In order to concluded on the effectiveness and the ability as to which "system" of industrial relations is better suited to resolve conflict, the pros and cons of conciliation and arbitration and enterprise bargaining will be examined. Certain limitation exist with in enterprise based bargaining, some of which were evident in the Hunter Valley Number one coalmine strike and the 1998 waterfront dispute. However enterprise bargaining certainly provided the parties with a flexible tool to try and resolve the dispute internally, resulting in less friction between the parties to some extent. The complex nature of the Australian tribunal system with dual federal and state work relations has some what undermined the ability of conciliation and arbitration to effectively resolve disputes. Nevertheless, C&A will continue to play a vital role in the Australian industrial relations. To try and base one system as better than the other would to some extent be biased, as each system has it own advantages and disadvantages.
             In the case of major disputes enterprise bargaining has to some extant revealed its vulnerability. It is a fundamental aspect of enterprise bargaining to allow, "protected action" during the bargaining period Petzall, Abbott and Timo (2003) This protection, although a fundamental right by the employees and employers to be used as a bargaining tool, seemed to falter in 1997 with the Hunter Valley number one coal mine and again in 1998 with the waterfront dispute. In these two cases it took considerable economic damage before the "protected action" was suspended ACCIR(1999).. This highlights a disadvantage of enterprise agreements as to why should we wait until considerable damage is done before a industrial dispute can be suspended. As evident in (www.aph.gov.au, 2004) it took a federal court to initiate AIRC to suspend the bargaining period. The ability of complex disputes being resolved through en...