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| Issue No 113 |  |
28 September 2001 |
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| Issue No 113 | |
28 September 2001 |
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In an astonishing election eve slavo, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbot today announced the appointment of six new members to the AIRC - five of them from employer ranks.
They are Deputy Presidents Kenneth Bruce Ives, Reginald Sydney Hamilton, Brendan Patrick McCarthy and Dr. Nicholas Blain; and Commissioners Paula Spencer and Michael Gordon Roberts.
Kenneth Ives comes from Western Mining Corporation, Reg Hamilton from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Brendan McCarthy from the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Nicholas Blain is a business consultant and Paula Spencer comes from the Retailers Association of Queensland.
Only Michael Roberts, a former CPSU official, comes from the union ranks.
'Unprecedented and Disgraceful'
Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Arch Bevis says the were unprecedented and a disgraceful abuse of convention only days from the beginning of a federal election campaign.
"In what literally seems to be the dying hours of the Government's term, Tony Abbott's announcement is a disgraceful and blatant abuse of convention," Bevis says.
"It is clear that Tony Abbott's parting shot will further undermine public confidence in the authority and independence of the commission in the eyes of all Australian employees and employers."
"In light of the way John Howard and his Ministers have contemptuously treated the commission by starving it of resources and publicly berating commissioners, the timing of this announcement can be seen for what it is - a transparent manipulation of the system and a partisan attack on the independence of the independent umpire. "
Employer Bias
The ACTU says the appointments follow a raft of appointments by Mr Reith earlier this year, including that of former Telstra executive Rob Cartwright.
The Federal Court this week fined Telstra $75,000 for discriminating against award employees in a Telstra email sent by Mr Cartwright in June last year.
"Prime Minister John Howard and Minister Abbott are trying to destroy the independent umpire and undermine bipartisanship and political neutrality in industrial relations," ACTU President Sharan Burrow says.
" Mr Abbot's blatant anti-worker bias is un-Australian and an insult to the independence of the Commission. "
Beazley Unveils Entitlements Plan
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has unveiled his response to the issue of workers entitlements.
Labor's plan is based on a small contribution of around 0.1 per cent of payroll from large companies, applied to a comprehensive national insurance scheme for all workers entitlements.
"Small employers would not even pay that: the Government will make this contribution on their behalf," Beazley says.
"Labor will also amend the Corporations Act to ensure companies cannot avoid employee entitlements by contrived arrangements such as those used in the infamous Patrick Stevedores case."
In addition to the Entitlements Guarantee, Labor will require superannuation payments to be made by employers quarterly rather than annually.
Keeping these payments up-to-date will offer far stronger protection of superannuation entitlements than present arrangements.
Beazley says Labor will also maintain 100 per cent protection of superannuation savings from theft and fraud.
"The Howard Government has backed and filled, patched and stitched, and still can't protect all workers and all entitlements -- unless they happen to work for the Prime Minister's brother.
"In contrast, Labor all along has argued for this fair, comprehensive, consistent and sensible solution to guarantee all workers their entitlements.
"Labor's solution will give workers the security they want and deserve and is yet another indication of how Labor offers security at home and abroad in these difficult times."
Labor Council secretary John Robertson says he'll ask theatre experts to look at the potential for using the auditorium for staging events and scope out the costs involved.
Robertson says he will also seek advice on wiring the auditorium to allow for live webcasts of events, performances and conferences.
"Trades Hall has been a traditional cultural center for the trade union movement in NSW and we want to do all we can to see it take that role again," Robertson says.
The project to restore Trades Hall to its former glory is likely to commence in March 2002, with a construction time from of 15 months.
While the Trades Hall building will retain its existing façade, the renovations will totally rebuild the internal structures - which are currently in a state of disrepair.
The Trades Hall Association and the Labor Council are working on plans to hand control of the building over to the Labor Council to allow the renovations to go ahead.
Proceeds from last year's sale of 2KY radio station have been earmarked to fund the project.
by Phil Davey
Building workers rubbed shoulders with the arts community and a cabinet minister at the launch of the Olympic Construction Art Exhibition.
Artist Ingrid Skirka spent two and a half years painting CFMEU members at work building Stadium Australia and the Olympic precinct.
The result of her work was officially opened by NSW Attorney General Bob Debus at the new CFMEU Headquarters in Lidcombe.
Many of the workers who built the Olympics were on hand to admire the work and receive praise from Debus, who said in his remarks that the paintings on display ensured that the contribution of building workers to the Olympics would not be written out of the history books.
Ingrid Skirka was the only visual artist to record and paint the unsung heroes of the Olympics- the working women and men who built Stadium Australia on time and on budget.
All are welcome to come and admire Ingrid's work. It will be open to the public and on display for the next month, at the CFMEU (Construction Division) headquarters, 8-12 Railway Street Lidcombe-two minutes walk from Lidcombe station. The office is open 8am-5pm.
A Note from the Artist
My name is Ingrid Skirka, I am a visual artist currently living in Sydney. Three years ago I set out on my own with a vision to record and paint the workers and the construction of Stadium Australia, which we all know intimately from the success of the Olympics and Paralympics. My story of how I finally achieved that goal, which was fought with many obstacles and what inspired me is something I would like to share.
In essence it is more about the workers and their stories, it's about recognising their achievements and bringing some of the Olympics and Paralympics back to the community to those unsung Aussie heroes who built a place for others to become heroes.
When the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built an artist named Grace Cossington-Smith was moved by this amazing new structure being stretched over the Sydney landscape. She did what comes natural to any artist, she painted the scene that was unfolding. We can look back at those paintings and not only see the emerging beauty of the structure itself but also her artistic inspiration flowing through it. With all the black and white photographs and sketches of the times Grace's stands out in the colour and style she incorporated. Those images are part of Australia's collective psyche now; they allow us to look deeper at the construction process but also the times, the feelings and the mood of the people who built it.
Inspired by Grace and other female artists depicting urban landscapes I felt a great need to be part of and record what I felt at the time to be the building of a new Australian icon. With my energy and enthusiasm I put together a game plan and set forth, I couldn't wait to get out there and do it.
It was here at this point where I have learned a lesson that will always stay with me, beware of the corporate and government minefield. Caught somewhere between 'ego city' and absolutely no idea I encountered some of the strangest creatures I have ever come across. Have you ever tried to communicate with a vacuum, well let me
tell you I've been there. All I wanted was to gain access to the site and be allowed to record through photographs and sketches the process. I wanted to meet the workers and get to know them so that I could do justice to their images in paint. I remember one such entity who after just being to another corporate luncheon with slurred speech told me to wait and go on a bus tour with the other tourists when they become available in a year or so. Can you imagine?
Well, after six months of bouncing around endless professional deflector types I finally made a real human connection, it was with Alan Patching the CEO of MTM Stadium Australia, Ed Obiala the construction manager at Multiplex and Chris Chapman the
CEO of Stadium Australia. Fortunately they were able to appreciate my vision and I was granted access to the site. I was on my way. I was to become the only visual artist in the world to record this construction and the people who built it.
Its funny, you know as soon as I passed through the induction course with the other workers and donned my safety vest, hardhat and steel capped boots I new I was where I belonged. The workers too, they asked what I was doing and when I told them they connected, all of them opening up to me expressing their genuine interest. I guess the first thing that really struck me was that for all their bad reputation, you know bum cracks and all, I never felt unsafe amongst them in fact I was surrounded by intelligent, funny and interesting peoples the entire time.
My paintings are filled with the inspiration of sights, sounds and feelings of going out there repeatedly for a period of 2.5 years. I recall one story of a worker who remembers the first time in his life as a little boy in his native Paraguay being taken by his father to the local football stadium and how impressed he was. Now he takes his little boy by the hand to this stadium, the best in the world, and it gives him some meaning for where he has come in his life and how Australia has helped him achieve it. He has pride in what he's done it means something.
My works are not insular or self - obsessed. They are influenced by the computer age. They are important without having to take themselves too seriously. Out of all my 10 paintings one stands out in particular, it is called Mates. This painting incorporates over 900 individual workers who were onsite. Together they make up a true reflection of what and who Australians are right now in the 21st Century. They all come together to create one united image of a worker, tired and happy that built Stadium Australia. This piece of work took over 12 months to complete, every face tells a story and I loved each and every one of them. I know that must sound crazy, but in order to paint a subject I think an artist must fall in love with what they are painting. Perhaps they are not the best words to describe my point, I don't know, but I definitely feel like I know each and every one of those people.
My other paintings capture the spirit of the place and the beauty of the process. I like using a bright and colorful palette with all its energy and excitement. Each painting tells a story and relates back to Stadium Australia and the workers.
by Andrew Casey
"It's been of long standing concern to this union and its membership that security officers are among the lowest paid of airport staff," Jo-anne Schofield, LHMU Security Union Assistant National Secretary said .
In Sydney security guards screening passengers earn $13.04 an hour.
In Melbourne this year Security Guards at Ansett terminals, after a protracted union struggle, had a historic breakthrough, winning an 18-20 per cent pay increase for an enterprise bargaining agreement.
However the signing of this agreement with Group 4 Securitas, their employer, has been delayed because of the Ansett crisis.
The Group 4 Securitas workers were being paid between $12.31 an hour and S12.80 an hour screening passengers. Once the agreement is certified their pay will jump to between $19.06 an hour and $20.00 an hour.
In Melbourne, Chubb Security this week argued in the Industrial Relations Commission that their guards, who provide security for Melbourne's Qantas domestic airport and the International Airport, should not get the same pay increase won by Group 4 Securitas members working at the Ansett terminal.
LHMU Security Union Assistant National Secretary, Jo-anne Schofield says that though airport security guards are poorly paid the expectations of them are very high.
