Staff, Academic

Qualifications

Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Melbourne, 1955

Ph.D, University of London, 1959

Hon. D. Litt., Flinders University, 1987

Expertise & Consultancies

Concurrently with his honorary appointment in the Institute, Keith is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the School of Economics at the University of Adelaide.

Keith was a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Adelaide from 1959 to 1963. He was appointed Foundation Professor of Economics in the University of Adelaide at Bedford Park in 1964. (The Bedford Park campus of the University of Adelaide became the Flinders University of South Australia in 1966.) Keith became Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University in 1980. He resigned in 1987 to accept appointment as a Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. In 1989, the Conciliation and Arbitration was replaced by the Australian Industrial Arbitration Commission, and Keith was appointed a Deputy President of the new Commission. In 1992 he became a Senior Deputy President and he remained in that position until his retirement in 1997.

With the help of the late John Portus and Lindsay Bowes, Keith established the Industrial Relations Society of South Australia in 1991. He was President of the Industrial Relations Society of Australia in 1970-71.

Keith founded the Flinders University Institute of Labour Studies in 1970. He was assisted in this by John Portus, Lindsay Bowes and other academics in the School of Social Sciences. Through the initiative of Richard Blandy, the Institute later became the National Institute of Labour Studies.

Keith chaired three governmental inquiries: the Committee of Inquiry into the Racing Industry in South Australia (1972-74); the National Superannuation Committee of Inquiry (1973-77); and the Committee of Review of Industrial Relations Law and Systems (1983-85). He also served as a member of inquiries into unemployment statistics and the financial system.

Currently he is Chairman of Energy Industry Ombudsman (South Australia) Limited.

In 1968 Keith was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He was President of the Academy from 1981 to 1984.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In 1987, he was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia.

Selected Publications

'The Wages of the Workers', Journal of Industrial Relations , vol 11, 1969.

Economics: Australian Edition , with Paul A. Samuelson and Robert Wallace, First Edition 1970, Second Edition 1975.

'The Demise of Australian Wage Policy?', in J. R. Niland and J. E. Isaac (eds), Australian Labour Economics: Readings , 1975.

'The Occupational Wage Structure in Australia since 1914' (with Kathryn Moore), British Journal of Industrial Relations , vol. 10, 1972.

'The First Half-century of Australian Wage Policy' (in two parts), Journal of Industrial Relations , vol. 22, 1979.

'The Arbitration Tribunals and the Labour Market', in Richard Blandy and Owen Covick (eds), Understanding Labour Markets , 1984.

Australian Industrial Relations Law and Systems (with C. Fitzgibbon and G. Polites), 1985.

'Economics and the Reform of Industrial Relations', in G. W. Ford, J. M. Hearn & R. D. Lansbury (eds), Australian Labour Relations: Readings , Fourth Edition, 1987.

'The Needs of the Low Paid', Journal of Industrial Relations , vol. 40, 1998 .

'Joe Isaac', Journal of Industrial Relations , vol 40, 1998.

'The Deregulation of the Australian Labour Market', in Sue Richardson (ed.), Reshaping the Labour Market , CUP 1999.

'Economic and Social Effects' (with Sue Richardson), in J.E. Isaac and Stuart McIntyre (eds), The New Province for Law and Order: 100 Years of Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration , 2004.