Today’s disastrous decision by the Fair Work Commission underscores an attack that has been waged on the Australian worker by decades of concerted attacks on wages, conditions and dignity by politicians of all stripes.

The Australian political system has so far staved off the very extreme reactions felt by other post-industrial economies largely through the preservation of the grand bargain between the elite and the working and middle class: that hard work is rewarded by a fair wage and that government prioritises Australian jobs for Australian workers.