" There are strict guidelines and procedures set out in legislation which our airport security guard membership must follow to do their job properly," Jo-anne Schofield said.
" This includes regular training in airline safety standards, as well as keeping abreast of different types of dangerous or restricted items, and new forms of weapons technology.
" There are also strict protocols which apply to searching members of the public which must be followed. And these security workers are regularly audited by Department of Transport staff," Jo-Anne Schofield said.
" A few years back our union members applied to have airport security officer jobs regraded - in some cases we were stunned to find we had to battle the boss to get new improved standards.".
The LHMU Security Union believes that if we are to provide airport travelers with real security there is a need to go further.
" In particular our airport officer membership have raised concerns about poor equipment, low pay and the need for more formal accredited training," Jo-anne Schofield said.
" The LHMU is appealing to all the key security guard companies to work beside the union, in a co-operative manner, "Jo-anne Schofield, LHMU Security Union Assistant National Secretary said today.
" Together the union, and the security companies, have to argue for upgraded security contract tenders, higher security standards, better equipment, improved wages and training for security workers.
The LHMU Security Union believes that a national approach must be established to deliver better wages, better training and lower turnover rates.
" The LHMU Security Union will be taking these issues to our security industry delegates at the forthcoming national forum," Jo-anne Schofield said.
Ansett, not long ago described as a carcass by the Minister Apparently In Charge Of Aviation John Anderson has made the first significant steps in its resurrection.
The first Ansett flights between Sydney and Melbourne take off tomorrow with 5 Airbuses doing 24 flights on the hour. It is expected that there will be 11 planes in the sky by early next week. The Hazelton/Kendall subsidiaries have resumed the bulk of their services including the Sydney-Canberra route which recommenced today. Some freight runs will start up soon with the priority being the servicing of Tasmanian fishing ports.
Employees And Their Unions Sustain The Pressure
Ansett workers the length and breadth of Australia have sustained pressure for intervention by the Government to step in and give Ansett a fighting chance of survival.
On Wednesday there were about 30,000 pledges handed to the Administrator from members of the public who have pledged that "I'll fly Ansett" when it gets up and running again.
A road trip from Sydney to Bathurst via Jackie 'The Blip' Kelly's office in Penrith by Sharan Burrow and a minibus full of Ansett workers was a resounding success on Thursday. By the end of the day the Administrator for Hazelton Airlines announced the resumption of flights to Bathurst.
There are a number of actions that are planned for the next week (see below).
The Union Survival Plan
While Howard and Anderson have been sitting on their hands hoping Ansett would remain buried in a media preoccupied with New York terror, the ACTU and Ansett unions have crafted a 4-point plan that gives Ansett a fighting chance of survival.
ACTU Secretary Greg Combet says while they do not want to raise false expectations, the unions are committed to getting and keeping Ansett back in the air.
"The magnitude of the Ansett debacle is in large part due to corporate and government inaction. The choice for the Howard Government is stark: support a plan to revive Ansett, or facilitate its liquidation and the loss of tens of thousands of Australian jobs. The community deserves to know where the Federal Government stands," Mr Combet said.
Key points of the plan are:
A Rescue Plan - the only real option to protect the tens of thousands of jobs at risk, to give consumers a real choice and to maintain the viability of regional Australia is to relaunch Ansett with Government leadership and a focussed business plan.
Urgent and Concrete Government Leadership and Action -the ACTU and unions' plan requires the Government to:
· Bring all the parties together - the Ansett Administrators, State Governments, creditors, unions and potential buyers - to facilitate the development of a viable plan for the airline
· Inject a minimum $200 million into Ansett in the form of equity or a capital injection
· Support the recovery of funds from Air New Zealand
· Guarantee regional services
· Assist enterprises which are reliant on Ansett business
· Commit a substantial proportion of Government air travel to Ansett
A Viable Business Plan To Build A Resurgent Ansett - a sound business plan will make Ansett commercially viable. Key steps in developing a viable business plan include:
· Working with financial institutions to alleviate Ansett liabilities
· Preserving assets and maintaining the integrity of the Ansett group
· Restoring profitable routes as soon as possible
· Maximising jobs and guaranteeing entitlements
Putting People, Families and Regions First - Ansett is not a carcass. It is an entity with a heartbeat provided by its employees, their families and the communities and regions it services. Practical measures needed include:
· Financial assistance and short term relief for families experiencing hardship
· The earliest possible resumption of services to the regions
Opportunities To Support Ansett Workers Coming Up
· Saturday 29 September, AFL Grand Final, Melbourne
Unions are looking for hundreds of volunteers to hand out material (stickers, I'll Fly Ansett pledges, ribbons) at the AFL Grand Final on Saturday. Meet in front of the Museum of Sport at the MCG at 11.15am, Saturday morning. Ansett staff wear your uniforms! Contact your union for more details. ASU got a tremendous reaction from the public when they did something similar at the Preliminary Grand Final.
· Monday 1 October, Family Day in Sydney
There will be a family day for Sydney Ansett workers at the Sydney Ansett terminal at 1pm with karaoke, a jumping castle and BBQ. Celebrate Labour Day and the resumption of some Ansett flights.
· Monday 1 October, Kim Beazley To Address Ansett Workers
9.30am Monday 1st October at the Ansett Terminal Sydney Airport. Unions are asked to have representatives there to show their support and solidarity.
by Andrew Casey
Now she is owed nearly 60 weeks in entitlements - with the collapse of the airline - but she reckons she'll be lucky if she sees a quarter of what she is owed.
" That is a big loss. I've turned 60. I'm in limbo. Not old enough to get a pension. But I'm not really at an age to go looking for a new job.
" People shouldn't have to go through what we have been going through," Marilyn Patton said.
As ' The General', the union activist, Marilyn Patton has been attending all the community rallies at the airport and in the city to save the more than 16,000 Ansett workers jobs - and the estimated 60,000 other jobs lost because of the airline's collapse.
Marilyn worked as a direct employee in Ansett catering until the airline sold the catering unit to Gate Gourmet in 1999.
The catering company Gate Gourmet relied on the business from Ansett to survive. When Ansett shutdown Gate Gourmet shut down.
" Ansett sold off the business to Gate Gourmet with all the entitlements owing to us - so someone had the entitlements money which I earnt and which my workmates earnt," Marilyn said.
" Someone has to take the responsibility for our hard-earned entitlements - the redundancy, the long service leave, the holiday leave.
" The Howard Government scheme isn't covering all my redundancy entitlements.
" I'm owed over 50 weeks in redundancy and they only want to give me 8 weeks redundancy money. There has got to be some law; some way to safeguard all our entitlements."
Labor Council secretary John Robertson said that he had received evidence that firms - including sub-contractors to government projects - are systematically rorting the WorkCover system.
Examples include a sub-contractor on a RTA project at Oaks Flat estimated the wage of a six-person work team at $1.00 per year. The RTA has claimed it has no right to ensure that sub-contractors are complying with their workers compensation obligations.
"This highlights our concerns that the system is being rorted by employers," Roberston says. "It also shows that workers are being blamed for problems in the scheme that are not of their making.
"If a government contractor can pull a stunt like this, you would have to conclude that evasion of workers compensation premiums in the private sector is rife.
"The government needs to restructure the way premiums are collected from annual to quarterly - this is how business now operates under the GST. Quarterly contributions will ensure that rorts like this are identified earlier.
Injured Workers Should Not Carry Can
Meanwhile, unions have called on the Carr Government to ensure that injured workers do not bear the sole burden for the blow-out in the WorkCover deficit.
Robertson made the plea after the government released revised WorkCover figures released today asserting an actuarial deficit of $2.76 billion.
"At some point the government must recognise that employers should bear some of the burden for the workers compensation blowout," Robertson says.
"The reality is that for several years the Government has under-charged employers - that is, they have been paying below cost price for their workers compensation insurance.
"To attempt to reduce the deficit by merely slugging injured workers is not only unfair, it is contrary to Labor values.
Independent analysis from Access Economics shows that an increase in premiums would have, at worst, a marginal impact on employment.
"I call on the NSW Minister for Industrial Relations to immediately commence talks with all stakeholders on the appropriate premium level to meet the current scheme costs," Robertson says.
by Mary Yaager
John Robertson Labor Council Secretary said" this is great news for Orange and particularly for the 1100 local people employed at Electrolux "
"The Email Plant was under threat of an uncertain future when it came under takeover pressure and it left workers and the Orange Community extremely nervous about the impact of losing the plant and the union movement shared their concerns" John went on to say.
The Labor Council and all of the unions immediately got behind the Email workers in their campaign to maintain the plant in Orange and this has definitely assisted is ensuring the future of the plant according to Robert George, local union delegate at the plant.
Robert said "if it had not have been for all the assistance and lobbying of the unions I don't think we would have achieved this "
NSW government Minister Harry Woods who announced the Governments package also acknowledged the key role played by the union movement.
A spokesperson for Electrolux said "the company made the decision to invest in the plant after the cooperation of the Government, unions and company management all pulling together to do different positive things to achieve common goals" It is about investing in the people in Orange and in Regional areas.
"The future of the plant would have been very bleak without the capital investment and this will help the Company invest in new equipment to be Globally competitive and capable of meeting export demand " he went on to say.
'Now employees, unions, suppliers and Government are all supporting the company to develop Orange as a key manufacturing base in the Asian Region " the spokesperson concluded.
by Phil Davey
The men were working for Saba Tiling on the massive Forum Project of Bovis Lend Lease at St Leonards.
Their employer exploited the men's ignorance of Australian law and forced them to work 90 minutes unpaid overtime every day and all day Saturday for free, threatening them with deportation if they complained to the Union.
