95  
Journals link Search link Partners link Information link
November, 2008
Previous
Next
Labour History

Table of Contents
List journal issues
Home
Get a printer-friendly version of this page
 
 
 

A Trans-Tasman Union Community: Growing Global Solidarity

Shelley Harford*


In recent years the peak union organisations of Australia and New Zealand have supported one another's domestic campaigns highlighting the continuing 'trans-Tasman world of work'. This article looks at a strand in the links between Australian and New Zealand worker institutions: the ties between the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the New Zealand Federation of Labour (NZFOL) from 1970 to the mid-1980s. During this period the leaders of the union organisations sought to understand the rapidly globalising world from a formal joint perspective acknowledging their shared economic and industrial circumstances while confirming a 'trans-Tasman union community'; a community focused on global matters and civil rights, with an ability to stretch into the Pacific when necessary. This article argues for the significance of this 'community of interests' in understanding an aspect of the continuing Tasman world and the development of transnational solidarity in the region.


The links between the Australian and New Zealand peak trade union organisations, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the New Zealand Federation of Labour (NZFOL) from 1970 to the mid-1980s, signify a community with an international outlook. The union organisations' leaders sought to understand the rapidly globalising world from a joint perspective acknowledging their shared economic and industrial circumstances while influenced by their often similar political environments. They evolved their connections through united leadership focused on global matters and civil rights. These issues stretched their perspectives in two ways: beyond the traditional concerns of union organisations and outside the Tasman world, solidifying ties particularly with the Pacific. 1
      A core aspect of this article's rationale is the need to improve understanding of labour relations from a trans-Tasman perspective. This need arises from the continuing integration of the New Zealand and Australian economies, the increasing Australian ownership and management of New Zealand companies, and the desirability of maintaining an open trans-Tasman labour market, which has existed for 200 years and consequently is accepted as a given, especially by New Zealanders.1 This study is pertinent given the introduction and subsequent dismantling in Australia of 'WorkChoices', industrial relations legislation which largely replicates New Zealand labour market reforms of the 1990s. Further, it is hoped this article will fuel debate and enquiry into the history of the NZFOL, a union institution somewhat overlooked by researchers, especially when compared to the ACTU. 2
      The beginnings of the latest phase of international economic integration can be traced to developments in the 1970s and 1980s. The parameters for this discussion define a period in which unions faced increasing industrial, economic and social instability along with rising unemployment as government and business priorities began to shift from the worker to the consumer.2 As Australia and New Zealand embraced the freedom of the market, abandoning historic systems of 'domestic defence',3 workers' protection and full employment the union organisations needed to craft innovative responses to a new set of circumstances. This article explores the interaction between the two union organisations during this period of upheaval and how the links constituted an Australasian 'community of interests'.4 Initially I discuss the region that makes up the Tasman world then explore the establishment and operation of an Australasian inter-union council which provides the formal background to trans-Tasman ties. The article focuses on key issues the ACTU and NZFOL coalition successfully addressed particularly anti-apartheid and anti-nuclear activity which expanded into solidarity with the Pacific region. 3
   

Reconnecting Australia and New Zealand

 
People outside Australia and New Zealand often confuse one nation with the other, unable to decipher differences in the two cultures 'down-under'. In contrast, Australians, and more particularly New Zealanders, are quick to assert their differences, demarcating their separate identities. Distinctions are reinforced by sporting rivalries, contrasting geographies, national icons and competition in commerce. The impact of their shared colonial legacy and development has led to a raft of common institutions and similarities in what can be seen as the pursuit of an Australasian based 'alternative modernity'.5 4
      Historically, Australian and New Zealand scholars have produced histories that largely ignore one another and neglect to explain historical parallels.6 The 'amnesia'7 of a shared Australasian past has led to the creation and development of two separate, generally nationalist, narratives. This separate evolution has taken place despite the historical presence of many 'communities of interest' and several shared institutional developments and experiments. 5
      The historic lack of intellectual knowledge and enquiry into trans-Tasman connections does not match the reality of multiple ties and parallels. The two nations share an extraordinary number of similarities. Both were British agrarian-based settler societies founded on principles of the superiority of the white race and an assumption that indigenous peoples would die out. State experiments of arbitration and conciliation were established on both sides of the Tasman, along with a paternalistic state which favoured male wage earners. Early democracy, the vote for women and widespread mythical egalitarian aspirations for land and home ownership typify state development in New Zealand and Australia. Both countries have British-based state institutions, union organisations and imperialist Commonwealth cultures such as cricket.8 Despite these shared developments and communities of mutual interest, the histories of the two countries are largely isolated from each other. 6
      Peter Beilharz signals the importance of investigating Australian-New Zealand connections stating 'what we call the local is never just local'.9 Beilharz views studies of 'the local' as enablers into a wider world view. Broader questions of our transnational society and history can be asked through a study of the links between 'mid-level' players on the international stage; Australia and New Zealand emerge as a 'natural frame'10 from which to analyse the globalised world. The regional connections, shared institutions, and common histories, identify Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) as a practical example of the de?elopment of transnational ties within a global context. 7
      The dynamics of the Australia-New Zealand relationship have an overriding influence on the ties between the ACTU and the NZFOL. The Australia-New Zealand relationship is typified by 'asymmetry of size [which] translates into asymmetries of interests and perspective'.11 The difference in the size of the two countries means that Australia commonly looks to the United States. Australia often overlooks its smaller neighbour to the east in deference to its rapidly developing Asian neighbours. In contrast Australia is New Zealand's closet neighbour and most important and obvious comparator. Yet Australia begins to look more like New Zealand when visualised as a 'small country connected by large distances'.12 8
      Australia can be viewed as a federation of six states and two territories where Canberra represents 'the nation' while the state cities are still largely local and colonial in their makeup and attitudes;13 Australian identity is fractured along state and city lines. This underlying patchwork of nationhood encourages New Zealand to have multiple ties to its federated neighbour; links at national, state and city levels, although connections appear strongest with the eastern seaboard of Australia. The dense lattice of connections translates through into the union community where the ACTU and NZFOL represent 'the nation' while regionally-based unions and industry groups have independent ties across the Tasman.14 9
   

