John Michael O'Brien (21 December 1945–10 January 2023).

Coalition governments from 1996, and Labor governments from 2007, developed guidelines for agreement-making for line APS agency managers that required agency agreements to be consistent with the government's overall industrial relations policies and to be funded within APS agency appropriations. Along with many Australian academics, John's research from the early 1990s focused on analysing industrial relations policy debates promoting the decentralisation of the Australian industrial relations system. John Michael O'Brien was an engaging university lecturer and a leading scholar of public sector employment relations and education union history who died in January 2023 following a lengthy period of ill health. [Extracted from the article]