Investigating the Harvester Judgement

This resource has been designed to support the use of Museums Victoria’s Innovation Stories series, a digital project showcasing stories of Victorian innovation. This video resource focuses on the Harvester Judgement, and provides guided discussion questions, prompts and extension activities for the classroom.  

In this activity students will: 

• Watch a video in which they hear from historians and experts about the Harvester Judgement, its significance and legacy. 
• Read about the historical background and context of the landmark case.  
• Start to investigate significant historical events, ideas and people.   

Suggested questions to engage students: 

• What does ‘cost of living’ mean? In what context have you heard this phrase?  
• Why is the ‘minimum wage’ important?  
• When and where do you think the world’s first minimum wage was created?  

What to do

Watch the video and read the accompanying article.

In pairs or as a class, students should discuss the following questions:  

• Why is the Harvester Judgement considered a landmark case?  
• What did Justice Higgins base his ‘fair and reasonable wage’ on? 
• Why was the Sunshine Harvester Works chosen as the test case? 
• Who provided evidence in the case? How was this unique to the times?  
• How did Hugh Victor McKay respond to the judgement? What do you think of his response?  

Find out more

• What was the 8-hour work day movement?  
• Who was Hugh Victor McKay? 
• Who was Vida Goldstein?  

Reflect on this quote

Because the decision did assume that women were dependents—economic dependents on men. And so women's considerations in terms of what they should be paid didn't come into it because the assumption was you had a man looking after you. — Sally McManus, Secretary of the ACTU

• Who was left behind by this decision? 
• What were the unintended consequences? 
• What is the gender pay gap? How is it being addressed today? 

Historical significance

The Harvester Judgement is a product of its time but I don’t think that takes away from the precedent that it set.  — Rebecca Carland, Senior Curator, Museums Victoria

Evaluate the significance of the Harvester Judgement using Partington’s model. Consider the event against the following criteria:

• Importance: how important was this judgement to people living at the time? 
• Profundity: how deeply were people’s lives were affected by it?  
• Quantity: how many lives were affected by the judgement?  
• Durability: for how long people’s lives were affected? 
• Relevance: what is the extent to which the event has contributed to an increased understanding of present life?