Confirming a Trans-Tasman Union Community

 
Links between the ACTU and NZFOL from the 1970s to the mid-1980s represent a formal intensification of ties within a rapidly changing world. The Australia New Zealand Trade Union Co-ordaining Council (ANZTUCC) formed the hub from which connections radiated, focused on campaigns concerning global political issues. However trans-Tasman union solidarity was built upon an underlying melange of networks. 10
      Transnational exchanges included personal interactions facilitated through attendance at international and regional union conferences, reciprocal invitations to attend and present at NZFOL and ACTU annual and bi-annual conferences, study tours, regular communications and the education and training of New Zealand union officials at the Australian Trade Union Training College based at the Clyde Cameron campus in Wodonga, Victoria.15 Additionally, joint representation of Australia and New Zealand was established at the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) forums, with the Presidents of the ACTU and NZFOL rotating representative responsibility.16 11
      Further, the labour markets of Australia and New Zealand and migration between the two countries are inextricably intertwined. Essentially, trans-Tasman migration is viewed as internal migration because of the freedom of movement achieved across the Tasman.17 Each nation's citizens enjoy unrestricted travel and access to each other's job markets which has led to the development of strong ties based on familial connections and an underlying familiarity with the neighbouring cultural and working worlds. The cross-fertilisation of ideas and people across the Tasman is therefore multifaceted and multi-layered. 12
      In the early 1970s the ACTU and NZFOL sought formally to recognise their joint understanding of the world. This initiative saw links established that gave a unique trans-Tasman tilt to the perspectives of the two councils, particularly about issues of international significance. The Australasian relationship, grounded in mateship across the Tasman, confirmed the two institutions? common perspectives and experiences. Mutual solidarity provided continuity to their shared understanding of a trans-Tasman world. 13
      A resolution establishing the way for the first formal Australasian peak trade union organisation was passed in October 1971. The motion stated:
An Australian and New Zealand Trade Union Co-ordinating Council be set up to unite and further the aims and objectives of both organisations in matters of common interest and to afford a means of consultation and collaboration between both organisations in the furtherance of such aims and objectives.18
 		14
      From 1972 the ANZTUCC met annually, alternating between the east coast cities of Australia and the main centres of New Zealand. These one-to-two day meetings were held between key executive personnel (presidents, vice-presidents and secretaries) of both organisations with agenda's pre-agreed between attendees. Importantly, the council linked the two national bodies rather than just particular industry groups, therefore providing the union movements that the ACTU and NZFOL led with a transnational organisation. 15
      The ANZTUCC was primarily established in response to similarities in the two industrial and state environments. A perception that the governments of both countries were pursuing parallel agendas highlighted the opportunity for the union organisations to unite against common trans-Tasman political platforms. Of particular concern were government policies that appeared to repress trade union rights within the arbitration systems and policies that generated unemployment.19 16
      Additionally the two union bodies were 'dealing in the main with the same employers and in most cases the same industries'.20 These ties were particularly solid within the shipping, seafaring and associated industries, which have a long established trans-Tasman relationship and over which the NZFOL and ACTU had over-riding jurisdiction.21 Links between the maritime unions were especially strong in the early 1970s when goods blockades against French nuclear testing were pursued and joint negotiations were undertaken with multinational aluminium producer Comalco. These talks centred on Comalco's proposed introduction of foreign flagged and crewed vessels. This led to the trans-Tasman seamen's agreement which provided for the sharing of shipping, an arrangement that meant aluminium shipped on trans-Tasman vessels would have crews comprising, equally, Australian and New Zealand seafarers.22 That said, a range of industries and occupations are historically prevalent in the flow of workers across the Tasman including miners, occupations in banking and insurance which were organised on an Australasian basis, professionals including teachers, journalists and clergy, and seasonally-influenced occupations including shearing, meat processing and agricultural work.23 17
      Although the transnational council had its beginnings recognising a common industrial environment, international pressures and developments rapidly reinforced links. During the 1970s and early 1980s instability and turmoil surrounded the ACTU and NZFOL as the two economies were buffeted by the stormy winds of the international economic crisis. This led to the ultimate transformation of the Australian and New Zealand economic systems along with shifting social and industrial patterns. The changes had a significant affect upon the two union organisations and consequently the ANZTUCC. 18
      Exposure to the international economy, including the Middle Eastern oil shocks and Britain's decision to join the EEC, placed enormous pressure on the traditional goal of full employment, the protective system of the wage-earners'?welfare system and Keynesian economic management principles. The changes battering the two economies led to falling national incomes and living standards along with spiralling unemployment and inflation. This unsettling collection of circumstances contributed to feelings of Australasian connection and community. Addressing the ACTU national congress on the international situation the two neighbours faced, W. Clement, an NZFOL executive member, observed:
The peoples of both countries find themselves in similar circumstances at the present time, in the matter of our two countries' relationship with Europe and Britain, in our economic and financial circumstances that we cannot help importing from overseas, and in the need to streamline and amend our industrial legislation to meet the needs of the times.24
 Recognising this complex situation, Secretary of the ACTU, Harold Souter, commented: 'our [the ACTU's and NZFOL's] mutual interests are clearly interwoven, both economically and industrially'.25 Indeed it was acknowledged that Australians and New Zealanders shared a common region.26		 19
      These comments anticipate the signing of the groundbreaking free trade agreement between the two Australasian countries, the Australia New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement 1983 (CER). An ambitious agreement, CER sought to open up trade between the two countries, providing a zone free of tariffs and quantity restrictions. Union responses to the agreement were initially cautious but ultimately the leaders of the ACTU and NZFOL recognised that the changing global economic climate, particularly the rapidly growing economies of Asia, demanded a 'changed response on the part of trade unionists in Australia and New Zealand'.27 20
      CER drew a raft of concerns from the trans-Tasman union movement.28 The three main issues raised were the possible growth of multinational companies and the contradiction this created about effective competition, the potential negative impact upon social equity and finally, but most importantly, the overall effect of the 'growing commitment to the integrated international economy'29 upon workers in Australasia and the potential for cheap goods to flow in from low wage nations. This focused the ACTU and NZFOL leaders' attention on the economies and working conditions in the South Pacific extending the sphere of trans-Tasman concern into their neighbouring region.30 Aware that CER represented the Australasian response to the integration of the world economy, union leaders called for solidarity amongst trade unions:
Thus, as a shift to closer economic relations implies a closer integration into a trans-national economy then what it implies for Australian and New Zealand trade unions is a shift to trans-national trade unions and the extension of support to unions in countries where trade unions do not enjoy the freedoms associated with unionism in Australia and New Zealand.31
 		21
      During the period workers bore the costs of the economic crisis. Australasian unemployment rates accelerated in the late 1970s and early 1980s, leaving around 10 per cent of the Antipodean population jobless. In Australia, wages fell behind the rate of price increases while taxation was made less progressive, placing more of the tax burden on low and middle-income earners.32 In New Zealand there was rising social disharmony as competing groups sought to secure for themselves a larger slice of an ever shrinking economic pie. Taxation fell on individuals at increasingly higher levels and away from the business sector while in July 197? a new measure, the Remuneration Act, was introduced allowing for direct government intervention in industrial relations and the fixing of wages.33 The New Zealand Muldoon government's interference in the labour market further estranged the leadership of the NZFOL from the arbitration system while in Australia the ACTU looked to build a social partnership alternative through the Prices and Income Accord with the Labor governments of 1983–96. 22
      Traditional interventionist-protectionist economic management models were deemed inappropriate in the changed global circumstances.34 The perseverance of the world economic recession provoked an ideological shift from Keynesian to pro-market neo-classical economic policies. In Australasia this change was pursued, ironically, by the traditionally worker and union aligned Labour Parties. 23
      The Australasian Labo(u)r ascendancy began with the election of the Hawke-led Labor government in March 1983 followed just 16 months later by the victory, in New Zealand, of the Lange-led Labour government. These election wins mark the beginning of what transpired to be a radical shift in the economic, political and industrial landscapes of both nations, although the changes were to be more abrupt and far reaching in New Zealand. The new experiments the Labour administrations pursued were from a neo-liberal mould, or what was called economic rationalism in Australia and 'Rogernomics' in New Zealand. 24
      In Australia arbitration was remodelled through the Accord negotiated between the ACTU and the government which represented a gradual transition to decentralised bargaining, while in New Zealand the historic compromise was abandoned completely.35 Unemployment became an irritating 'norm' and state intervention viewed as an archaic shelter of inefficiency. The shift in policy direction shaped the two economies into a new pattern of relationships; one no longer based upon paternal egalitarian principles but rather one which saw winners and losers emerging, as each society dealt with the unrestrained, unprotected, forces of the international market and an increasingly deregulated labour market. The political scales were rebalanced away from industrial labour and state growth and towards business and finance, through profit restoration, cost reduction and freely moving international capital.36 25
      It was becoming increasingly clear that both countries had 'the wrong mix of industries and the wrong type of economy for the world trading conditions of the late twentieth century'.37 Agricultural and manufacturing sectors no longer dominated the world economy. Instead the emphasis in advanced capitalist economies moved to post-industrialism which saw the service sector taking an increasingly prominent role. 26
      The altered economic circumstances led to major changes in the Australasian workplace which affected the composition of the potential pool of workers for the union movements.38 New skills were required in the new economy. Traditional jobs held by working-class men in agricultural and the highly unionised manufacturing industries were rapidly becoming obsolete while employment in white collar, service industries expanded. Influenced by the women's liberation movement, more women took up fulltime employment in an increasingly diverse range of occupations, challenging the male breadwinning model. Additionally, the new economic situation meant the family wage was no longer sustainable.39 Thus the makeup of the workforce was changing away from traditionally unionised blue collar work to white collar occupations and with it the balance of power within the union organisations shifted to the L?ft. 27
      The ANZTUCC founders' views that trans-Tasman unity was needed in the face of increasing economic uncertainty reflected shifting political, economic, social and industrial settings. Traditional patterns of association and allegiance were becoming obsolete as the world began to divide itself into new regional trading and defence blocks no longer based on old imperial ties. Historic models of industrial organisation were challenged while changing demography within the workforces of both nations altered the composition and power dynamics within union structures. The evolving set of circumstances demanded a rethinking of alliances and the consolidation of solidarity, something the ANZTUCC aimed to achieve. So as Andrew Herod observes, 'globilization could also be taken to mean greater transnational links among workers'.40 28
      Yet, the connections and rationale in establishing a formal relationship need to be understood against the background of the historical solidarity built between national union movements. Based upon an ideology of international working-class unity there is an innate propensity within national union movements to look outside their borders and proclaim international workers' solidarity. In this study it is important to identify to what extent the unity of the trans-Tasman workers' organisations was rhetorical and what was real. In the instance of the formation of the ANZTUCC the connections illustrate a shared, united, understanding of the trans-Tasman and international environment. The leaders of the two union bodies recognised the changing global situation and sought to face it in tandem. Fundamentally, the transnational union body confirmed a 'community of interests', providing a structured forum for discussion, collaboration and the building of collectivity. 29
   

