Last night (April 13, 2011) the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard gave a speech to the right wing think tank – the Sydney Institute – entitled The Dignity of Work. The Sydney Institute has taken positions in the past which include supporting the labour market deregulation (removal of trade union privileges); financial deregulation; need for budget surpluses in times of prosperity; privatisation; welfare reform (emphasising private solutions); the expansion of private education at the expense of public education and more. So it is a strange place to give a lecture on the dignity of work. The labour market policies which the Sydney Institute has supported have undermined workers’ rights, held back the growth of real wages, and been responsible for a massive redistribution of income from wages to profits over the 20 or 30 years.