In addition the workers were not issued with safety clothing or boots.
This appalling situation continued for weeks until the Union was tipped off. The men voted to strike and within two days they had won the dispute and their back pay -in excess of $25,000.
As usual the Federal Government showed its contempt for working people by refusing to act on this obvious breach of Australian law. For two years the CFMEU has exposed organised rackets in the building industry which involve shocking exploitation of both legal and illegal immigrants. For their trouble CFMEU officials and members have been bashed, received death threats and had their families threatened.
Still this Government sits on its hands, happy for its corporate mates to continue to make their profits from this modern day slave trade.
Working Australians and small firms are priced out of the marketplace because they cannot compete with the "exploitation award". The only ones who profit are the big builders who accept absurdly low tenders from sub contractors and then feign ignorance when these subbies are busted by the Union on their sites for exploiting their workforce.
To date there has not been a single prosecution of a company for deliberately flouting Australian immigration law.
by Laura MacFarlane
Despite a recent NSW Department of Health survey proving that nurses would return to the profession if wages were increased and conditions were improved the NSW Government refuses to listen to their pleas for a wage rise. The survey also shows that nurses need more support at work.
The "What's a Nurse Worth?" campaign is being run by NSW Nurses' Association in response to the crisis that exists in our health system due to the extreme difficulties in keeping nurses working in that system. A pay increase is seen as a first step to addressing the shortage and rebuilding the public health system.
More than 70 campaign committees now exist at public hospitals and community health centres in the State and work bans have been implemented at most facilities.
Nurses very rarely use their industrial clout, but after a series of stop work meetings and public rallies at many city and rural hospitals they are going on astae wide striken the 18th of October they are going to. Nurses are walking out for 8 hours for more pay but also so more nurses don't walk out for good.
Nurses will rally in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. A Sky Channel broadcast from the Sydney Town Hall will link nurses in rural areas and Sydney nurses will march to Parliament House afterwards
According to NSWNA Assistant General Secretary Brett Holmes, nurses have been leaving the profession and are not returning. "This has been building for a couple of years at least in NSW. - nurses feel undervalued. There are a large number of qualified nurses in the community who won't return to the system unless conditions and work loads improve."
The nursing shortage is an international phenomenon. In NSW there are 1800 known job vacancies. As more nurses, including new graduates, leave the profession for other jobs with more pay and less responsibility, it is, Holmes asserts "becoming harder for those that are left to maintain a safe environment for both patients and staff". The nursing shortage has already led to bed closures and service cuts around the State.
Holmes believes achieving a positive wage outcome is going to have an immediate impact on people's decisions to return to nursing and says "improving conditions will have to follow or people won't stay"
" Our members are telling us loud and clear that wages are a critical factor and an indicator of value. Recruitment and retention activities are occurring but having no real impact on vacancies being advertised. Younger nurses see their friends from university experiencing a different lifestyle. Being paid better salaries for doing less vital, less stressful work". Holmes said.
The training and tertiary qualifications of NSW nurses is equivalent to most other health professionals. Yet, in the NSW public health service, the rate of pay for a registered nurse is up to $100.00 per week less than physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians and social workers. The Government claims nurses in NSW are already the highest paid in Australia. However, in other states nurses are paid at the same level as the other health professionals in that state.
Further jobs in the training and customer service sections have been abolished and it is unclear just how many other employees will be made redundant over the next few weeks. Customer Service and Technical Support have been merged into a new Member Services section and as many as 15 more people may lose their position with the company under the restructure.
AOL Australia has employed a consultant to take the company through a total restructure because the Australian outfit is apparently not meeting targets - despite the September 11 announcement that AOL membership worldwide has just exceeded 31 million. Australian membership is estimated at around 60,000. In fact, worldwide, AOL Time Warner reaps 42 percent of its revenue from membership subscriptions.
A source told Workers Online that employees, who are employed on a non-union enterprise bargaining agreement, are extremely concerned as they have been advised that they will have to apply for jobs in other sections of the company. It has been confirmed that they will still be employed under the same EBA.
There are some concerns that technical support employees who are skilled computer technicians may also be replaced by do-it-yourself computer help from the AOL homepage and technicians who are looking up the answers from a computer program.
Noting that witnesses will not be called until mid November, the CFMEU has urged Commissioner Terence Cole to de-politicise the Royal Commission into the building industry by commencing those hearings after the federal election.
"The politicised nature of the Royal Commission into the building industry is already widely recognised. Certainly, John Howard and Tony Abbott used the announcement of the Commission to maximise its political impact," said John Sutton, National Secretary of the CFMEU Construction Division.
"However, if the Commissioner's spokesperson is correct in setting a mid-November date for hearings, the Royal Commission could be de-politicised significantly if those first hearings were held after the federal election," Sutton says.
John Howard is expected to call the federal election in the next couple of weeks, with a poll date of November 17 or 24.
"Commissioner Cole could add to the credibility of the Royal Commission, and save it from being polluted by the politics of the election, if he ensured that no matter of substance was dealt with till after the poll was held," Sutton says.
"The CFMEU invites the Commission to confirm that it intends to hold those first hearings after, rather than before, the November poll."
The CPSU Communications Union has welcomed a Federal Court decision to fine Telstra $75,000 for discriminating against award-based employees in favour of staff on individual contracts (AWAs).
Central to the CPSU case was an e-mail sent to managers by then Employee Relations head, Rob Cartwright, on the day 10,000 staff cuts were announced.
Cartwright's e-mail implied workers who had signed individual contracts should be given preferential treatment in the redundancy process because they had placed "trust" in Telstra. The e-mail also warned "...managers will be held accountable to support the values of the company's preferred model of individual employment."
Justice Finklestien's decision allows the CPSU to recoup legal costs against the $75,000 fine.
The CPSU's Adrian O'Connell said "This is a great outcome for Telstra workers. It also sends a clear message to other employers about the dangers of discriminating against union members and using AWAs to de-unionise a workforce."
Despite the serious questions this incident raised about Rob Cartwright's judgement, the Howard government went ahead with his appointment as a Senior Vice President of the Industrial Relations Commission earlier this year.
by Andrew Casey
The Taubmans paint workers returned to work this week after voting to accept a deal negotiated yesterday in late night talks before Mr Justice Munro of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
" The 150 workers covered by the new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement have also won improvements in long service leave, and an agreed process for the company to discuss with the union and its members the vexed issue of how workers entitlements can be properly protected," Mark Boyd, the NSW LHMU Assistant Secretary said .
A South African multinational Barloworlds now owns the Taubmans paint company.
" This has been a long dispute, made worse by the harsh anti-worker laws introduced by the Howard Government," Mark Boyd said.
" These laws force workers to tough it out, they sideline the Industrial Relations Commission from playing a pro-active role.
" The Howard Government laws do not help both parties to sit down and negotiate in a civilized way the best possible outcome for all parties.
" The workplace organization at the Taubmans site - plus the support we received from other paint workers in Sydney and inter-state has helped these paint workers achieve this victory."
The St Hilliers Pty Ltd - CFMEU agreement for a new commercial development at 81 George Street Parramatta was endorsed by former Mayor of Parramatta and ALP candidate for the Federal seat of Parramatta Mr. David Borger.
Mr. Borger brought the concerns of small business sub-contractors in his area to the Union and suggested fortnightly payments of sub-contractors as opposed to the industry norm of every 45 days.
The agreement ultimately struck and signed today provides for fortnightly payments to subcontractors- providing a more secure cash flow and thus protecting against lay-offs of union members working on the project.
CFMEU State Secretary Andrew Ferguson today hailed the agreement as a template, which could be extended over the whole industry.
"This new model project agreement provides greatly enhanced security for small business and our members"
With a major street demonsatration planned, organsiers want to go beyond the usual lines of "the workers united ..." and "whata do we want ..."
The AMWU, AWU, CEPU along with all the major unions, community, social, environmental and religious organisations are marching to support global justice, fair trade and to oppose any new WTO agreements at Qatar on Tuesday November 13.
The rally coincides with the International Metalworkers Federation World Congress in Sydney. 1000 union delegates from all over the world will lead the march.
Info on the rally and a list of supporters is at http://www.sydneyrally.org.
"We need new, good and loud chants that will be heard and remembered," AMWU organiser Natasha Holmes says. "They have to be short, catchy and relevant!"
The best chants will be printed up and distributed to be used in the rally. A final selection will be posted on Workers Online and the sydneyrally website.
Fundraiser for Morgan Tsvangirai, Leader of the Opposition in Zimbabwe.
5:30pm - 7:30pm, 2 October, Speaker's Garden, Parliament House, Sydney - $50 (to "Zimbabwe Information Centre")
Hosted by Meredith Burgmann rsvp 9230 2301
Morgan Tsvangirai was a delegate and official of the Associated Mine Workers' Union and was elected Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions 1988. In 1999 he led the union movement in forming a new opposition party to challenge Robert Mugabe's increasingly dictatorial regime. Morgan's Party, the Movement for Democratic Change, won 57 seats (the ruling ZANU PF party won 62) in the 2000 elections which were marred by political violence. Tsvangirai has already survived at least one serious assassination attempt.
Most analysts believe that if the Presidential Election in March 2002 is free and fair, Morgan Tsvangiria will be the next President of Zimbabwe.
The MDC is affiliated to the Socialist International. Most of the MDC leadership were involved in the struggle for liberation in the seventies. Tsvangirai is also doing the National Press Club Address in Canberra on 2 October. Bookings can be made via the website www.npc.org.au
I've attached a flyer with photos etc. The Zimbabwe Information Centre website is www.zic.com.au.