Thinking Globally, Leading Globally

 
The upswing in 1970s counter-culture-inspired protest, which challenged the overwhelming conservatism of the post-war generation, saw Australasia's union leaders emerge as agitators on the international and domestic political stages. They captured the attention and mood of the new generation of activists through their activity concerning prominent international grievances in the 1970s and early 1980s. Additionally, the union campaigns solidified trans-Tasman institutional ties. 30
      ACTU President Bob Hawke, along with left-leaning members of the Executive, gave leadership and lent support to 'political strikes', that is, strikes concerned with issues beyond the traditional scope of the union business concerning industrial relations. As Hawke stated:
I believe that the responsibilities of the trade union movement run to every area of affairs where the welfare of our members and their dependants is involved. I acknowledge no dividing line which says that on this side of the line – for instance with wages and hours – we are concerned, but not on the other.41
 Further highlighting this point, Hawke remarked on another occasion, 'anything that constitutes discrimination or hardship against our people – then in we go'.42 As ACTU historian James Hagan noted, 'there was nothing new about political strikes in Australia: what was new was the ACTU's willingness to initiate them'.43 In New Zealand the NZFOL undertook a similar role over global moral issues. This led to the Australian and New Zealand union councils organising and co-ordinating transnational campaigns focused on international political concerns.		 31
      Significantly the Australasian unionists' leadership of non-traditional union issues positioned the union movements as progressive, globally connected and change oriented. This created links between the traditionally authoritarian, hierarchical unions and the radical, anti-authority, individualist?c, emergent New Left. The union leadership was able to expose mainly young middle-class protesters to the politics of class and solidarity, creating a potential platform for a merger of the two leftist groups. 32
      The affiliation of white-collar unions with the ACTU between 1979 and 1981 further consolidated links with leftist political blocks. This unification along with the changing composition of the workforce altered the power dynamics within both the ACTU and NZFOL. The increasing numbers and influence of left-leaning white collar workers within union structures is crucial in understanding the development of the joint political campaigns in the 1970s and early 1980s.44 33
      The union organisations' joint political strikes included opposition to Australian and New Zealand involvement in the Vietnam War, the repression of trade unions in Poland and the Indonesian presence in East Timor; trade bans against the military junta in Chile; and calls for an independent Kanaky in New Caledonia. Yet, as will be shown over the following pages, the ACTU and NZFO primarily joined forces over two main issues; firstly, opposition to sporting contacts with the apartheid regime in South Africa and secondly, but more significantly, the French government's atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific which subsequently led to an active expansion of trans-Tasman union activity into the Pacific. 34
      Combined Australian-New Zealand union action against apartheid began in 1971 when a racially selected South African rugby team was scheduled to tour Australia. The ACTU, after much discussion, took a stand against the proposed tour and sent protests to the Governments of South Africa and Australia.45 The ACTU Executive resolved that:
should these representations prove to be unsuccessful we advise our affiliated unions to take whatever action is necessary as an act of conscience on their part to withhold services from any activities directly associated with these proposed tours.46
 		35
      The Secretary of the NZFOL wrote to his ACTU counterpart expressing support for their anti-apartheid position:
At a meeting of National Executive held 4 May 1971 discussion took place regarding statements made by the ACTU against racial discrimination and the stand being taken by trade unions in Australia against rugby teams touring Australia from South Africa, being selected on an apartheid policy.

