LNP government.

Part of the context of Ms McManus' comment was her view the right to strike in Australia was far too restrictive.

"It shouldn't be so hard for workers in our country to be able to take industrial action when they need to," she told Leigh Sales on ABC's 7.30.

Given this, it's surprising there's been so little analysis on where Australia's laws on industrial action sit compared to international norms.

And on that score, Ms McManus has a point.

Under international law, the right to strike is recognised as a fundamental human right.

The United Nations (UN) declared "strike action to be a right" and "one of the principal means by which workers and their associations may legitimately promote and defend their economic and social interests" from its early days soon after World War II.

The restrictions Australia has placed on that right place us at odds with international conventions — a point made repeatedly by the UN agency that oversees labour standards, the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

"It's absolutely straightforward," said Professor Andrew Stewart of Adelaide University — one of the nation's foremost experts on labour law.

"The ILO for the past 20 to 30 years has told governments of both political persuasions that we are in breach of international labour standards."

Australia is regularly warned by the ILO our laws are out of step.

Just as regularly, that advice is quietly ignored — by Labor and Coalition governments.

And that's just part of the story: Australia's laws against industrial action are not only in breach of international law, they are without peer among advanced economies with a tradition of civil liberty in oppressing the right to strike.

"Not only are we flagrantly in breach but our laws are also so restrictive on the right to strike that they are way out of step with the laws of just about every other developed country," Professor Stewart said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-21/have-the-right-to-strike-laws-gone-too-far/8370980