# New Protection > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/New_Protection > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/New_Protection.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Protection > Source revision: 1352112891 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Australian economic policy}} [[File:New Protection cartoon.jpg|thumb|right|1907 cartoon by [George Dancey](/source/George_Dancey) showing a "working man" sneaking a slice of "protection cake", as customs minister [William Lyne](/source/William_Lyne) watches on]] {{for|the 2007 music album|Ride the Sky}} The '''New Protection''' was an economic policy introduced by the [Australian Government](/source/Australian_Government) in the early 20th century, in the first decade after [Federation](/source/Federation_of_Australia) in 1901. It made government support for industry – including [tariff](/source/tariff) protection and relief from [excise](/source/excise) taxes – contingent on employers paying "fair and reasonable" wages. In the [Harvester case](/source/Harvester_case) of 1907, Judge [H. B. Higgins](/source/H._B._Higgins) of the [Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration](/source/Commonwealth_Court_of_Conciliation_and_Arbitration) held that a "fair and reasonable" wage required a [living wage](/source/living_wage). However, in ''[R v Barger](/source/R_v_Barger)'' the [High Court of Australia](/source/High_Court_of_Australia) held that the Harvester Act contravened the [constitutional limits on the federal government's taxation power](/source/Constitutional_basis_of_taxation_in_Australia). ==Background and political context== {{further|History of tariffs in Australia}} [[File:Portrait of Alfred Deakin seated at his desk (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Prime Minister [Alfred Deakin](/source/Alfred_Deakin), the primary architect of the New Protection]] Trade policy was a major topic of political debate in the years surrounding [the federation of the British colonies in Australia](/source/Federation_of_Australia) in 1901. Prime Minister [Alfred Deakin](/source/Alfred_Deakin)'s [Liberal Protectionist Party](/source/Liberal_Protectionist_Party) was the primary driver for protectionist policies, with support from the [Australian Labor Party](/source/Australian_Labor_Party) (ALP).{{sfn|Lloyd|2017|p=8}} ==Principles and aims== The "guiding principle" of New Protection was to establish a link between tariff protection for manufacturing industries and wages for workers in those industries. Its supporters believed that manufacturers who benefited from tariffs had "an obligation to pay fair wages and to provide reasonable working conditions".{{sfn|Lloyd|2017|p=8}} In 1907, Deakin submitted an explanatory memorandum to parliament outlining the principles of the New Protection, which {{harvp|Lloyd|2017}} has described as the "official beginning" of the policy.{{sfn|Lloyd|2017|p=8}} In the memorandum, Deakin contrasted the New Protection with the existing protectionist policies:{{sfn|Hearn|2018|p=9}} {{Quote|The 'old' Protection contented itself with making good wages possible. The 'new' Protection seeks to make them actual. It aims at according to the manufacturer that degree of exemption from unfair outside competition that will enable him to pay fair and reasonable wages without impairing the maintenance and extension of his industry, or its capacity to supply the local market}} [Alfred Deakin](/source/Alfred_Deakin) articulated the principles of New Protection as early as 1895, when he was a member of the [Parliament of Victoria](/source/Parliament_of_Victoria). He stated that the Protectionist Association of Victoria had recently resolved that "industries which enjoy the benefits of fiscal legislation [...] can reasonably be required to submit themselves to such conditions as to minimum hours, rates of wages and monopolies as this House may think fit to adopt".{{sfn|Plowman|1992|pp=49-50}} The policy's name has been attributed to [Samuel Mauger](/source/Samuel_Mauger), a business owner who would later serve as a federal government minister under Deakin, who was said to have coined the term "New Protection" in 1899 and subsequently popularised it among other protectionists.{{cite news|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mauger-samuel-7529|title=Samuel Mauger (1857–1936)|first=John|last=Lack|volume=10|year=1986|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=Melbourne University Press}} The concept was also promoted by [David Syme](/source/David_Syme), the proprietor of ''[The Age](/source/The_Age)'' newspaper and a mentor of Deakin.{{sfn|Plowman|1992|p=50}} Deakin's biographer [Judith Brett](/source/Judith_Brett) summarised the New Protection as the stance that "producers who received the benefits of protection must share them with their white workers in the form of higher wages".{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=357}} ==Enactment and implementation== The principles of New Protection were incorporated into various acts governing support for Australian industries, including import [tariff](/source/tariff)s, [excise](/source/excise) duties, and production [bounties](/source/Bounty_(reward)). According to {{harvp|Plowman|1992}}, "New Protection dominated much of the legislative work of the newly formed Commonwealth Parliament to 1912" and was a "major plank of that Parliament's [social engineering](/source/Social_engineering_(political_science)) platform".