When I was a girl growing up in Melbourne, periodic blackouts were part of life. At fairly regularly intervals, the highly unionised workers at the Latrobe Valley’s electricity generators would get grumpy about something and push the stop button, thereby cutting off electricity to the state.

The disputes were not about wages – these were set by compulsory arbitration and laid down in awards – but about the plethora of conditions and allowances that were attached to the workers’ employment.