The National Executive resolved: "National Executive re-iterates the policy of the FOL of opposition to all forms of racial discrimination as an affront to human dignity and of abrogation of human freedom as annunciated by the charter of human rights. We congratulate the ACTU on its stand against teams from South Africa selected on an apartheid policy of colour, irrespective of ability. The National Exec on behalf of the New Zealand Trade Union movement offers full support and co-operation in any action the ACTU decides to take."

The FOL has had a policy against racial discrimination since 1960 and we would be very happy to give any assistance that is required by the ACTU and their affiliated unions in this very important matter against apartheid.47
 		36
      The apartheid issue created a bond between the Australian and New Zealand leaders especially as they faced criticism and antagonism from non-Labour governments and dissent from members within their own organisations. Those opposing the union leaders' stand felt that politics should not be mixed with sport. The apartheid issue divided Australian and New Zealand societies and their respective union movements.48 As Hawke recalled of this period, and the apartheid issue in particular,
I believed, as did others in the ACTU that there wer? certain issues where, if we were ahead of public opinion and totally convinced of our position, we had an obligation to act ahead of public opinion, to act as leaders, in the hope that the public would come to understand.49
 Therefore the Australasian union leaders took up progressive roles opposing apartheid, sharing a commitment to international social justice.		 37
      However opposition to French nuclear testing in the Pacific was the most enduring issue the union leadership developed co-ordinated responses to. This matter cemented links between the ACTU and NZFOL, the organisations standing 'shoulder-to-shoulder'50 against the old imperial world. Indeed, Tom Skinner, President of the NZFOL, argued the joint NZFOL/ACTU union council was a central actor in the cessation of French atmospheric nuclear testing in the Pacific.51 38
      France began atmospheric nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1966, contrary to the spirit of both the Partial Test Ban Treaty and Non-Proliferation Treaty. This left many countries in the Pacific region frustrated and with a resumption of testing in 1972 Australasian anti-nuclear protests escalated. New Zealand and Australia led international protest against the French tests with union institutions at the forefront of actions. 39
      The ACTU and NZFOL withdrew services to French aircraft or shipping for the duration of the tests.52 Numerous letters and telegrams between the organisations ensured the joint protest was maintained and synchronised, creating an Australasian trade blockade.53 The ACTU indicated that co-ordination between Australian and New Zealand activity was 'imperative'.54 Further, the leaders of the two union organisations urged the ICFTU and its hundreds of affiliates to join the Australasian-led protest activity.55 40
   

Stretching into the Pacific

 
The Australasian trade unionists' concentration on global concerns, particularly the anti-nuclear issue, led to an active expansion of the trans-Tasman alliance into the Pacific. The extension of New Zealand and Australian union activity, although initially causing some tensions because of its neglect of Pacific economic development issues, ultimately challenged competing American union interests in a jostle for influence and power in a region of increasing strategic importance. Although eventually anti-nuclear activity was superseded by more fundamental issues of trade union training and solidarity across the Pacific this reveals on-going and increasing Australasian engagement with the region; symbolising the fluidity of the Australian-New Zealand world and the internationalism of the trans-Tasman union community. Fundamentally, the trans-Tasman world although centred on Australia and New Zealand, had an ability to stretch into the South Pacific.56 41
      Transnational labour representation was later arriving in the South Pacific region than Australasia. As Jacqueline Leckie observes, 'the relatively slow pace of decolonization in the South Pacific along with the fragmentary development of labour organisations, accounts partly for the comparatively late emergence of regional labour organisations'.57 Although unions were established in Papua New Guinea,58 Fiji, the Cook Islands, Western Samoa and New Caledonia,59 a narrow range of unions participated in regional conferences in the 1960s and 1970s, a key issue being lack of funds to allow for the travel of union representatives.60 Extensive South Pacific re?ional union organisations were not established until the 1980s. 42
      During the 1970s the Australasian union organisations were aware of the need to strengthen regional ties with workers outside their national borders particularly as the two countries faced increasingly globalised economic conditions. As NZFOL Executive member, W Clement highlighted in 1973, the Pacific and Asia were of particular interest;
We are continually moving towards closer relationships with the people of Asia and in particular the people of the Pacific Basin, because in the present state of world affairs it is more and more obvious as times goes on that our future lies here. The trade unions of our two countries carry a responsibility to set the pattern of economic and industrial justice to workers in our countries and to assist other countries in this area to achieve the same ends.61
 The Australasian organisations' engagement with the Pacific indicates a growing regionalism in their thinking which reflects the changing patterns of alliance and association that were developing globally in the 1970s.		 43
      The desire to strengthen regional bonds built on ties the ACTU was successfully establishing with Papua New Guinean unionists during their transition to independence62 and broader moves to strengthen worker solidarity in the region. It was accepted that the ANZTUCC held a duty to strengthen trade unions in the Pacific region, as the following resolution details: 'The joint FOL-ACTU Co-ordinating Committee accept the responsibility of assistance in organising the developing of Trade Union Movements of the various South Pacific Island nations'.63 Further, the building of unity in the Pacific was viewed as the responsibility of an extended trans-Tasman partnership:
We through the FOL and ACTU have developed a commendable degree of co-operation and understanding, and I suggest that we should give further attention to the development of unity amongst the working people and their organisations in the South-east Pacific area.64
 		44
      Assistance during the 1970s included the establishment of training and education programmes, yet little tangible progress was made towards this goal.65 Apart from Papua New Guinea, connections generally centred on Fijian unions concerning solidarity over industrial disputes, although this relationship was 'stop-start' and not always harmonious.66 Therefore although both the ACTU and NZFOL looked to work with unionists in the South Pacific actual progress was slow until the 1980s when the anti-nuclear issue spurred on regional developments which the NZFOL in tandem with the ACTU largely drove. 45
      The first substantial move towards a pan-Pacific union organisation was made when the initial conference of the Pacific Trade Union Forum67 (PTUF) was held at Port Vila, Vanuatu in 1981. The PTUF being a non-aligned organisation of informal structure enjoyed relatively wide representation from across the Pacific.68 Although broad in its representation the forum conferences from 1981 to 1986 were dominated by one chief concern: a nuclear free Pacific.69 It was reported that some island delegates at the inaugural conference felt frustrated at the prominence given to the New Zealand backed nuclear issue because it diverted attention away from more fundamental issues of Pacific economic development.70 This tension reveals the competing and contradictory prioritisation of interests within the regional forum; the failure to adequately address underlying economic and political i?sues of individual island states limited the forum's ability to achieve the regional goal of a nuclear free Pacific. At the second conference the inter-relationship between the two issues was recognised.71 That said, nuclear freedom continued to be the principal aim of the forum and an important cornerstone upon which unions from across the Pacific developed common interests. 46
      The continuing dominance of the nuclear issue in the Pacific reflected the Cold War politics of the period. Unions from across the globe attempted to develop relations within the region in a 'scramble for the Pacific'.72 The ILO and the ICFTU, along with national trade union bodies from Japan, Israel, Russia, the United States, and Australia and New Zealand, all looked to the Pacific as a potential base for extending their interests. 47
      Growing American attention to labour issues in the Pacific particularly concerned New Zealand and Australian unionists. They believed the United States' interests threatened their influence in the region. Jim Knox, President of the NZFOL, suggested that an American-backed trade union organisation 'wanted to destroy the Pacific Trade Union Forum'73 because of its anti-nuclear stance74 and launched vehement anti-US (and anti-French) attacks at the 1984 PTUF conference.75 Further, ACTU representatives detected de-stabilisation in the region due to United States influences and repeated the need for strong New Zealand/Australian led union activity to counter American pressures.76 48
      Tensions between the competing union organisations mirrored developments between New Zealand and the United States over the 'ANZUS crisis'.77 This reflected the strains of the Cold War, shifting allegiances and evolving foreign policy. Additionally, the decision by the ACTU and NZFOL to expand their activities, unity and interests into the South Pacific in the 1980s paralleled Australasian government policy: both nations decided to strengthen their defence relationship enabling the 'two neighbours to act alone and in tandem in the South Pacific'.78 49
      The ACTU and NZFOL continued to work jointly in the Pacific supporting regional labour organisations, building the trans-Tasman union community, its commitment to international solidarity and the fluidity of its 'borders of interest'. This work included the establishment of the South Pacific and Oceanic Council of Trade Unions (SPOCTU) with extensive trans-Tasman union patronage and participating within the ICFTU led mission to Fiji in 1988.79 The increasing engagement with Pacific-based unionists highlights the continuing 'looseness'80 of the Australia-New Zealand region which at times expands beyond Australia and New Zealand to include the islands of the Pacific. 50
      The construction of solidarity across the Tasman and stretching out to the Pacific also gives substance to the concept of oceans and seas as vehicles of relationship;81 watery spaces surrounding Australia and New Zealand are bridges between people rather than isolators of land. As Andrew Herod observes, 'building networks of solidarity is precisely about overcoming geographical and social barriers to cooperation between workers',82 although he goes on to add that 'building solidarity across space – especially internationally – is not a straightforward matter but rather fraught with complexities'.83 Therefore, international solidarity can in different cases improve or aggravate models of uneven development while competing interests may sometimes cloud the underlying goal of worker solidarity, as has been shown in the interactions between the trans-Tasman and Pacific unionists. 51
   