Let me know if you want any more info - 9230 2301.
Free Trade or Fair Trade? Globalisation, Trade and Aid
A political debate - Tuesday 9 th October, 6.00 - 8.30 pm
Pitt St Uniting Church, 264 Pitt St, Sydney.
Speakers:
Representative of the Minister for Trade
Senator Peter Cook ALP Shadow Minister for Trade
Senator Vicki Bourne Australian Democrats
Ms Kerry Nettle NSW Greens Senate Candidate
Followed by questions and discussion
Chair: The Rev. Dorothy McRae-McMahon writer and broadcaster
Come and voice your concerns. Sponsored by the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad
For more information contact Pat Ranald pranald@piac.asn.au
or Margaret di Nicola margaretd@sydney.caa.org.au
Dear Editor,
I refer to your recent article entitled "Stellar Drops Union Ban". I was very pleased that my intervention in this matter was able to resolve the issues at hand swiftly and in a manner that ensured that employees' rights to representation by their trade union were upheld.
Stellar Call Centres Pty Ltd had a policy which stated that employees were entitled to be accompanied by another employee when attending meetings with management over grievances or disputes. I was concerned that the policy could be applied in such a way as to exclude union representation at such meetings.
As a result, I wrote to Stellar and sought a change to the policy so that it is clear that employees can have a union representative present at such meetings. Stellar responded by making the necessary changes to their policy.
I have also made it clear to Stellar that the OEA will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the changed policy is being implemented and that staff are aware of the changes to the policy.
I also undertook to meet with the CPSU to discuss potential specific cases where the freedom of association provisions for the Workplace Relations Act had been breached by Stellar. Following the changes in policy, the CPSU declined to bring forward any specific cases and requested that no formal action be taken against Stellar.
I am happy not to proceed with litigation against Stellar at this stage as it is clear that the employer has been willing to take steps to ensure that employees have proper representation.
I believe that this is a good example of the sort of work that the OEA has undertaken to protect the rights of employees to freedom of association.
AWAs do not reduce the right of employees to be a member of a union, nor do they prevent employees being represented by a union.
Recently published research indicates that around one in four employees with AWAs are union members. The great majority of these union members indicated that they are willing to negotiate their pay and conditions directly with their employer. They clearly, however, still wish - reasonably - to have access to the benefits of union membership.
Yours sincerely,
Jonathan Hamberger
Employment Advocate
Dear Sir,
With the up coming CHOGM conference to be held in Brisbane next month, will acts of terrorism by countries within the Commonwealth be on the agenda? In particular, the unusual inclusion of Zimbabawe, and yet the exclusion Fiji, a Pacific island state, which has recently held democratic elections, and formed a legitimate government
Although Zimbabawe , like Australia , is part of the Commonwealth of Nations, one must question the appropriateness of the visit next month by Robert Mugabe to Australia
Is it possible that the agenda might include discussions on a safe asylum for the European farmers who have had their homes and crops burned their farms confiscated, and their workers terrorized?
As other western powers distance themselves from this oppressive regime, it appears that Libyan Dictator "Gadhafi" , is in the process of not only endearing himself to `Mugabe` , but has offered his female bodyguard unit the `Amazons` to mind `Mugabe` on his trip to Australia.
Is it possible that, this recently cultivated relationship is one of Libyan opportunism for investment in Zimbabwean farmland, as the Europeans are driven out the Libyan influence and money moves in? Or is this a country being prepared as a conduit for terrorist funds?
These events certainly belie and make a mockery of the recent agreements at the U.N. World Conference against Racism, where the U.K. provides financial provision for the reparation of stolen property.
One must also query why Zimbabwe was not condemned at this conference for the unpunished Racial Attacks against not only European farmers, but the dispossession of those that were employed on these farms.
Let's listen for the left wing bleeding heart, lip biting, hand wringing socialist cacophony of lamentations about this racism and for asylum status for these European refugees from Zimbabwe, and note with concern, their self explanatory silence on the exclusion of our Pacific neighbor, Fiji from the Commonwealth of Nations.
I for one will not be holding my breath in anticipation.
Tom Collins
Dear Editor,
Yesterday (27-9-01) during the adjournment debate in the NSW Upper House, I had the opportunity to raise the subject of the excellent recent publication by The Trades and Industrial Hall and Literary Institute Association of Sydney Limited entitled "Back to the Beginning." It is a highly informative and interesting historical interim publication . If anyone wants a copy they ought to call Lorna Morrison at the Trades Hall on (02) 9267 7603.
Adjournment debates are 5 minutes maximum in length, and due to time constraints I was not able to adequately acknowledge and congratulate the excellent work of Lorna Morrison OAM and Lynn Milne, and other members of the Association, for their valuable collation. I attach the text of my speech from Hansard (the Parliament record of debate) for Workers' Online readers.
Yours faithfully
IAN WEST MLC
"BACK TO THE BEGINNING -- A HISTORY OF THE TRADES HALL
The Hon. IAN WEST [5.08 p.m.]: Recently, I received a copy of a document from the Trades and Industrial Hall and Literary Institute Association of Sydney Ltd entitled "Back to the Beginning". It is an historical account of the early years of the Trades Hall Building in Goulburn Street, Sydney, and the efforts of those many working men and women to provide a facility in which to organise. The account begins:
"Towards the end of the nineteenth century, many working people in Australia had won two rights: the right to associate and the right to work no more than eight hours a day for a living wage. They could now form unions and they had the time to do so. Their next step was to acquire a suitable place."
The Trades and Industrial Hall and Literary Institute Association met for many years in a back room of the Swan With Two Necks hotel on the corner of George and Park streets, Sydney, before moving to the Temperance Hall.
Attempts to build a place to organise and advance working people's interests in Sydney date from about 1872. In late 1884 six members of the former Trades and Labour Council Committee joined nine delegates from nine unions to form the Trades Hall Committee, later known as the Trades Hall Association. The committee had £3 at its inaugural meeting. The conservative government of the day was asked to provide £6,000 from the 1884 parliamentary estimates to purchase suitable land, which it did.
In 1885 a block of land on the corner of Goulburn and Dixon streets was chosen. The Government bought the land and granted it by deed to appointed land trustees who were to oversee the use of the land and any buildings erected thereon. In 1885 the land posed a collection of challenges. Again I refer to the historical account, which states:
"There was an old mill at the foot of Goulburn Street, and the neighbours include Kents Brewery, commercial stables, a farrier and a tannery. All overflowed or gave off smoke and odours and generally caused nuisance to the Trades Hall land. There was a horse trough on the muddy footpath and the lighting was poor. There were rowdy hotels nearby and houses of ill repute and when the first stage of the Trades Hall was built bars were needed on the windows facing the Darling Harbour railway station. The cottages numbers 22-26 Dixon Street came with the land and were in various states of repair and tenancy and earned some £4 a week."
The Trades Hall Association was incorporated on 6 August 1886 into the Trades and Industrial Hall and Literary Institute Association of Sydney, a company limited by shares. Its objects were to build a hall in which to provide housing for meeting rooms, a lecture hall, a library and reading room, entertainment, a labour bureau and a waiting room for the unemployed.
In 1886 John Smedley, the first Australian-born architect, won the Trades Hall Association competition for his design of the future Trades Hall. The name given by John to the plan was pro bono publico, meaning "for the common good." The building which resulted remained mostly true to his design. Under the deed of grant the right to mortgage the land required an Act of Parliament. The association was in a fairly tight financial situation and had to manage its affairs in a businesslike manner, whilst remaining in the realms of a non-profit organisation.
The foundation stone was laid on 28 January 1888 by Lord Carrington, great nephew of the Governor, who spoke of the need for working people to help themselves. He cited the efforts of strikers in Edinburgh, who had organised themselves to build houses and had set up a successful scheme to let working people own their own homes. Some time later some people had begun to doubt that the Trades Hall would ever materialise. The Australian Workman on 6 December 1890 reported the venture's proponents as "a class of mere talkers and not workers".
The Trades Hall was finally completed in 1916 and still stands not only as a major architectural icon of Sydney but as living testimony to the efforts, results and resilience of many thousands of working people during those times and since. The Trades Hall has housed many community, religious and recreational groups over the years. It has stood through many local and world events: the caretaker, Mr Andrew Price, was killed at Gallipoli; the Second World War saw blacking out and sandbagging; and an influenza epidemic closed down the hall, along with most of the city. It escaped the bubonic plague in 1905, possibly because it was well away from the rat-infested Circular Quay........"
(Time expired
by Peter Lewis
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Bob McMullan |
How important is a strong national culture at times of national crisis?
It is important in two ways. A long-term investment in culture is the bedrock of our unity, and in the immediate it is important because it's what helps us interpret extraordinary circumstances like those that happened in the United States recently. To make sense of them we need people interpreting them, and the Arts is one way that they are interpreted and presented to us as manageable stories.
I saw you the other week speaking at the National Press Club about the role of a government in bringing forward a community's compassion. Is the Arts part of that project?
It can be. They are an important part of how a nation speaks - it tells its own stories. How people speak to each other as members of the community. Of course, not all Arts takes a progressive or compassionate view, and there is some history of it playing a different role, but in the main, yes, it is part of that process of transition. We don't want to be complacent about it, but an intelligent government, trying to take a leadership role and take the thing out to what Abraham Lincoln called, I think, "the better angels of our nature", requires advocacy of all sorts and the Arts has a role to play in that.
Is the role of government say, to come up with a cultural blueprint and impose that through policy decisions, or is it 'let a 1000 flowers bloom'? Is it to pick winners, or is it to create the conditions of cultural activity?
