The landmark prices and incomes accord agreement between the ACTU and the Hawke and Keating governments was the foundation of the nation's economic,social and industrial relations policies from 1983 on.
The conference at Macquarie University will bring together key players from the era,along with current union and business leaders,to reflect on how the Accord affected productivity,living standards,union membership and economic growth.
Mr Kelty was secretary of the ACTU from 1983 to 2000.
He said on Thursday that it was''an incredibly bitter time I've got to say,it wasn't a love-in of happiness''.
''Unemployment was over 10 per cent,inflation was very high,it was over 10 per cent. The wages system had just collapsed again,for the second time in less than a decade,''he said.
''The economy's productivity growth rate was a little over 1 per cent per annum – so the economy was stagnating and closing in on itself.''
But Mr Kelty said that,since the Accord was agreed in 1983,''the economy has opened itself to the rest of the world,real wages have improved,we've got an effective minimum wages system,we've got an effective superannuation system,a health care system,and productivity is twice . . . the previous trend rate.''