The Minister for Industrial Relations is a Minister of the Crown in the Government of New South Wales who has responsibilities for matters relating to industrial and labour laws and regulation in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The portfolio was established in 1895 in the Reid ministry and titled Minister for Labour and Industry, held in conjunction with the Minister of Public Instruction. The current minister, since 21 December 2021, is

Damien Tudehope Damien Francis Tudehope (born 1953) is an Australian politician. Tudehope has served as the New South Wales Minister for Finance in the second Berejiklian and Perrottet ministries since April 2019. He is also the Minister for Employee Relati ...

who is also the

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

, the

Vice-President of the Executive Council The Vice-President of the Executive Council is the minister in the Government of Australia who acts as the presiding officer of meetings of the Federal Executive Council when the Governor-General is absent. The Vice-President of the Executiv ...

, and the Leader of Government Business in the Legislative Council. The minister is responsible for assisting the Premier and the

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury ...

in the administration of their respective clusters. Ultimately the Minister is responsible to the Parliament of New South Wales.

History

The 1890s in New South Wales were a period of depression, with soaring unemployment and poverty, accompanied by industrial disputes and

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

s, such as the bitter and prolonged 1890 Australian maritime dispute, the

1891 Events January–March * January 1 ** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany. ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. ** Germany takes formal possession of its new Af ...

and 1894 shearers' strikes and the

1892 Broken Hill miners' strike The 1892 Broken Hill miners' strike was a sixteen-week strike which was one of four major strikes that took place between 1889 and 1920 in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia. During the four months from July to November 1892, both local miners and ...

.The Government Labour Bureau was established in February 1892 in response to the soaring unemployment and poverty brought on by the depression, with its principal tasks being in finding work for the unemployed and assisting families. There was also a legislative response, such as ''Trade Disputes Conciliation and Arbitration Act'' 1892, ''Apprentices Act'' 1894, and the ''Factories and Shops Act'' 1896. The portfolio was established to be responsible for industrial registration, safety in the workplace, and the labour exchange, including the Government Labour Bureau. Industrial relations in NSW was affected by the

WorkChoices WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the Howard Government in 2005, being amendments to the ''Workplace Relations Act 1996'' by the ''Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choice ...

legislation and the ''

Fair Work Act The ''Fair Work Act 2009'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia, passed by the Rudd Government to reform the industrial relations system of Australia. It replaced the Howard Government's WorkChoices legislation, it established Fai ...

'', which saw the Commonwealth assume responsibility for private sector employment matters. In 2017 Industrial Relations came within The Treasury and the portfolio was abolished in 2019 and merged into the portfolio of

Minister for the Public Service and Employee Relations, Aboriginal Affairs, and the Arts The New South Wales Minister for the Public Service and Employee Relations, Aboriginal Affairs, and the Arts was a minister in the Government of New South Wales who had responsibility for administering legislation and policy in relation to that ...

. At the time of its abolition, the minister was Dominic Perrottet, who was also the

, since 30 January 2017. The ministry was reestablished in December 2021.

List of ministers

References

External links

NSW Industrial Relations
{{Government of New South Wales 1895 establishments in Australia Employee Relations