1929 Maritime Industries Bill, 1919-1929

Component identifier:

Series 39

Content Summary:

At a Premiers' Conference in Canberra on 28 May 1929 S. M. Bruce announced that unless full industrial powers were granted to the Commonwealth he would ask Parliament to repeal all Federal arbitration laws. With the exception of the shipping and stevedoring industries, industrial regulation would be left to the States. On 23 August 1929 Bruce introduced the Maritime Industries Bill which repealed the Arbitration Act and provided for the regulation of the maritime industries. On 10 September 1929 the Government was defeated in the committee stage, when W. M. Hughes, E. A. Mann and four Nationalists voted with the Labor Party, and the Bill never became law.

The series contains Acts and speeches, including Bruce's speech at the Premiers' Conference, articles on industrial relations by K. H. Bailey in the Australian Intercollegian (September-October 1929) and leaflets issued by the Australasian Council of Trade Unions. There is a Cabinet paper by Latham, entitled 'Industrial policy' (10 June 1929). The correspondence includes letters and telegrams from Bruce and Latham to colleagues and supporters warning them of the impending change in policy (24-31 May 1929), letters from trade unions protesting against the new policy, submissions by Arbitration Court judges on the Maritime Industries Bill, and letters from the Commonwealth Steamship Owners Association. There are typescript notes on industrial relations, the trade unions supporting strike funds, wages and conditions of workers covered by Commonwealth awards, the Australasian Council of Trade Unions and its affiliation with the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat, the Australian Railways Union's record on arbitration, the Age's contradictory stand on arbitration, and the opposition of unions to arbitration since 1919. Finally, there are press cuttings (14 March-9 September 1929) and a set of the Pan-Pacific Worker.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The bulk of the collection was presented to the National Library by Sir John Latham in December 1963, a few months before his death. In November 1974 the Library purchased some further papers from a secondhand book dealer. They comprised family letters and photographs, some diaries and papers relating to the High Court. These papers have been amalgamated into the original collection.

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