Conclusion

 
The formal establishment of the joint Australia-New Zealand Union Council consolidated the concept of a trans-Tasman union community; a community that forms a bond within the multiple stands of the Tasman world. Recognition of shared industrial circumstances facilitated the council's development, while increasing integration of the world economy confirmed its establishment. This marked a broadening of the two national union organisations' concerns towards issues of non-traditional global and regional significance, focused on anti-apartheid and anti-nuclear activity and reflecting the altering scales of power within the union organisations and the workforce in general. The union community, although anchored in Australia and New Zealand, had a flexibility to stretch its solidarity into the Pacific when confronted with competing union interests in the region, and the broader politics of the Cold War. The elasticity of the Australasian union community represented a continuance of the 'loose Tasman world'.84 52
      Today trans-Tasman union solidarity is re-emerging. The community is refocused on struggles supporting the rights of workers within Australia and New Zealand. In November 2005 the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions launched a campaign supporting the ACTU in their fight against the Howard government's 'WorkChoices' legislation. The foundation of this campaign was that the 'implications of the changes to the Australian labour market are truly Trans Tasman'.85 Further, in 2006 delegates from the Australian Transport Workers Union joined picket lines in New Zealand against Woolworths Australia's New Zealand subsidiary, Progressive Enterprises' attempts to defeat the wage demands of locked out workers.86 More recently the ACTU received New Zealand union support for the campaign to the defeat the Howard government.87 These examples of Australasian worker unity illustrate an on-going commitment to a 'community of interests' and transnational solidarity while signaling the maintenance of a shared Tasman world. 53


Shelley Harford completed her History MA in 2006 looking at links between the Australian and New Zealand peak union organisations from 1970 to 1990. While studying she was a member of the New Zealand Australia Connections Research Centre <www.nzac.canterbury.ac.nz> based at the University of Canterbury. Currently Shelley is a New Zealand-based independent research consultant specialising in workforce and regional economic development projects.
<shellharford@gmail.com>


Endnotes

*  I would like to thank two anonymous referees and Ray Markey for their valuable comments on the draft of this article.

1.  New Zealand's largest union and key New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) affiliate the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) highlights these first two factors as reasons to increase contacts and develop relationships with Australian colleagues. See EPMU website, <http://www.nzepmu.org.nz/SITE Default/international/default.asp>, retrieved 31 March 2005.

2.  Philippa Mein Smith, A Concise History of New Zealand, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge & Melbourne, 20?5, ch. 9.

3.  Francis G. Castles, Australian Public Policy and Economic Vulnerability: a comparative and historical perspective, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1988, pp. 91–104.

4.  This term was used in 1890 by Sir John Hall, the New Zealand representative at the Australasian Federation Conference, to describe trans-Tasman relations and oceanic connections. See Record of the Proceedings and Debates of the Australasian Federation Conference, 1890, 175 cited in Philippa Mein Smith, 'New Zealand Federation Commissioners in Australia: one past, two historiographies', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 122, no. 4, October 2003, p. 318; Mein Smith, A Concise History of New Zealand, p. 115. It forms the last (less frequently quoted) part of Hall's remarks: 'Nature has made 1,200 impediments to the inclusion of New Zealand in any such federation in the 1,200 miles of stormy ocean which lies between us and our brethren in Australia. That does not prevent the existence of a community of interests between us'. See Murray McCaskill, 'The Tasman connection: aspects of Australian-New Zealand relations', Australian Geographical Studies, vol. 20, April 1982, p. 10.

5.  Peter Beilharz, 'The Antipodes: another civilization, between Manhattan and the Rhine?', New Zealand Sociology, vol. 17, no. 2, 2002, pp. 164–178.

