off the top of my head...havent looked at the guidline i would say this is again a wages and income policy question
you would have to talk about
- costs of unemployment, and how avoiding these is good for the economy
- effect of current policies in promoting unemployment
- you would talk about inflation a little bit as that goes hand in hand with employment in the short term and you could chuck in a phillips curve
- you could show how a minimum wage acts as a price fall and results in unemployment in certain situations
- you could talk about capital vs labour and the effect of certain policies on business investment decisions re hiring labour or investing in capital
- you could bring globalisation in and the micro reforms of trade liberalisation (although when answering hsc questions dont use trade lib as an example of micro reform- dont ask why had massive argument about that back in the day)
the effect of structural unemployment caused by the closing down of industries that are opened up to international competition
thats my 2 cents worth
from BOS marking criteria
"Whilst this question was not as popular as Question 27, candidates who selected the question were
generally knowledgeable about current labour market policies and recent labour market reforms.
Better responses demonstrated a detailed understanding of Certified Agreements, Australian
Workplace Agreements and the role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, and made
reference to the shift from a centralised to a decentralised system of wage determination. Terms
such as cost-push inflation and the wage-price spiral were used to illustrate the declining
competitiveness of Australia in the 1980s as a context for changes in the direction of labour market
policies.Better responses provided a detailed explanation of the links between labour market policies,
structural change and microeconomic reform in the Australian economy. Relevant statistics were
used to illustrate changes in economic growth, unemployment, inflation, productivity and
international competitiveness. Better responses also demonstrated an understanding of the global
context of structural reform of the labour market, referring also to policies concerning training and
education.
Responses generally demonstrated an understanding of the failures of the system in areas such as
equity in the distribution of income, and the impact of industrial disputation in the bargaining
period. Better responses utilised Gini coefficient analysis to illustrate the explanation of impact on
income distribution.Weaker responses failed to communicate a clear and correct understanding of the current industrial
relations system and tended to discuss policies other than labour market policies, eg monetary and
fiscal policy, or unemployment."
my main issues have been bolded
the criteria in this question is all wrong...they probably based it on all the memorised answers people dumped.
first of all the part about explaining the industrial relations system is relevent and you should include it, however it is very different and we have overlapping systems, so i would be picky with the more relevent issues
going over the history of decentralised wage bargaining from centralised wage bargaining seems a waste of time and out of date for todays answers, as well as the 2003 answer...i also cant see the relevance...maybe someone could point it out
income distribution is linked with wages and incomes policy, so i guess distribution should be included although i think linking it with the management of the australian economy is a bit far fetched
as for stating unemployment is not important, i always thought that the overriding goals these policies was to create jobs...i would also beleive that an ineffecient policy would harm the successful management of the economy
i think the main issues with this question are that it was written for a different set of circumstances, so while the answer guide in 2003 would be appropriate in 2007 it may not be
best advice i could give is to see a teacher about it, because you dont want to get stuck writing the wrong stuff which im sure could easily happen. In any case i would still follow their reasoning for the answer guide and just update it for todays facts.