At the Federal level, ever since Gough Whitlam, it has certainly been seen that it is not the job of Ministers for the Arts to decide to pick winners in the sense of saying, I think this person should get a grant and that person shouldn't. That leads to at least a form of censorship, and it is potentially very dangerous. And we don't want a cultural blueprint.
But it is not just about creating the circumstances. You should be actively involved in creating the basis on which bodies like the Australia Council, the Film Finance Corporation, can give support to individual artists on the basis of their assessment of their merit. I think that is a very healthy policy, and the problem in Australia at the moment is that the core funding body, the Australia Council, has been denied funding for its core activities, and that means they are not able to provide that support that will nourish new and continuing Arts practice and careers.
Is the so-called Americanisation of the Australian culture of concern to you?
I think we can't resist the globalisation. I mean, kids with baseball caps back-to-front who think Michael Jordan is the greatest sportsman in the world, that is just part of the global communications world in which we live, and there is no point in pretending it doesn't exist. But it does mean that you have to have specific interest in re-supporting and reinforcing the ability of Australians to tell our own stories. That is why the content rules on radio and television are important. That is why things like Arts funding are important. That way the stories can be told. Otherwise all we would see, particularly on television, would be other people's stories and the circumstances in the world interpreted through other people's eyes. That is a very unhealthy situation for a country to find itself in.
In terms of the Australian film industry - it is true we are getting a lot of Hollywood productions re-locating to Australia. What benefit does that bring to the local film industry? Is that something you would like to continue to support?
Yes, I welcome the fact that there is a lot of Hollywood production here. It creates a lot of jobs and does a lot in creating skills, and keeping that volume of work that enables people to develop a long-term career on the basis of which they can do new and creative things.
But it is not enough. We have to have an Australian film industry, not just an Australian production facility for the American film industry. We need both. The missing link is that at the moment, since the government has just filled in the funding hole they have dug over the last five years, with the new funding increase, is that there is no decent funding for the ABC to produce radio and television drama and documentaries. That is the gap that has to be filled.
In terms of contemporary music policy. I know that before the last election you came forward with an integrated policy. Are you planning something similar this time?
Yes we are. We actually had intended to do something about launching that. We are sort of halfway into planning it, and the incidents in the United States have made that sort of activity seem a bit inappropriate. It is a very sombre time and we don't want to be out there looking celebratory, so we have pulled back a bit from the announcement of it, and we have developed quite a comprehensive policy - pretty well the same as last time. Of course the parallel import situation has moved on a bit, and we can't haul that back as far as we would have in the past, but we will be dealing with parallel importation and helping in the way that I think the industry thinks will be pretty valuable.
We are looking at funding to assist our musicians - young rock musicians - bands to tour Australia - and trying to be a bit imaginative about helping people take their talent and turn it into a career, by selling Australian music to Australian audiences.
We have heard a lot about the upcoming free trade talks with the US. Are you concerned at any impact this might have on things like local content quotas?
I was amazed and alarmed when the Minister for Trade made it clear that local content quotas for TV and radio would be on the agenda for the free trade talks. Unlike what many people might read, I am actually a person who believes in free trade. I have been its advocate. But it does not require, and should not entail, us putting things like local content rules on the negotiating table. There is absolutely no need for that. Free trade rules don't require it. Logic doesn't support it. And we will get American material swamping Australian content, if we don't have the regulation that we have now.
I'll broaden it out a little bit. What are your views on the balance in government funding between your traditional high art - like theatre and opera - and more working class popular culture?
It is always a difficult balance, because of course, working class people want to go to the opera as well, and always have been. And there are young, working class kids who have got beautiful voices you want to turn into opera singers or ballet dancers, or whatever. And part of the policy is to make sure that wherever you live, whatever your background, you can develop your talent to its full. Whether you want to be a rock-and-roll singer or a ballet dancer. And that is important.
In recent years we have seen more of a skew towards the High Arts and the Arts that people from more affluent suburbs tend to enjoy. Now I welcome the support for that. I think that if that needs a bit of support, then our society should have it. But some of the other sorts of activities that take place, for example, in the outer suburban parts of our big cities, is languishing as a result of them not getting an equal amount of support and focus. So it is a very difficult balance. I don't want to score a cheap point because it is really hard to do. But all the focus on new activity has been fundamentally around the major theatre companies, etc. Now, they needed that support and I have welcomed them having it, but we need to look at how we provide a balance in that support.
I guess broadening that out a bit too - another tension between the idea of Art as a commercial industry for the people that are very, very good at it, and the idea that Art should be a part of everybody's everyday life - what role can government play in extending, I guess "Art" into the community?
Tony Blair has been actually looking at some very interesting ideas there, particularly about the role of the Arts in education. I don't mean by that, just training people to play the piano or something. I mean, research shows that you get better educational outcomes when kids are involved in Art, because it opens up their minds and you tend get better results.
And it opens up new career options for them, because you now have many important, creative industries in the Arts. Take the film industry. Everyone sees the glamorous jobs for Nicole Kidman and all those people, but when those films are being made there are jobs for the catering crew, there are electricians, there are carpenters, there are camera people - whole lots of technical and support jobs, that are flourishing in Sydney in particular, but also in Queensland and Victoria to a lesser extent - off that sort of production.
So you have got to look at the jobs. We have got to look at the cultural impact. And We have got to look at the pleasure ordinary Australians get from being able to participate in the Arts, or enjoy it. All of those things are what a government has to pay attention to.
Have you got a particular artistic forte yourself?
I'm no good at any of it. I don't have any talent. My enthusiasm really started from my love books. It is that which has led me to other art forms. I grew up in a working class household. There wasn't much access to music. I now enjoy music, but I don't have a deep understanding of it. I love literature and that has led me to enjoy drama and going to the theatre, and from there I have gone into other art forms. But I always come back to books first.
What is the single worst policy decision by the John Howard over the last two terms in the area of the Arts?
I think there has been one cumulative matter, which is the way they have allowed the Australia Council and the ABC to wither, because those are the two central dynamic forces in Australian public life, and Australians particularly see it through the ABC, and to a lesser extent it is not quite so obvious, but it is almost equally important, through the Australia Council.
Those two pillars of our cultural industry and our cultural identity have been allowed to wither. They haven't been chopped back in one instance, they have just been constricted and constrained over five years and they really do need our support if we are going to enjoy a successful and widely understood and appreciated cultural life.
Finally, as a senior member of the ALP front Bench, how hard is it to carry on as the political climate appears to spiral out of your control?
It has been a very hard few weeks, but all you can do is focus on the central issue - what I call the center of gravity issues - the ones that affect people's lives: jobs, health, education. Keep focusing on those and attention will shift back to those core issues. It is really hard at the moment, but it will change, and it is changing.
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Dan Buhagiar |
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Judging by the name, you would be forgiven for thinking the staff at Wobbly Radio are prone to fits of anger. Thankfully though, that's not where the name originated. "It's an old union term from the early 1900's," says Dan Buhagiar, the programmer at Wobbly.
"The Industrial Workers of the World, the IWW, were a group fighting globalisation. People had trouble getting their tongue around IWW and it became wobbly," she says.
Wobbly radio was officially launched last Saturday night with a gig at the Newtown RSL. The feature acts included Stella One-11, Lazy Susan and Peter Fenton.
Buhagiar has been in radio for seven years. In that time she has broadcast with 2SER, Triple J and a range of commercial and community broadcasters. In that time she's interviewed a range of local and international acts including Gomez, Ben Lee, You Am I and the Superjesus.
The greatest advantage with online radio is it gives the audience greater control over what they listen to. "It gives listeners more freedom and flexibility," says Buhagiar. "They can just click on their favourite artist
and listen to their song instead of listening to half an hour of other stuff they didn't want to hear."
The main aim of Wobbly is to help small emerging Australian acts raise their profile. "Each week we'll feature a new artist and have material on them," Buhagiar says. "We're going to get as many profiles of bands as we possibly can. We also give people a chance to upload their own songs."
The other purpose of Wobbly Radio is to introduce its listeners to unions. "I'm hoping that people will come for the music and then raise their awareness of the unions," says Buhagiar.
"I don't think it's a ridiculous assumption that young people could care about unions. I think they haven't been educated properly yet."
They don't intend to push the union message too hard. If listeners choose to, they can go to the Active News section and find out about recent and upcoming union events.
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E Change |
Do we need an national identity? And if so what should it be? Who's voices should be heard? And what role should the State play? Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel continue thier exploration of the Information Age.
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The New Hierarchies
There's a lot of talk about the 'new media' and the 'internet revolution', but in a way these things are part of a longer wave of change. The telegraph, for example, is a technology that fundamentally reshaped politics, economics, and culture. Since the telegraph, information has moved about the place faster than people or things. That's made it possible to communicate and organise across very large spaces.
The telegraph was, if you like, a new kind of 'vector'. It was a new form of movement, the movement of information separated from the transport of things. The telephone, television, all the other technologies that come after it, right up to telecommunication and the internet, add new potential to the way things can be organised across space. The modern economy, as we know it, relies on the ability to communicate prices and orders across space. Modern politcs requires communication that can cement people together in the same horizon of time. Modern culture requires the ability of people to form their own networks. In short, modern and postmodern cultures are cultures of communication.
Every time there is a new communication technology, it becomes an object of both hope and fear within the culture. Some people think we'll all be ruined; others that it is our salvation. In practice, each new communication technology since the telegraph has had quite unintended and complex effects. This will doubtless prove true of the internet as well. It is supposed to be the means by which democracy and the competitive market flourish, handing power back to the people and to small, innovative businesses. At least, that's what the techno-boosters argue. But there are also subtle counter trends. The internet can be a tool for centralising command within business organisations. In short, technologies don't have essences. They don't determine exactly what will happen. Technologies unleash potentials, which can be developed in different ways depending on other factors, including economic, legal, political, strategic and cultural factors.
