009, an attempt was made to reform the federal unfair dismissal system through legislation. 1 Since the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), unfair dismissal law has been relatively stable, although, as I will explain, this Act ushered in significant change. The Act was underpinned by objectives of simplicity and efficiency rather than the original normative foundation of federal unfair dismissal law, which was industrial justice. 2
In each of the reform attempts, it is possible to identify the influence of employers’ groups in making the case for reform and the increasingly overt preoccupation of policymakers with the protection of business efficiency and the control of regulatory burdens. In this chapter I examine the basis for reform to Australia’s federal unfair dismissal law post-1993. Between 1993 and 2009 the Liberal-National Coalition sought to peel away statutory protection of unfair dismissal because of a belief in the illegitimacy of unfair dismissal law. Since the passage of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) by the Labor government and the more recent election of the Abbott and Turnbull Coalition governments since 2013, the Liberal-National Coalition has not publicly
industrial relations platform.
