Labour and National Identity: Work, Authority and the Australian Settlement, 1901-1920

Outlined below is a report of a research fellowship project conducted by Dr. Mark Hearn, Sesquicentenary Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Work and Organisational Studies, School of Business, University of Sydney, 2002-4.

While the federation of the Australian colonies to inaugurate the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 had considerable attention in its centenary year, there has been little analysis of the 'Australian Settlement', the legislative program of the early federal parliaments - immigration restriction, compulsory arbitration and tariff protection – which defined national policy for much of the twentieth century. This research project focused on the period 1901-1920, when a liberal national political identity was formed and working class Australians were compelled to forge a relationship with it.

Narrative Identity
The project employed narrative theory, and the idea of narrative identity, to explore the relationship between the liberal political elite and the labour movement, placing an emphasis on the role of the individual and discrete impacts of broadly framed policy. Narrative identity has been defined as individuals constructing personal stories, and a sense of self, over time and forging a relationship with the social world, pursuing claims for justice or recognition of their needs and aspirations. Probing the diverse narratives of nationhood, work and rights constructed by liberal Federation architects and Labor representatives, managers and workers, clarified the hopes invested in the Australian Settlement and the increasing inability of the settlement to satisfy the demands placed upon it. Employing narrative identity as a methodological tool for analysing the lives of historical actors was discussed by Dr. Hearn in 'Writing a Life: John Dwyer's Narrative Identity', published in Rethinking History, Vol.10 No.1 March 2006.

Narrative theory facilitates an analysis of the transfer of national political aims from the political and managerial elite into public policy, arbitration judgements and workplace disciplines. The transfer of policy and elite values created an authority culture subject to working class consent and contest over the course of the period 1901-1920, culminating in the challenges posed by war and unprecedented industrial conflict. The essential legislative expressions of the Australian Settlement endured beyond 1920 although fundamental contradictions had already emerged.

Project Papers
Several of the papers outlined below explored the development of the Australian Settlement and its relationship with class, gender, race and empire. The papers on Mary Malone and John Christian Watson analysed the interaction of the individual and the public sphere. Mary Malone was a young Sydney working class woman who pasted a wide range of articles and poems in an old school exercise book. Mary selected narratives that clarified and challenged her identity as a young woman of Irish ethnicity and Catholic faith in late colonial New South Wales, and as the colony moved towards federation. 'Mary Malone's Lessons: a Narrative of Citizenship in Federation Australia', was published in Gender and History, Vol. 16 No.2 August 2004.

As the first federal leader of the Australian Labor Party, John Christian Watson sought to give expression to an Australian identity by privileging race through the White Australia policy. In 1901 the Immigration Restriction Act was the first substantial legislation passed by the Commonwealth Parliament – which Labor opposed, preferring a more restrictive bill. A determination to secure a white, British identity and culture was a central preoccupation of the Labor Party in the period 1901-1914, expressed in support for White Australia and a strong defence policy, including compulsory military training and the development of the Royal Australian Navy. ‘Bound with the Empire’ explores the development of Labor’s ambiguous empire nationalism in the period, and its consequences as revealed in Labor’s disastrous 1916 split over conscription. 'Cultivating an Australian Sentiment: John Christian Watson's Narrative of White Nationalism', will be published in a forthcoming edition of National Identities.

In July 2004 Dr. Hearn presented a paper which discussed Alfred Deakin’s role as opposition leader of the non-Labor ‘fusion’ parties in his successful 1911 campaign to defeat Labor’s referendum proposals to extend federal power over industrial relations, trade and corporations, and the sense of personal mission that invested Deakin’s campaign. The paper was subsequently developed and published as an article, 'Examined Suspiciously: Alfred Deakin, Eleanor Cameron and Australian Liberal Discourse in the 1911 Referendum' in History Australia, Vol.2 No.3 December 2005. The article explored the experience of two individuals who represented and led the self-governing constituency of Australian liberalism during the campaign. Foucault's idea of governmentality was employed to interrogate the tensions imposed on the liberal individual and the contradictions of liberalism.

Federation architects and managers sought to define the limited rights the state would extend to the new citizen under the terms of the Australian Settlement, and determine its workplace expressions. The paper on Commonwealth Arbitration Court President Henry Bournes Higgins explored the complex narrative of gender and workplace discipline that characterised Higgins arbitration court judgements. Higgins believed his decisions should reflect the needs of Australian nation building in the post-federation period. Reference to working class witness evidence, presented in the court proceedings, reveals the aspirations of gender equity and workplace justice that Higgins was often unable or unwilling to satisfy. 'Securing the Man: Narratives of Gender and Nation in the Verdicts of Henry Bournes Higgins' was published in Australian Historical Studies, No.127 April 2006.


Papers

‘Productivity and Patriotism: The management narrative of NSW Rail Chief Commissioner James Fraser, 1917-1929’

Mary Malone’s Lessons: a narrative of citizenship in Federation Australia

John Christian Watson and the instinct of self-preservation

Bound with the Empire: the Australian Labor Party and Empire Nationalism, 1901-1921

Securing the Man: Narrative of Gender and Nation in the Verdicts of Henry Bournes Higgins.

Mark Hearn, Hon Research Associate,
Work and Organisational Studies,
University of Sydney.
m.hearn@econ.usyd.edu.au

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