Ron McCallum Debate
The annual AIER Ron McCallum Debate is the pre-eminent public industrial relations debate in Australia. Once a year, it brings the leaders of unions, industry, government and independents together to debate the pressing issues facing the nation. After each debate the recording and transcript is available here as is the background paper.
The Ron McCallum Debate is an annual event sponsored by Harmers Workplace Lawyers, held in honour of AIER patron Emeritus Professor Ron McCallum.
See here for the 2024 debate, 2021 debate, here for the 2022 debate, or here for the 2023 debate. See below for earlier debate or return to up-coming events.
The Australian Industrial Relations Calendar keeps track of IR events nationally.
10th Annual Ron McCallum Debate
This year’s AIER Ron McCallum Debate on Labour Relations and Pandemics: Past, Present, Future will be held on Thursday, 22 October 2020.
Watch the 2019 Ron McCallum Debate
The 9th Annual Ron McCallum Debate topic was Representation and voice in the new world of work. Moderated by the Hon Geoff Giudice AO, with reflections from Emeritus Professor Ron McCallum AO, the panel discussion featured: Natalie James, Partner, Deloitte and former...
Representation and Voice in the New World of Work (Ron McCallum Debate Discussion Paper 2019)
2019 Ron McCallum Debate discussion paper
The 2018 Ron McCallum Debate Summary: ‘Collective Bargaining: Delivering in the public interest?’
The Institute’s eighth Ron McCallum Debate was another great success and we were thrilled to be joined by John Hendy QC, Chair of our sister organisation, the British Institute of Employment Rights. Our panel engaged in robust discussion about the failings of...
Watch the 2018 Ron McCallum Debate
The 2018 Ron McCallum Debate topic was Collective Bargaining: Delivering in the public interest? Watch our panel explore the state of enterprise bargaining and discuss the form of collective bargaining into the future. Read our summary of the debate and download our discussion paper.
Ron McCallum Debate 2018
Collective Bargaining: Delivering for the public interest? Enterprise bargaining under the Fair Work Act 2009 is failing. Agreements under our system may be reached without the involvement of trade unions and absent any actual process of bargaining. The number of...
2017 Ron McCallum Debate: summary
The 2017 Ron McCallum Debate provided an excellent and robust discussion on the current failings of the workplace relations system and proposals to fix it. Our amazing panel covered a whole range of issues in the course of the event. If you missed it, read our summary or watch the Debate
Watch the 2017 Ron McCallum Debate
The 2017 Ron McCallum Debate was one of the best yet! Watch our panel discuss and debate why the workplace relations system is broken and what is needed to fix it.
The System is Broken: What is the fix? (Ron McCallum Debate Discussion Paper 2017)
2017 Ron McCallum Debate discussion paper
2017 Ron McCallum Debate
The 2017 Ron McCallum Debate is being held on Wednesday 25 October in Sydney. Join a great panel of speakers discussing and debating “The system is broken. What is the fix?”