6.  See Peter Hempenstall, Philippa Mein Smith and Shaun Goldfinch, 'Anzac neighbours: a hundred years of multiple ties', New Zealand International Review, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan./Feb. 2003, pp. 26–29; Philippa Mein Smith and Peter Hempenstall 'Australia and New Zealand: turning shared pasts into a shared history', History Compass, no. 1, 2003, pp. 1–8; Peter Beilharz, Imagining the Antipodes: Culture, Theory and the Visual Work in the Work of Bernard Smith, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, p. 164.

7.  Erik Olssen, 'Lands of sheep and gold: the Australian dimension to the New Zealand past 1840–1900' in Keith Sinclair (ed.), Tasman Relations: New Zealand and Australia 1788–1988, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1987, p. 35.

8.  Mein Smith and Hempenstall, 'Australia and New Zealand: turning shared pasts into a shared history', pp. 3–4; Francis G. Castles, The Working Class and Welfare: Reflections on the Political Development of the Welfare State in Australia and New Zealand, Allen & Unwin, Wellington, 1985, with particular reference to the 'wage-earners' welfare state', pp. 85–86 and pp. 102–104; Donald Denoon, Philippa Mein Smith with Marivic Wyndham, A History of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, Blackwell, Oxford & Malden, 2000, ch. 11, esp., p. 233; Peter Beilharz and Lloyd Cox, 'Nations and nationalism: Australia and New Zealand' in G. Delanty and K. Kumar (eds), The Sage Handbook of Nations and Nationalism, Sage, London, 2006, pp. 555–564; Shaun Goldfinch and Philippa Mein Smith, 'Compulsory arbitration and the Australasian model of state development: policy transfer, learning and innovation', Journal of Policy History, vol. 18, no. 4, Autumn 2006, pp. 419–445.

9.  Beilharz, Imagining the Antipodes, p. 184.

10.  Trevor Hogan, 'Citizenship, Australian and global', Thesis Eleven, vol. 46, August 1996, p. 112.

11.  Philippa Mein Smith, 'Trans-Tasman ties: a historian's response', New Zealand Institute of International Affairs Seminar on Major Foreign Policy Issues, Wellington, February 2006, p. 1; Philippa Mein Sm?th and Peter Hempenstall, 'Changing community attitudes to the New Zealand/Australia relationship', Paper prepared for the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, April 2005, <www.mfat.govt.nz>, retrieved 14 September 2005, p. 3.

12.  Mein Smith and Hempenstall, 'Changing community attitudes to the New Zealand/Australia relationship', p. 7.

13.  Peter Beilharz, 'Australia: the unhappy country, or, a tale of two nations', Thesis Eleven, vol. 82, August 2005, p. 82.

14.  See for example, Executive Minutes, Canterbury and Westland Shop Assistants Union, 15 February 1977, 415 Macmillan Brown Library (hereafter MBL), Minutes, Canterbury and Westland Commercial Travellers and Warehouse Employees and Storepersons and Packers Industrial Union, 6 September 1971, 415 MBL; Minutes, Canterbury Food and Textile and Woollen Workers Union, May 1984, 420 MBL.

15.  Reference to New Zealanders in training at Clyde Cameron is contained in Box 562, Z102, Noel Butlin Archive Centre, Australian National University (hereafter NBAC).

16.  Australian and New Zealand Trade Union Co-ordinating Council (hereafter ANZTUCC) Minutes, 13 September 1979, ANZTUCC, N68/132, NBAC, p. 8; New Zealand Federation of Labour (hereafter NZFOL), Minutes and Proceedings, Annual Conference, 18 April -1 May 1979, p. 46.

17.  M. Bell, 'Population mobility in Australia and New Zealand' in Gordon A. Carmichael and A. Dharmalingham, Populations of New Zealand and Australia at the Millennium, A joint special issue of the Journal of Population Research and the New Zealand Population Review, Australian Population Association and Population Association of New Zealand, Canberra and Wellington, 2002, pp. 189–190; R. Bedford, E. Ho and J. Lidgard, 'International migration in New Zealand' in Carmichael and Dharmalingham, Populations of New Zealand and Australia at the Millennium, p. 48; G. McNicoll, 'The economics of Australian immigration, with reference to trans-Tasman flows' in Gordon Carmichael (ed.), Trans-Tasman Migration: Trends, causes and consequences, Australian Government Publication Service, Canberra,1993, p. 321.

18.  NZFOL, Executive minutes, 27 October 1971, MS Papers-4100–21/03/3, Alexander Turnbull Library (hereafter ATL).

19.  NZFOL, Minutes and Proceedings, Presidential address Annual Conference, 2–5 May 1972, pp. 38–39; P. Clancy, Australia Council of Trade Unions (hereafter ACTU) delegate to NZFOL Conference, Minutes and Proceedings, Annual Conference, 2–5 May 1972, pp. 72–73.

20.  T. Skinner, Address to ACTU Congress 1971, Speech notes p. 3, N21/1483, NBAC.

21.  Letter, Souter to Skinner 23 July 1971, FOL 1957–1975, N21/1483, NBAC.

22.  Letter to ACTU 30 June 1972, Telegram to ACTU 17 August 1973 and Cable to ACTU 31 August 1973 in FOL General Correspondence - ACTU 1969–1972, MS-Papers-4100–21/03/3, ATL; Notes of Discussions of the Conference between the ACTU and the ANZTUCC, 22 April 1974, pp. 2–3 in ANZTUCC, N68/130–132, NBAC; Notes of Discussions of ANZTUCC, 6 March 1975 in FOL, 1957–1975, N21/1484, NBAC. See also P. Geraghty, 'Sea transport: sssues for the 1980s' in Robin and Alan Burnett (eds), Australia-New Zealand Economic Relations: Issues for the 1980s, ANU Press, Canberra, 1981, pp. 104–111.

23.  Rollo Arnold, 'The dynamics and quality of trans-Tasman migration, 1885–1910', Australian Economic History Review, vol. 16, no. 1, 1986, pp. 1–20; Rollo Arnold 'Yeomen and nomads: New Zealand and the Australasian shearing scene 1886–1896', New Zealand Journal of History, vol. 18, no. 2, October 1984, pp. 117–142; Rollo Arnold, 'Some Australasian aspects of New Zealand life, 1890–1913', New Zealand Journal of History, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1970, pp. 62–70.

24.  W. Clement, Executive Member, NZFOL, Address to ACTU Congress 1973, Attachment F, p. 1, (box 3), S784–1973, NBAC.

25.  'Report by Secretary Souter to ACTU on attendance at NZFOL Conference May 1971', N21/1483, NBAC.