In the Australian context, one factor that clearly shapes the implementation of the pontential of new communication vectors is the power of out quasi-oligopoly media businesses to exert commercial, legal or political pressure toward their own ends. For example, the slow implementation of pay-TV in Australia clearly reflects powerful vested interests. The particularly strange digital television policy developed by the Coalition government appears driven by the needs of existing media players rather than being in the interests of developing the potential of the technology or enhancing the value of the new technology to consumers.
To some extent, the big media conglomerates have run scared of the new technologies, They have seen them as a threat. They have moved to create very large vertically integrated businesses. Basically, all of the media conglomerates have pursued the same strategy, of getting access to vectors, to content, and to maximising the revenue that can be extracted from owning both the vector and the flow of information along it.
It's not clear that this going to work. It assumes that the broadcast model of communication is a timeless one, a model in which consumers buy information that is already packaged as a commmody. Out in cyberspace, people are already doing their own interactive entertainment, communicating with each other, developing their own 'content'. One of the things the new vectors makes possible is that it can free people from dependence on broadcasting. The big media players have had to move fast to rope off potential losses of revenue by finding ways to extract rents out of these new kinds of autonomous media culture.
The most significant deal recent times was the America Online -Time Warner merger; what amounted to a stock swap between a little dog and pony show and an enormous lumbering multi media conglomerate. You see the people who are used to the broadcast/mass media model look at this and say : hmm, there's an opportunity here, but we have to turn it into mass media, it's all we understand. But the other thing to consider about the AOL model is that it's successfully turned itself into cheap, mass, popular business that understands something about the internet - they're the ones who are selling the internet to mums and dads, filing off some of its rough edges; but leaving some of them in so you can create your own chatroom, your own content and so on. You can't underestimate the capacity of large organisations, no matter how much they may fail to turn the distributive media into broadcast, to be also looking around, finding what's working and buying it. That's what's happened in the past few years - the big firms bought anything that looked like working; now they're paying the price.
Creativity and Control
The challenge for the Industrial Age corporations is not to try and control it in the same way that they have traditionally controlled their assets. They must find personalities who can manage these businesses without stifling their potential. That's the challenge for the broader cultural industry as well: moving away from a control model.
The state funded culture 'industries' are still operating with out of date industrial models. The broadcast era was very much about hierarchies within hierarchies - it was contest about who's voice would be heard amongst all the possible voices that could be broadcast. The point was, only one voice could be broacast at the one time. There would be elite and popular broadcasting, there would be broadsheets and tabloids, and so on. It was just assumed that one was better than the other. A cultural divide was institutionalised that was inherently anti-democratic, but it was also the enemy of real excellence. 'Quality' became just a matter of class prejudice, rather than something that had to be tested.
Whenever you get a new media you get a new criteria for what's good and what's not. There's a panic about quality. This is happening with the itnernet just as it happened with previous vectors along which cultural content could be communicated. What you saw with television was the attempt to restrict the 'quality' end of it to the standards of a print-literate middle class. You get the BBC model which tries to retard the development of a new aesthetic, new cultural forms. Ironically, the development of the internet is now often retarded by the attempt to restrict it to models derived from television.
We're only starting to get used to thinking about the possibilities for television at the moment when television as a broadcast medium is effectively over. In the US it's been over for years; in Australia we're grappling with fact that it's gone. There's only one broadcaster left and that's Channel Nine; everything else is narrow casting. Channel 10, for example, has very effectively adapted to a niche role. The growth of pay-TV will only accelerate this trend toward the breakup of the broadcast model, with its rudimentary cultural distinction between 'high' and 'low' -- ABC versus the commericals.
The ABC has been the Mosman and Toorak Broadcasting Corporation for a while now. It has sacrificed even the pretence at real quality to being a class based broadcaster. It is the broadcaster of respectable junk, aimed at a middle class that only feels comfortable watching soap operas if its disguised as costume drama and given the alibi of a 'classic' novel. But this is not really a very sophisticated way to think about what 'quality' might be in broadcasting. It really is time to look at the ABC charter and think about what new roles a national broadcaster might adopt, in a world where BBC soap operas can just as easily be delivered by pay-Tv. Why should a national broadcaster just subsidise the tastes of people who can well afford to pay for those tastes?
The TV broadcast model's going or gone. This makes you think that you not only need to think differently about the culture, but that the culture is already thinking differently about itself. That mass model ('high' versus 'low') is already starting to split up - what you now get is a few key emblems or icons that people can play with or interpret in different ways. What works is not the one thing that means the same thing to the majority, it's the one thing that can be read completely differently by completely different audiences. Broadcast culture is good at enforcing the tastes of majorities, not good at opening space for minorities. In the postbroadcast world, the coerced majorities of broadcasting break up and fragment.
This has consequences for politics. The genius of broadcast culture was Bob Hawke, who was able to present himself as an image to majorities, as what those majorities wanted. But not everybody saw the same thing when they looked at Hawke. People saw what they wanted to see, and he was able to make people feel like they belonged, but belonged to something not held together by much besides an image.
We don't have a lot of examples of the post broadcast politican yet. Unfortunately, one aspect of Hansonism was how well it flourished in a post broadcast world. One Nation were very effective users of the internet, alternative publishing, mailing lists. The Greens also are quite advanced at this post broadcast approach. There's an element of this also in the Country Labor strategy.
What's interesting is the possibility of combining mass circulation images with the small scale, post-broadcast world of micro-communication. You see this all the time in popular culture, but not yet in Labor politics. Mainstream political culture tends to be pretty slow moving, so if you're looking for strategies and tools, you have to look to culture.
Take a perfectly banal TV show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the X Files. These have amazingly active fan followings on the internet, where people are using the broadcast image as just a jumping off point, a shared image which can then be scrutinised and deconstructed and reconstructed. Rather than just one shallow image meaning different things to different people, the differences come out, get discussed, thrashed out.
ABC Online has headed in this direction a bit, using the internet as a supplement to broadcasting, but its possible to go further. The X Files was a lot mroe interactive. Ideas for the shows could even be suggested by the fans. Rather than use the internet just to extend the hierarchical model of broadcasting, its possible to turn it on its head, and have the discussion drive the broadcasting. There's always limits on what can be said in broadcast culture. It has to be something suitable for a wide range of subcultures. But what happens in the postbroadcast world is a much wilder development of the potential of cultural material. For example, the sexual subtext of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is far more pronounced in its online version.
There can be a good synergy between these two kinds of media, broadcast and postbroadcast. The development of the latter opens new possibilities for getting out from under the hierarchical and massified cultural structure. But it raises issues to do with intellectual property and the information commons. People talk amongst themselves on the internet, but often do so via images and stories from mainstream broadcast media. But who owns these images and stories? The media corporations basically want to extract a rent from any use of media, from use of the vector or the content. But clearly there's an issue of creating a new kind of information commons.
We still have a popular culture, but we have a lot more than we can shape through that broadcast medium. Instead of there being symbols that are simply broadcast, they become domains which we can enter and play around in as we like. The days are gone where people would have the bust of Jack Lang on the mantlepiece and they'd be reading his newspaper and living in his world and being able to shut out everything else. There's this soup of information that people are trying to make sense of and make choices within. One is always exposed to more information than one wants - which is becoming a real hotbed issue in the suburbs, where many people would rather not be exposed to a whole lot of information and would rather it all kind of went away. It's all out there - whether you like it or not. The issue is more: how can people (a) make something for themselves vocationally, career and job-wise, but also socially and culturally out of the information available; and (b) are they free to do so or is it owned by somebody else. Since you can only have a media culture, the possibility of a self-organising popular culture where people have both access and some right to use the material available - and of course some skill with which to do so.
Towards a Net Culture
The death of the broadcast culture is only something to mourn if you have a comfortable part at the centre of it. You meet a lot more Lebanese kids on the Internet than you'll ever seen on television - and their feeling of empowerment in Australia has been enhanced by being allowed as a group to participate in a narrow cast culture. Which is more than they've ever got out of the mainstream institutions. You can see the Internet as the fulfilling the same do-it-yourself ethos as working on your hotrod car and so on. It's not the same as exhibiting in a gallery, but it's of the time and it's what we'll remember in the future, rather than the gallery. These are times in which the centres of creativity in the culture have shifted.
Which doesn't mean its nirvana. There are different problems. The problem used to be that you had this very authoritarian broadcast model culture and you had to appease a majority through that and suppress minorities. That was the model of Australian culture from the 1930s through to the 90s. Now all this is starting to desegregate and people are finding material to construct little sub-cultural worlds. So rather than appeasement and repression - the issue is more one of negotiation. How will you get all these people to be comfortable with the fact that they're always going to be being exposed to things they don't like? And you have some reciprocal responsibility to understand that when you are talking in a public context, about what things you put where.
And people who are organising around particular sub-cultures on the Net have to grapple with how to negotiate a category that spans enough subcultures, so that you can actually become part of some kind of public domain or space. That's where the negotiation and cleverness comes in: you have to do things like getting onto a site that will bring yourself up in a directory or a search engine. It's still about finding a place within the broader cultural conversation. It's not just a question of getting on the Net, it's being savvy enough to actually understand the kind of distribution of those corporate vectors on the Net and how to feed in and negotiate a span of categories.
Vale: The National Culture?
The national culture, to the extent that it was an artefact created by broadcasting, was always was fragmented and it was only held together by coercion. What the emergence of a post broadcast culture is showing is all the differences that were always there but where repressed. Its not the full story about the 50s to say it was a more cohesive time -- it was just a time when differences were suppressed more.
