Regulating Work in the Antipodes, 1788-2007

Gordon John Anderson, Victoria University of Wellington, and Michael G. Quinlan, University of New South Wales, have posted The Changing Role of the State: Regulating Work Arrangements in Australia and New Zealand 1788-2007, which originally appeared in Labour History (November 2008).  Here is the abstract:

The state has played a conspicuous role in the history of labour in Australia and New Zealand both as a focus for struggles and where the labour movement achieved a degree of influence that garnered the interest of progressives in other countries. The state is a complex institution and its relationship to labour has been equally complex especially when the differential impacts on different groups such as women are considered. The principal aim of this paper is to trace state regulation of work arrangements (not only those pertaining to industrial relations) in both countries over the period of European presence. Although there are significant similarities, a number of differences are identified and we also try to indicate how recent research and debate on the historiography of the state can provide new insights.