26.  S.K. Harford, A Trans-Tasman Community: Organisational Links between the ACTU and NZFOL/NZCTU, 1970–1990, unpublished MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 2006, p. 30.

27.  R.J. Hawke, President ACTU and J. Knox, President NZFOL, 'Joint Press Statement', 17 September 1979, p. 2, N68/132, NBAC.

28.  See Harford, A Trans-Tasman Community, pp. 89–99.

29.  Ken Douglas, Trade union responses to a closer Australian: New Zealand economic relations, Speech delivered to Australia- New Zealand Economic Relations Conference, Australian National University Public Affairs Conference, Canberra, 14 August 19890, p. 3, Closer Economic Relations, May 1980–1981, 95–050–41, ATL.

30.  C. Dolan and W. Knox, 'Joint statement on closer economic relations between Australia and New Zealand', 19 July 1982, p. 1, point 2(ii), Box 765, z102, NBAC; 'Haste opposed in effected C.E.R', The Press, 19 July 1982, p. 6.

31.  Douglas, Trade union responses to a closer Australian p. 3.

32.  See R. Gregory, ACTU Delegate, 'Address', Minutes and Proceedings, NZFOL Annual Conference, 1–4 May 1978, pp. 93–95; R. Maddock and F. Stilwell, 'Boom and recession' in Ann Curthoys, A.W. Martin and Tim Rowse (eds), Australians, a historical library: Australians from 1939, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1987, p. 262.

33.  John D. Gould, The Rakes Progress? The New Zealand Economy since 1945, Hodder and Stoughton, Auckland, 1982, pp. 147–149.

34.  Bob Catley, Globalising Australian Capitalism, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 61 and 63; Stuart Macintyre, A Concise History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004, p. 239; Mein Smith, A Concise History of New Zealand, p. 202; Stephen Bell, Ungoverning the Economy: The Political Economy of Australian Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1997, p. 94.

35.  Harford, A Trans-Tasman Community, ch. 6.

36.  See Francis Castles, Rolf Gerritsen and Jack Vowles (eds), The Great Experiment: Labour Parties and Public Policy Transformation in Australia and New Zealand, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1996, pp. 22–67; Stephen Bell, 'Economic restructuring in Australia: policy settlement models of economic development and economic rationalism' in Paul Smyth and Bettina Cass (eds), Contesting the Australian Way: States, Markets and Civil Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, pp. 162–168; Mein Smith, A Concise History of New Zealand, pp. 208–213; Macintyre, A Concise History of Australia, pp. 242–250; J. Quiggin, 'Social Democracy and Market Reform in Australia and New Zealand' in Andrew Glyn (ed.), Social Democracy in Neoliberal Times: The Left and Economic Policy since 1980, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001, pp. 80–110.

37.  Bell, Ungoverning the Economy, p. 80.

38.  G.R. Hawke, The Making of New Zealand: An Economic History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, pp. 322–323; Mein Smith, A Concise History of New Zealand, pp. 201–202; Bell, Ungoverning the Economy, p. 110; Maddock and Stillwell, 'Boom and recession', p. 269.

39.  Melanie Nolan, 'The high tide of a labour market system: the Australasian male breadwinner model', Labour & Industry, vol. 13, no. 3, April 2003, p. 76; Eden Ryan and Anne Conlon, Gentle Invaders: Australian Women and Work 1788–1974, Thomas Nelson, Sydney, 1975, pp. 145–175.

40.  Andrew Herod, Labor Geographies: Workers and the Landscapes of Capitalism, The Guildford Press, New York & London, 2001, p. 159.

41.  R.J. Hawke, President Elect, Acceptance Address ACTU Congress, Congress Minutes, 8–12 September 1969, p. 2, S784, NBAC.

42.  Jim Hagan, The ACTU: A Short History on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary 1927–1977, Reed, Terry Hills, 1977, p. 86.

43. Ibid., p. 87.

44.  J. Hagan, The History of the ACTU, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1981, pp. 92–97; Tom Bramble with Sarah Heal, 'Trade Unions' in Chris Rudd and Brain Roper (eds), The Political Economy of New Zealand, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1997, pp. 130–135; Patricia Herbert, 'The long, hard labour of the Council of Trade Unions', National Business Review, 16 October 1987, pp. 12–13.

45.  ACTU, Executive Minutes, 13 May 1971, pp. 15–17, N68/785, NBAC. ACTU policy against apartheid was first outlined in 1963.

46. Ibid.

47.  Letter, Knox to Souter, 10 May 1971, MS-Papers-4100–21/03/3, ATL.

48.  Blanche d'Alpuget, Robert J Hawke: A Biography, Schwartz, East Melbourne, 1982, p. 178 and pp. 190–192; W.A. McKegg, The Thin End of the Wedge: The 1970 South African Tour Controversy, unpublished thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for post-graduate Diploma in History, University of Otago, 1990, pp. 70–72. For an overview of New Zealand protests against sporting contact with South Africa see Trevor Richards, Dancing on our Bones: New Zealand, South Africa, Rugby and Racism, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1999.

49.  d'Alpuget, Robert J Hawke, p. 191

50.  R.J. Hawke and J. Knox, Joint Press Statement, 17 September 1979, p. 1, N68/132, NBAC.

51.  Tom Skinner with John Berry, Man to Man, Whitcoulls, Christchurch, 1980, p. 202. See also p. 168.

52.  NZFOL, Minutes and Proceedings, Annual Conference, 1–4 May 1973, p. 46, ACTU, 'Decision ACTU Executive to the Proposed French Nuclear Tests', 15 May 197?, pp. 1–2, N21/1484, NBAC.

53.  Letters dated 26 May 1972, June 1972, June 1972, 3 August 1972, Telegrams 1, 2, 3 August, MS-Papers-4100–21/03/3, ATL.

54.  Letter, Souter to Knox, 25 February 1975, N21/1484, NBAC.

55.  See NZFOL, Minutes and Proceeding, Annual Conference, 1–4 May 1973, pp. 46–47; Clement, Address to ACTU Congress 1973, p. 4.

56.  See Donald Denoon, 'Remembering Australasia; a repressed memory', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 122, no. 34, October 2004, pp. 292–295. Denoon refers to an Australasia that has 'elastic boundaries'. Further, Philippa Mein Smith proposes New Zealand shifts position in an elastic Australasia. Captain William Russell, a member of the 1901 New Zealand Federation Commission, depicted New Zealand as moving to 'remoter Australasia' through a sense of isolation and remoteness. See Mein Smith, 'New Zealand Federation Commissioners in Australia: one past, two historiographies', pp. 311–324. See also Donald Denoon, 'The isolation of Australian history', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 22, no. 87 (October 1986), pp. 257–258.

