Work Choices fails to observe the first principle of labour market economics, which is to encourage “efficient bargaining”, Freeman said. Efficient bargaining means in any bargaining scenario, “you leave no money off the table”. Parties then fight it out over who gets the biggest share. “We want to have labour laws that encourage people to reach efficient bargains,” he said. While efficient bargaining doesn’t always work, it does mean “very, very few disputes”, because nobody wants to reduce the size of the pie - not unions and not management. And fairness plays a part, he said, because humans have pre-programmed into their brains an idea of what would constitute a “fair” share. This usually approximates half the pie. If people feel they are getting ripped off, their brain triggers an emotional response and you have opposition, he said. “Efficient bargaining has to involve something about fairness in it,” Freeman said. A big reason for this is you need labour laws that are not contested in courts all the time. For this you need consensus on the laws before they are introduced. Work Choices failed in that area, according to Freeman, having “enraged” two-thirds of the Australian population, including a proportion of senior managers. “You know it can’t be fair if there’s only one person in the country that thinks it’s fair and he’s begun to change his mind,” Freeman said. “Most people are against it; they do not agree with this law. I think the average person has a very good idea of what’s going on.”