Tom Barton reflects on the contentious relationship between the Goss Government and the unions, Queensland Rail and competition policy, and the corporatisation and privatisation of government services.
Tom Barton discusses the relationship between the unions and the incoming Goss Government in 1989 and the frequent frustration of the unions with the speed of the reform process.
Tom Barton outlines the ongoing influence of the AWU in Queensland, its fraught relationship with the QCU, and the development of government superannuation.
Tom Barton discusses the Accord process, commenting on its weaknesses, including the rise of amalgamated unions and the resultant loss of union members, as well as it strengths, including the advancement of wages and the instituting of compulsory superannuation.
Tom Barton discusses the SEQEB dispute, the role of the ETU, and the lengths to which the Trades and Labor Council went to get the strikers their jobs back. He outlines the detrimental effect on the union movement of the 1982 general strike, and attempts to redress this.
Tom Barton recalls his work in the union movement during the Bjelke-Petersen era, including the SEQEB dispute in 1985 and the negotiation of state superannuation funds.
Tom Barton summarises his early history and career beginning in 1964 with an apprenticeship in the sugar and alumina industries, becoming an office holder in the Metal Workers Union in 1975, and role on the Trades and Labor Council of Queensland. He recalls entering state parliament in 1992 as the Member for Waterford, becoming the Minister for Environment and Heritage in 1995, the Minister for Police and Corrective Services in 1998, the Minister for State Development in 2001, and the Minister for Employment, Training and Industrial Relations in 2004, before retiring in 2006.