What's new is that it is out in the open increasingly. There's so much hysteria about revisionist history because what so-called 'black armband historians' do is expose the myth that there was this unified time and place where everyone lived happily together in a community. The consensus myths imposed by the broadcast era are breaking down, although sometimes new ones bubble up and take their place. An interesting example is the way Gallipoli has emerged as a stopover on the backpacker trail. But young people are creating new senses of the meaning of that experience, quite different from the RSL, although almost as reverent, but also different to the baby boomer Vietnam generation's denigration of that past.
With that example in mind, one can say that the passing of coercive national culture, and its central myth of the past, is not the end of the world. Culture is a hardy thing, but it has to reinvent itself of its own accord. And it really always does so from the bottom up. In the 19th Centruy The Bulletin magazine contributed to a national culture by inviting contributions from the readers; that was a strength of the paper for many years. It was like a steam-era internet.
The problem with the Bulletin today is that you have the same six or seven people have their say every week. One challenge in nurturing cultural expression is to find new forms of doing what the Bulletin used to do, which is to create public forums, rather than simply provide a platform for a few 'experts'. But what form will this public space take in an era where national borders are porous to global cultures? In the Whitlam era you had the dream of a national cinema that would be a place to "tell our own stories". But that stumbled under the weight of the expense of funding this rather aristrocratic medium, a medium of a few god-directors. It can't compete with Hollywood, and subsidised film ends up being a training ground for Hollywood. So a national cinema is not the whole answer.
Americans - well Hollywood which sucks in the talents of the world - seem to be better than us at finding products that all Australians like. Not many Australian films seems to strike a chord with enough people to capture our imaginations, span the subcultures of taste and make money. The Wog Boy seems to have touched the right nerve, and that's quite telling because it's a tale of difference within the national culture. The Wog Boy had everything going for it. It is an old narrative of the Aussie battler making good, the Dundee and Barry McKensie stories updated to contemporary Australia.
More importantly the film comes from an entertainment genre and not the art paradigm that dominates Australian film and the Canne obsessed funding bodies. It set out to be funny and entertain and it does. The Wog Boy taps into what is now a widespread feeling of being an Australian but being outside the Anglo mainstream that has a stranglehold on Australian public culture that would be unacceptable in the US or UK. Most significantly the 'Wog' product incubated for a decade or more in live theatre and TV and created a large and loyal grass roots following who claimed ownership of the character and story. The Wog Boy taps into working class Australian youth culture in a way that try-hard middle class left-liberal polemics cannot. In that sense The Wog Boy is a very democratic Australian film, rather than the vision of some privilged genius re-inventing the autuer wheel after leaving film school. Oh, and it has a good script.
Running the Culture
There's a constipated sense about the public space in Australia at present. Rather than the top down approach of reforming it - that you hear so much about and obsesses people in the ABC and the ALP - perhaps its a question of starting again. Go back to the grass roots development of the public space. It's a radical solution - but perhaps its worth considering: Let's admit that the ABC in this point in its history is substantially failing to fulfill its charter. Let's go around the public institutions and ask whether we can free up that money to start again, building new kinds of institution, possibly a new medium - which is what we are seeing with ABC Online, which on three dollars and a Cabcharge vouchure has really created a new space.
Perhaps the logic of starting SBS as an alternative national broadcaster is only just becoming apparent -- what if SBS were to develop as the primary, rather than the supplementary public broadcasting service? Grow SBS and wind back the ABC. So much thinking about public broadcasting is defensive -- and perhaps that's inevitable in periods of conservative rule. But the defense of the status quo is not muchy of a policy.
The fear is that the ALP back in government is just going to throw the doors open to the same old elites or a new version of the elites and not learn the lesson that they can't bring out the grand plan to make something happen. They have to read the lesson coming from Hanson-ism, that the public - including a substantial number of the ALP's traditional supporters are browned off by that journo culture, that left-wing hegemony within the media which sees the same voices, and they have to look at a proper democratisation of the media. How one administrates within government is a challenge for the ALP's cultural policy - and Keating did leave a bad taste in people's mouths.
The worst part of the Keating legacy was the top down, elite view of cultural change. But the best part was the experimentation with new kinds of cultural institution. What we saw in the Keating Years a few very little experiments creating new kinds of cultural organisations; but there's no will at all, on either side politics, to do anything about the lumbering unreformed and unreformable giants of public institutions.
Not all of the experiments in new institutions worked. Some were just minature versions of the old cultural bureaucracies. But some of the Creative Nation money found its way into new forms of public culture -- not to mention providing seeding funds for what became the internet economy boom. The contribution of public funding to that is widely under estimated.
Creative Destruction
The private sector is where so much of the action has happened because of what Schumpeter called 'creative destruction' - the market just runs through organisations, it's the slash and burn approach. If something isn't working, new stuff will knock it over, some of that will fail, what works will rise out of it and there's a very simple measure of whether it does: and that is whether it pays its own way.
We haven't got an equivalent way of approaching public sector institutions in terms of the ability not just to do the new things, but to get rid of some of the old things. Consequently, what you get is a politics of endlessly defending and propping up the old public institutions. As if by public insitution one always meant only the existing ones, not the possibiliity of new ones.
Australia has a problem with it's history. It hasn't been around as a white settlement for very long. We don't have a tradition of something being destroyed and being replaced. People on the Left tend to be conservative about the ABC, when the revolution was always about actually destroying things and starting again. Cultural institutions whither - and sometimes they need a final boot. A group of people set up ABC-TV. It reached its high watermark in the seventies and maybe the eighties and it's in decline now and a new institution will form elsewhere. Institutions like the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC are becoming old age homes for a particular cultural group. Maybe they'll just scale down and new things are going to grow elsewhere. But those people will keep thinking that they're the mainstream.
And it's more problematic in publicly owned cultural institutions than in the private sector because of their government funding and the understanding that institutions like the ABC or the NSW Art Gallery must reflect the entire culture and provide a service to all sections of society, not just a single interest group. In practice the ABC charter and those of many other public cultural bodies is usually ignored for a sectoral appeal to the Anglo-Celtic upper middle class. The problem occurs when terms like 'public interest' or 'quality' or 'non-commercial' are masks for personal taste or class prejudices or outmoded aesthetics. Tax payers and consumers have a right to a say in how their cultural dollars are spent. Currently these institutions are run as if they are the property of the cultural elites who are meant to be our servants. It is a far cry from the sort of cultural democracy a Labor Government should be promoting.
The Cultural Commissars
And private institutions like Fairfax and News Ltd and PBL are no better when it comes to bureaucrats and commissars imposing on their media a unitary and dated idea of where Australian public culture and interests are. Like their qango colleagues they hide pretty middle brow personal taste and prejudices behind the badge of professional standards or instincts. The problem for both sectors is a corporate structure that gives great power to executives producers, editors and senior journalists to control content, and a corporate vision from the twentieth century that sees readership or audiences in terms of a mass market , when actually the public is plural and incredibly diverse. Pay TV recognises this , as does the internet, some radio, zines.
The command Pyramid style control culture is at least as significant a factor in the blanding out of Australian cultural product, acting as a barrier to different class and ethnic voices. The ABC spends a lot of money making its TV boring, chopping, changing, recutting, rejecting. Sadly the 'Nyet' editorial culture means that the flag ship 'quality' media are unable to reflect the reality of Australian culture.
Either the large private and public cultural institutions adapt or they will whither, to be replaced by the new media where the different audiences will be. This means implementing internal reform that cedes power to individual program makers or writers in and outside the corporation. The key is encouraging real porosity with the growing n community outside its walls and outside its class culture. Raymond Williams in the 60s criticised the Left for uncritically picking up the notion of 'mass' media in the then fashionable ideas of cultural hegemony. This was a very condescending way of seeing people, who are in fact all individuals with unique tastes and who, for the most part, don't take TV or the papers at all seriously -unlike intellectuals who take texts of all sorts very seriously.
The problem for us is that Australian cultural gatekeepers take media too seriously, stifling it with over-management, when in fact it's only TV or words. Give a free rein, allow people to fuck up, make a mess, and speak to audiences with their own voices. Of course the broadsheet editors will tell you that;s all very well, but they have to give the public what it wants. Only the public increasingly doesn't want that model of media. The circulation equals success arguement falls down when you look at the long term decline in circulation of the old broadsheet style media.
With the ABC its a slightly different problem. It gets the ratings, but only by piling up very narrow segments of the population. As a national broadcaster, surely its remit is to offer a little something for everyone. Rather than use ratings as absolute numbers as a benchmark for the ABC, it would be far better to use the spread of demographics as a measure its success or failure. Something for the old, something for women, something for the country, something for Perth, and so on.
Working Class Culture
The key challenge for the Labor party is to generate cultural production among young people and to tap into the diverse cultural energies and visions and languages of the working class youth - these days that culture is ethnically diverse, a patch work of lifestyle subcultures and global in outlook. The real cultural potential lies here - a group that has never been asked top step onto centre stage, but a group that Is far more representative of mainstream Australia than the latest intake of NIDA students.
The ALP has not had a big interest in elevating working class youth culture to the centre of public culture in the same way that Blair, and previous Labour governments have done in the UK. Labor has rested on an idealised notion of working class popular culture created in the 1890s along with the party's birth, and has not really thought about the new class and ethnic-pop cultures that define life for many citizens. Beazley should watch 'Head On' and read 'Loaded' by Christos Tsiolkas if he is serious about a knowledge nation. He and his front bench need this knowledge.
Labor should also look at William Morris' ideas that the aim of socialism was to encourage a creative community where all had equal access to artistic expression - creative expression is what makes us human and binds us to each other socially. I was not surprised to hear Blair's culture supremo David Puttman refer to the centrality of Morris vision in Blair's Cool Brittania.
