Affiliations: Rehabilitation Outcomes, Albury, Australia | Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Luciano Lo Bartolo, 31 Jacob
Crescent, Lavington, NSW 2641, Australia. Tel.: +61 2 6040 1136; Fax: +61 2
6040 1136; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The 2005 WorkChoices legislation delivered a significant
diminution of Australian workers' rights in the form of choice and control over
numerous aspects of working life. WorkChoices extended previous
neoliberal reforms and consolidated the negative impacts of those reforms on
marginalized groups of workers, especially those in precarious employment. This
paper reports on the findings of an occupational science-based, critical
discourse analysis of a government newspaper advertisement that promotes the
reforms. The construction of a WorkChoices discourse, one that was
based on and sought to extend neoliberal hegemony, is identified by exploring
the ways that particular ideas are presented as natural and mutually beneficial
and, in response, the development of a counter-hegemonic argument, based on
occupational justice theory, is discussed. The broader application of critical
social research is also recommended in extending the occupational justice
paradigm.
