Spigelman, Rebecca --- "Editorial" [2006] UNSWLawJl 2; (2006) 29(1) UNSW Law Journal 7

EDITORIAL

REBECCA SPIGELMAN^[*]

The Chief Justice of Australia, Murray Gleeson, once remarked that ‘games are not necessarily made fairer by multiplying the rules, and neither is life.’[1] This statement is interesting, not for what it says, but for what it withholds. It raises the questions: if rules are not sufficient to create a fairer society, what other mechanisms can we rely on; does ‘multiplying the rules’ have an adverse impact on the fairness of a society; and will fairness be engendered more successfully if regulation is reduced?

It seems that these have been the silent issues underlying so much of the debate on the Howard Government’s reforms to Australia’s industrial relations system, and explains to some extent why WorkChoices has commanded so much attention. It has raised questions about how to establish fairness; how to provide certainty; and how to create a decent quality of life for the majority of Australians. These are issues that affect everyone.

I hope that this Thematic Issue is able to clarify some of these issues, not merely for those in the legal profession, but for all Australians who feel affected enough by these changes, as we all should, to desire an educated opinion on the subject. The legal discussions contained in the following pages are compelling, and together they paint a picture of not only the current state of affairs, but also the future of industrial relations in Australia.

The articles in this thematic issue have been selected with a particular audience in mind – not merely legal practitioners and academics, but rather the entire Australian population – because every citizen of this country should have an opinion on laws that affect their own rights and quality of life, so that one day, if they should disagree with the direction our society is being driven in, they can take action to divert it from its course.

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[*] Editor, Thematic Issue 29(1).

[1] Chief Justice Murray Gleeson, ‘The Growth of Legislation and Regulation’ (Speech delivered at the International Conference on Regulation Reform, Management and Scrutiny of Legislation’, Parliament House, New South Wales, 9 July 2001).