In the Coloniser’s WA settlement the 1823 #MasterandServantAct was strictly applied. The attitude of the ruling classes is summed up by an 1881 article in the #WestAustralian newspaper which said in part:

"Nowadays all children are kept in elegant idleness at school until they are 13 or 14. It was better and healthier when poor children were taken into service at the age of about 7."

Conditions for the 'working poor' during the early years of settlement were not far from outright slavery.

The 1823 #MasterandServantAct is remembered as unacceptable #exploitation of workers with the Victorian period.
In 2006 #union members referred to the 1823 Act in their criticism of the "#WorkChoices" industrial relations policy of the Howard lead LNP Government, claiming that "Our rights as workers are back where they were in the early 1800s - the only thing now missing is a Master - Servants Act.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_and_Servant_Act