H. R. Nicholls Society

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The H.R. Nicholls Society is an Australian right wing think tank on industrial relations. It was created in March 1986 after John Stone, Peter Costello, Barrie Purvis, and Ray Evans organised a seminar aimed at discussing the Hancock Report and other industrial matters[1].

The Society is named after Henry Richard Nicholls, an editor of the Hobart "Mercury" who in 1911 published an editorial criticising Henry Higgins, then a High Court judge and President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, accusing Higgins of behaving in a politically partisan and unjudicial manner after attacking a barrister[2]. This led to Nicholls being prosecuted for contempt of court by the Tasmanian Attorney General, only to be acquitted by the full bench of the High Court[3]. The whole affair was a humiliation for Higgins, who wanted Nicholls to be convicted, as the acquittal aroused national publicity and widespread celebrations in Hobart.

Regular Contributors to the Society's publications include Ray Evans, Adam Bisits and Des Moore, the Director of the Institute for Private Enterprise.

[edit] Aims and objectives

The Society believes strongly in the deregulation of the Australian Industrial Relations System, including the abolition of the award system, the widespread use of individual employment contracts and the lowering of minimum wages. The Society only believes in limited labour market regulation, as excessive minimum wages [4] and job security lead to higher unemployment and lower productivity. Since its inception, the Society has firmly advocated urgent reform of the labour market in order to ensure Australia's international competitiveness and prosperity. On its website, the Society lists its aims and objectives:

To promote discussion about the operation of industrial relations in Australia including the system of determining wages and other conditions of employment.
To promote the rule of law with respect to employers and employee organisations alike.
To promote reform of the current wage-fixing system.
To support the necessity for labour relations to be conducted in such a way as to promote economic development in Australia.

[edit] Politics

The Society has strong ties with the Liberal Party of Australia. For example Peter Costello, one of the society's founding members, is the Treasurer of the Australian Liberal Government and Deputy Federal Leader of the Liberal Party.

The Society is controversial because of its views, and rather disliked by the left side of Australian politics. For example, in 1986 the then Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke branded the Society as a group of "political troglodytes and economic lunatics"[5].

Current Federal Finance Minister Nick Minchin caused controversy in early 2006 in a speech at a Society function where he stated that many within the Liberal Party believed in reforming the labour market to an even greater extent than Workchoices, the Government's recent and controversial industrial relations package[6]. However resistance to labour deregulation was strong within the Australian electorate, and the Government therefore had to tread cautiously down the path of reform [7].