57.  Jacqueline Leckie, 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour? New Zealand and trade union internationalism in the South Pacific Islands' in Pat Walsh (ed.) Pioneering New Zealand Labour History: Essays in Honour of Bert Roth, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 1993, p. 93; Jacqueline Leckie, 'Labour, regionalism and internationalism: a case study in Fiji', in Donald Rubeinstein (ed.) Pacific History Papers from the Eighth Pacific History Conference, University of Guam Press and Micronesian Area Research Center, Mangilao, Guam, 1992, p. 337.

58.  A.M. Kiki, 'Development of trade unions in the territory', in M.W. Ward (ed.), The Politics of Melanesia, Papers delivered at the Fourth Waigani Seminar, Port Moresby, 9–15 May 1970, pp. 615–620; John Dademo Waiko, A Short History of Papua New Guinea (Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 1993), pp. 163–164.

59.  Leckie, 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour', pp. 80–94.

60.  Leckie, 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour', p. 93; Leckie, 'Labour regionalism and internationalism', p. 337.

61.  Clement, Address to ACTU Congress 1973, p. 4.

62.  Kiki, 'Development of trade unions in the territory', pp. 615–620; 'ACTU International Report', p. 7.13, ACTU, Minutes and Proceedings, 1989 Congress, Box 6, S784, NBAC.

63.  NZFOL, Minutes and Proceedings, Annual Conference, 6–9 May 1974, p. 67.

64.  J.F. Deveruex, 'ACTU Address to NZFOL Annual Conference', NZFOL Minutes and Proceedings, 6–9 May 1975, p. 99. See also Clement, Address to ACTU Congress 1973, p. 3.

65.  Devereux, 'ACTU Address to NZFOL Annual Conference', p. 100; ACTU, Executive Minutes, 'Proposals regarding ACTU 50th Anniversary', 20 August 1976, N68/835, NBAC.

66.  Support for disputes arising in Fiji were expressed by the ACTU and NZFOL on the following occasions: ANZTUCC Meeting Minutes, 1973, MS-Papers-4100–21/03/3 ATL; NZFOL, Minutes and Proceedings, Annual Conference, 1–4 May 1978, p. 48. However in 1977 the Fiji Trade Union Council requested the NZFOL not to ?nterfere in events in Fiji when the NZFOL protested at the arrest, detention and six months suspended sentence of 17 New Zealand seamen from the Ngahere, after a confrontation between them and the Fijian police. The crew of the Ngahere refused to move their ship from the Lautoka wharf to prevent the loading of sugar in support of striking Fijian dockworkers. See Leckie, 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour', p. 92 and The Press, 18 July 1977, p. 5.

67.  This forum evolved into the 'Pacific Trade Union Community' in 1986. See 'Declaration No. 10', 4th Pacific Trade Union Conference, 18–20 May 1986, p. 9, Pacific Trade Union Declarations, Australia and Oceanic Trade Union Co-ordination Committee and Pacific Trade Union Forum, 95–050–33, ATL. In April 1989 the 'South Pacific and Oceanic Council of Trade Unions' (SPOCTU) largely superseded the PTUC. See ACTU International Report to 1989 Congress, pp. 7.10–7.11, Box 6, S784, NBAC.

68.  See 'Declaration', Third Pacific Trade Union Conference, 2–4 October 1984, Nadi, Fiji; 'Declarations', 4th Pacific Trade Union Conference, 18–20 May 1986, Auckland, New Zealand, Declaration no. 12, p. 9, 95–050–33, ATL.

69.  The only declaration to emerge at the 1981 conference referred to a nuclear free Pacific. 'Declaration', 1st Pacific Trade Union Conference, 28–31 May 1981, 95–050–33, ATL. See also 'Declarations' 2nd, 3rd and 4th Pacific Trade Union Conferences, 95–050–33, ATL; 'Nuclear freedom dominates Pacific Trade Union Conference', FOL Bulletin, November 1984, p. 3.

70.  Leckie, 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour', p. 94. See also 'Declarations' 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Pacific Trade Union Conference, 95–050–33, ATL. These illustrate the gradual recognition within the Forum of the importance of economic development issues.

71.  'Declaration' 2nd Pacific Trade Union Conference, 26–28 September 1982, Noumea, New Caledonia, p. 2, 95–050–33, ATL.

72.  See, Leckie, 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour?' pp. 94–95.

73. The Dominion, 3 August 1983, cited in Leckie 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour?', p. 95.

74.  See Ron Crocombe, The South Pacific: An Introduction, 5th edition, Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of South Pacific, Christchurch, 1989, p. 191; Leckie, 'Nurturers or watchdogs of labour?', p. 95.

75.  'Nuclear freedom dominates Pacific Trade Union Conference', FOL Bulletin, November 1984, p. 3, fMS-papers-4100–53/6/10, ATL

76.  Address by Assistant Secretary ACTU, Bill Richardson to NZFOL, Minutes and Proceedings, Annual Conference, 1984 p. 64, MSX-2408, ATL.

77.  The ANZUS crisis resulted from New Zealand's election of the Lange-led Labour government which was committed to prohibiting the entry of nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships into New Zealand ports. See Stuart McMillan, Neither Confirm nor Deny: The nuclear ships dispute between New Zealand and the United States, Allen & Unwin, Wellington, 1987, ch. 13.

78.  Mein Smith, A Concise History of New Zealand, p. 223.

79.  See 'Inter?ational Report' 1989 Congress, p. 7.5 and p. 7.10, Box 6, S784, NBAC; letter from D. Farr, Secretary Auckland District Council FOL, to Ken Douglas, 23 June 1986, 95–050–33, ATL

80.  Mein Smith describes Captain Russell's preference for 'a "loose" concept of federation to 'attract atoms' of remoter Australasia and the Pacific'. See Mein Smith, 'New Zealand Federation Commissioners in Australia: one past, two historiographies', p. 314.

81.  Paul D'Arcy explores this concept in The People of the Sea: Environment, Identity and History in Oceania, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2006.

82.  Herod, Labor Geographies, p. 200.

83. Ibid., p. 218. See also ch. 8.

84.  James Belich, Paradise Reforged: A History of New Zealanders From the 1880s to the Year 2000, Penguin, Auckland, 2001, p. 47.

85.  See NZCTU, 'Australian workers under attack! It's not fair mate', <www.union.org.nz>, retrieved 17 November 2005.

86.  Peter Franks, 'Paradise of the Second International'? Turing points in the history of New Zealand trade unions', Paper presented at the Trans Tasman Labour History Conference, Auckland, 31 January 2007, p. 11.

87.  Radio New Zealand, National, Morning Report Special: Australian General Election, 25 November 2007, 11.05am – 12pm, interview with ACTU President, Sharan Burrow.

Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.

 



November, 2008 Previous Table of Contents Next