The Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association (ALERA) was formed on 7 Australia May 1965, making it the oldest and largest national organisation in the industrial relations field in Australia.

Formerly called the Industrial Relations Society of Australia (IRSA), the association brought together the industrial relations societies of New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Western.

It further expanded its influence in subsequent years with the affiliation of the industrial relations societies of Tasmania (1971), the Australian Capital Territory (1972) and the then Territory of Papua New Guinea (1970).

ALERA today is well established as the national voice of a wide range of industrial relations professionals. These include employer and union representatives, industrial relations and human resources practitioners, lawyers, academics and members of industrial relations tribunals.

The association also publishes the Journal of Industrial Relations (JIR), the second oldest journal of its kind in the world and represents Australia on the committee of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA).

This page provides an overview of the history of ALERA and its state associations. It also includes links to a number of video documentaries featuring interviews with long-serving members.

Find out more about the ALERA history project below.

Image credits: Kingsley Laffer (University of Sydney), Sir John Kerr (National Archives of Australia), Keith Hancock and Joe Isaac (Sir Richard Kirby Archives).

The origins of ALERA date back to the late 1950s and the work of pioneering industrial relations academic Kingsley Laffer.

Laffer established the study of industrial relations at the University of Sydney and was also the prime mover in establishing the Industrial Relations Society of New South Wales IRS NSW) in 1958 and the Journal of Industrial Relations of which he was the first editor from 1959 to 1974.

The Industrial Relations Society of New South Wales (IRSNSW) was the first society of its kind in Australia. It held annual conventions that were well attended by representatives from other states.

It was at the society’s 1965 convention in Terrigal NSW, that the federal council held its first meeting.

Kingsley Laffer, writing in the JIR, described the establishment of the national body this way:

‘The federal Council had first meeting on May 7th at the Terrigal Convention. The Council formally adopted the federal constitution and with this adoption the federal body came into being’.

He said all the inaugural federal office holders were from NSW ‘as it was considered desirable that principal executive offices be held by people in one centre who could readily get in touch with one another’.

The first IRSA president was barrister John Kerr QC (later to become Australian Governor General), the treasurer was James Norman Thom MLC and the secretary was Kinsgley Laffer.