South Australia: Caution and consistency

During the 1990s public service industrial relations in South Australia hav e followed the state's long-standing practice of being moderate and careful . From 1993 onwards, processes of corporatisation and privatisation that ha d commenced under the Bannon Labor government were continued and extended u nder the new Liberal government, in part as a response to financial pressur es arising fi om the State Bank collapse and in part as a reflection of the same trends that were widespread elsewhere. Where possible the government avoided direct confrontation with unions. There were various contests where the parties explored options in the changing environment, but the most pro minent trend,was that government policies of financial restraint and outsou rcing tended to reduce most unions' bargaining power. Those policies were i nitially conjoined with agency-specific enterprise bargaining, but the resu lting variations in outcomes finally led to a Wages Parity Agreement to res tore consistency.