{{sfn|Plowman|1992|p=49}} Deakin's biographer [Judith Brett](/source/Judith_Brett) has cited the ''Sugar Bounty Act 1905'' as the first legislative embodiment of the New Protection. The act gave Queensland sugar-growers a rebate on the sugar excise if they [employed only white workers](/source/White_Australia_policy) and paid the wages "standard in the district".{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=357}} ===''Harvester'' case and aftermath=== {{further|Harvester case}} Under the Harvester Act, [excise](/source/excise) duties were made payable by domestic manufacturers of agricultural machinery at a rate equal to half of the tariff payable on the same equipment. The excise duties could be waived on application to the [Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration](/source/Commonwealth_Court_of_Conciliation_and_Arbitration) if the manufacturer could prove that it had paid "fair and reasonable wages" to its workers. The act did not provide a definition of "fair and reasonable" which was therefore left to the court to define.{{sfn|Lloyd|2017|p=10}} In 1907, [H. B. Higgins](/source/H._B._Higgins), the president of the Commonwealth Court of Arbitration and Conciliation, chose an application from [H. V. McKay](/source/H._V._McKay)'s [Sunshine Harvester Works](/source/Sunshine_Harvester_Works) as a test case. In ''Ex parte H.V. McKay'', generally known as the [Harvester case](/source/Harvester_case), Higgins defined a "fair and reasonable" wage as a [living wage](/source/living_wage).{{sfn|Lloyd|2017|p=10}} In 1908, the Central Council of Employers of Australia financed an appeal against Higgins' ruling. In ''[R v Barger](/source/R_v_Barger)'', the [High Court of Australia](/source/High_Court_of_Australia) held that the ''Excise Tariff (Agricultural Machinery) Act 1906'' was an unconstitutional use of the parliament's [taxation power](/source/Constitutional_basis_of_taxation_in_Australia), as there was no constitutional basis for regulation of wages.{{sfn|Plowman|1992|p=52}} By 1908, the focus shifted away from legislation as the primary way to implement the New Protection .{{sfn|Plowman|1992|p=52}} After the High Court ruling, at an interstate conference in July 1908 the ALP added a plank to its platform calling on the constitution to be amended to guarantee the New Protection.{{sfn|Brett|2017|pp=370-371}} They eventually brought this to a referendum in 1911, but it was unsuccessful and was opposed by Deakin.{{sfn|Brett|2017|p=400}} Higgins continued to apply his concept of the living wage in other cases that came before the Commonwealth Court of Arbitration and Conciliation, using his powers under the ''[Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904](/source/Conciliation_and_Arbitration_Act_1904)'' to establish [industrial award](/source/industrial_award)s.{{sfn|Lloyd|2017|p=11}} While the direct link between tariff policies and wage policies was broken, Higgins' rulings "initiated the unique Australian wage-setting system of a central Australia-wide basic wage determined by the cost of living with margins for skill, all determined by a court".{{sfn|Lloyd|2017|p=11}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==Sources== *{{cite book|last=Brett|first=Judith|author-link=Judith Brett|title=The Enigmatic Mr Deakin|publisher=Text Publishing|year=2017|isbn=9781925498660}} *{{cite journal|first=Mark|last=Hearn|title='Industrial Defence Against the Whole World': Deakinite New Protection as Narrative of Global Modernity|journal=Journal of Australian Studies|year=2018|volume=42|issue=3|pages=343–356|doi=10.1080/14443058.2018.1485723|s2cid=150131017 }} *{{cite journal|first=Peter|last=Lloyd|title=The Evolution of Tariff Protection and Wage Protection in the Late Colonies and Early Federation|journal=Economic Papers: A Journal of Applied Economics and Policy|volume=36|number=4|doi=10.1111/1759-3441.12183|year=2017|pages=459-476}} *{{cite journal|title=Industrial Relations and the Legacy of New Protection|first=David H.|last=Plowman|year=1992|journal=[Journal of Industrial Relations](/source/Journal_of_Industrial_Relations)|publisher=Industrial Relations Society of Australia|volume=34|issue=1|pages=48–64|doi=10.1177/002218569203400103 |s2cid=154587343 }} ==Further reading== *{{cite journal|title=Taxation in Australia up until 1914: the warp and weft of protectionism|first=Caroline|last=Dick|year=2014|volume=12|number=1|journal=eJournal of Tax Research|publisher=University of New South Wales|pages=104–129|url=https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/eJTR/2014/6.pdf}} Category:Protectionism Category:1900s establishments in Australia Category:Wages and salaries Category:Customs duties Category:Economic history of Australia Category:Labour history of Australia --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [New Protection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Protection) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Protection?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.