The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, JULY 1, 1929.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, JULY 1, 1929.

FEDERAL ARBITRATION

The Commonwealth Government will .stand or ifall, Mr Gullett, Minister of Trade and Customs, has said; by its decision to abolish the Federal Arbitration Court. jVi-r Bruce’s announcement of this decision was made at the Premier’s Conference at Canberra at the end of last month. The ground upon which the decision was based was the ( impossibility of carrying on the court satisfactorily as long as a dual system of Industrial regulation involving both the Commonwealth and the States was maintained. The effect of this dual system, declared the Prime Minister, had been to create a position in industry very much like the position that would be brought about on the roads of the country were there two authorities, each prescribing different rules of the road. The Federal Government was prepared to assume full industrial powers if the Stipes had been agreeable. As. the States have rejected that suggestion, the Federal Government has made up its mind to withdraw from the field of industrial legislation, retaining control only in respect of the shipping and waterside industries. Thus, after’a. trial of twenty-five years, remarks . an Exchange, federal arbitration is to go by

the board. A serious stumbling-block to its satisfactory, application was the overlapping of . awards. The evils arising from divided responsibility have been notorious men working side by side have not been subject to the same law, and employers wishing to respect the law have had difficulty in ascertaining what Uaw they ought to observe. Apart from that there has been the systematic and flagrant flouting of the Court by sections of • the workers, whose conduct to a large extent undermined the influence of the court and nullified its efforts of function satisfactorily: The Commonwealth Government has not been actuated in its decision by any belief that industrial regulation should be abolished. As Mr Bruce has said, it .considers that legislative safeguards of proper wage standards are essential, but the conflicting requirements of laws, awards, and agreements resulting from' the duplication of the powers of the. Commonwealth and the States have accounted in practice for serious economic waste, for the irritation of personal relations between employers' and .employees, and for the imposition -of handicaps on industry, both primary and secondary. Commenting upon the Federal Government’s .dpcisiqp,the President of the Chamber oif Manufactures' has expresild the opinion that the passing "of .the ' Federal Arbitration Court would remove the most fruitful scource of industrial upheaval, with which Australia'-had been burdened for a decade and that Mr Bruce had takep the first step to get employers back to a sound footing. It is to be hoped that in the sequel this prediction may be verified. The tim-ber-workers’ strike against an award of the . Court has only just come to'an end in Victoria, after lasting nearly half a year and entailing a cost that must have been enormous. In New South. Wales the trouble in the timber industry is apparently still unsettled. Experiences such as this have admittedly been a poor testimonial respecting the effect otf/the operation of the Arbitration system as applied in Australia.