It will not be easy to enfranchise the working class due to years of neglect of the public education system, which has left many, many working class kids without the cultural keys and tools to gain entry to the public culture. Schools and TAFEs are the greatest cultural institution this country has, yet state and Federal labor governments have allowed them to run down and dumb down, downgrading knowledge and cultural literacy in favour of a mad dash to put a computer and a self esteem course in every class room.
While kids from blue collar families struggle to get enough marks for uni entrance and fail to get the presentation skills to score a job at DJs, private school children in better off suburbs continue to dominate the cultural industries and grant allocations. For all the talk about Access and equity programs and disadvantage funding from Labor in the 80s and 90s the upper middle class flavour of Australian arts became more entrenched, especially in the so-called avant garde and performing arts , but equally in film and TV.
Labor's worthy disadvantaged funding schemes in the 80s and 90 s for NESBs, women, aborigines failed to ever embrace working class people. There was no box to tick if you came from a state school. Labor could never grasp that it is the culture of ordinary people that can revive Australian public culture, rather than culture that must save 'disadvantaged' people. Embracing the polyglot, youthful working class culture of 21st century Australia does mean a serious rethink and reform of our educational institutions and curricula. But it also means changing how we think of art and public culture.
The British Art School Model
In English working class art has had a far more sympathetic run where the art school structure created an outlet for generation of troubled, working class youth. John Lennon, Pete Townsend, any English rock band you could name since the 50s had at least one member who spent at least one day in art school. The whole apparatus has never existed here, but look what it's produced there!
Victorian aesthetic champion John Ruskin started it because he saw that England lacked an edge when compared with France in the 19th century. It was taken up by Labour and turned into a Social Democratic alternative to the Oxford education. You'd go to art school and it wasn't about reading and writing, so it was about those valued middle class skills of literacy. As it turned out in the 60s and again in the 80s and 90s, it was about media skills, which in a lot of ways are a hell of a lot more valuable. It gave you, not just your John Lennons but your Allan Parkers, a whole range of really significant cultural figures, from working class backgrounds who went to institutions that dealt with the fact that were often a bit unhappy and developed skills which didn't necessarily fit with the middle class aspirations.
They learnt pop culture literacy, translated it into skills and made the connections to intervene in their culture. Whether it was in the Face magazine or on the BBC in the Young Ones or on album cover art. Australia tends to have more of an Eistedford mind-set. Look at our punk heroes. Too many of them were GPS kids. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that their parents taught them the piano and they plugged into London. They plugged into the working class energies of London. The Go-Betweens rather than a bunch of Cockney layabouts. Australia is a very class ridden society culturally because this continues. Neither Whitlam nor Keating were equipped to deal with this because; in Whitlams' case came from the other side, while Keating wanted to be with the other side.
The whole clever country, smart education rhetoric that surfaced first with Hawke and now Kim Beazley plays in a really ambivalent way. It's telling a lot of people that you can't live the life that you've lead, you've got to become someone else, you've got to become middle class to get on - and by the way, you're going to have to pay for it as well. I don't know how that plays with the electorate. What you should be saying to people is: "your culture as it stands is already a great resource; what we need to do is stick your kids through the training to figure out how to use it". At the same time we figure out the public culture infrastructure that can make best use of that. England is a reasonably good model; it's not just being socially useful in looking at working class creativity as something that has a social role in allowing people to express themselves and add value to the community. It's also worth a shit load of money through cultural industry exports - which we've only just been able to get on the agenda in Australia.
We make more money flogging music to the world than we make flogging sugar. Now you can bet your bottom dollar there's someone in a government department whose whole portfolio is sugar, but its taken years to get anyone whose portfolio is music. We don't think the whole thing through - the whole thing about parallel importing was it was the same old free trade/protectionism argument. They didn't argue about anything else like: how do you have a music industry that has a cultural and economic function together. It was just about protection.
The Bull by the Horns
The first challenge is to look at what were traditionally separate portfolios as related. That means putting culture, art and education more than notionally together. They're in two departments now, where they used to spread across four, so that's a step; but I don't think it's yet to be approached as an integrated sector that, on one the hand has economic and employment value; but on the other hand is a series of institutions that make Australia governable. It is worth sounding a little bit alarmist about that without that space functioning, the governability of the national space is weakened. Labor needs to embrace the realisation that in the information age culture is the key wealth generator. The cultural portfolio must be an economic portfolio. The days of steel are over, the days of mining are over, you must think of your cultural portfolio as your key economic portfolio. It should be merged or articulated with Communications as the key wealth-generating centre of the economy.
And it aint just the pipes, it's the content. We must look at our education system, look at the curricula, see how they compare to France or Britain; look at primary school; I suspect that we will find that they've been emptied of knowledge and the way that skills are being gauged is a bureaucratic ticking exercise. Schools must be overhauled for the information age. In terms of culture and the arts, you need to look at the training institutions we discussed earlier; look at the British art school model, as a way of easing the pressure on the academic curriculum of senior high school. An art school that is not a tech school. Techs were great 19th century institutions, Australian ran them throughout the 20th century. Howard loves his apprenticeships. But it's over.
The other thing is to seriously examine the ABC. We love the ABC, much as the Right may have loved the Queen, but it's time to look at what it needs to be this century. Cultural rejuvination of public media requires extreme measures ...We have to look past its current stakeholders who are all wonderful people, who done a very good job but - Australia has to start thinking long-term. We've never don't it really. And culture is where it's starting to come home to roost. For the ABC, it will probably take a Labor Government to reform it; it can't be done by the Right. The Liberals describe the ABC as 'our enemies talking to our friends' - which is a complete waste of time. Why broadcast to Mosman, over and over again the seventies' desiderata? Sell it off and use the money to build SBS into new public broadcaster, where the bureaucratic overhead hasn't consumer the organisation. Let's start again there and build an institution for the times.
On the one hand.radical surgery may still be able to secure relavance for a public broad and narrow caster in the deacdes to come.The Fabian Socialist reformers Sydney and Beatrice Web helped invent public commisisons and corporations at the end of the last century to deliver certain public goods - like health or local garbage collection. The BBC and ABC followed on their model of a senior civil service structure reporting to a Commission of politically appointed representatives. But now we have to talk about public broadcasting as a new matrix of creative networks stretching deep into the freelance community and operating to a public charter and certain benchmarks, but freed from top heavy bureaucratic control and conservative commissioning criteria. This has tended to happen more in ABC radio which is difficult to control and spontaneous, and a multi channel environment will help to achieve this in television. But the incubator role of the ABC as trainer and (potential) risk taker and innovator must be maintained - Australian capitalist cannot be relied on to invest in creativity. Cut off the king's head at the ABC and a replace what is still a factory system with this kind of matrix production model. Accept that one can have a diversity of culture and stop over-controlling it.
This chapter is based on conversation Involving academic and columist McKenzie Wark, academic Anna Munster and publisher Tony Moore
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"Here in BHP we work as brothers" from left to right AWU members Brian Elder, Dazim Ali, Amen Zoaki, Darek Barbour and Aziz Mohammed. Cameron Ramsay |
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Darek Barbour and his wife were walking in their neighbourhood in the same way that they have done for years. His wife, wearing a scarf around her head, attracted the ignorant bullies. Darek and his wife were abused and spat on. "I don't know what's happening", Darek says quietly. All the men sitting in the training room share the same distressed expression.
The shadow of violence and fear that has settled over the world since the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon has fallen across the lives of ordinary Australians muslims. For Darek Barbour and his mates at BHP Building Products, the workplace has been something of a refuge from prejudice and ignorance. As Aziz Mohammed says, "Here in BHP we work as brothers."
Making roofing materials and frames in a factory in Chullora, in Sydney's south west, seems a long way from the troubles of the world. Darek, Aziz and their eighty work mates are multicultural Australia. They are machine operators, members of the Australian Workers Union, who come from Lebanon, China, Fiji, Vietnam; they are Australians of the sixth generation and the first. As Amen Zoabi says, they all here for one reason: "Australia is a fantastic, tolerant country."
They fear that Australia is changing around them. Dazim Ali came from Fiji, a country torn by ethnic violence and political upheaval, in 1987. He felt Australia was a safe country; he felt safe in the workplace. Just a few days before in a Liverpool street his wife had her veil torn from her face. Every worker sitting in the training room has wives, mothers or daughters who are now afraid to walk in public. "If we don't stop this now, in the future Australia will be just like other countries with racial tension and disputes."
Brian Elder is a leading hand and the AWU's delegate at the factory. Brian has a Christian Lebanese background. He is neither Muslim nor Arab - he proudly explains that the Lebanese have a Phoenician heritage, the descendants of the ancient mariners who settled around the rim of the Mediterranean. Now he sees people watching him in the street, judging him by his appearance. "Are you a terrorist?", they seem to be thinking.
In his spare time BHP sales rep Amen Zoabi regularly attends a nearby Muslim youth centre. Since 11 September so do the camera crews, because it says ISLAMIC CENTRE on the front of the building. Amen feels the media want to trade in sensation and stir up fear. He would like to tell the media what Islam has taught him, his family and friends: "Islam doesn't teach us to kill innocent people - all we ask is to be judged by who we are and not by the events in America."
Darek Barbour feels that his faith and his identity have been hijacked by the terrorists and all those who play cruel games with peoples' lives; terrorists over whom he has no control. "Osama bin Laden never asked me", he says. Dazim Ali hopes that Australia will remain "a peaceful island. I work with Sikhs, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. We work in harmony."
There is a murmur of agreement around the room when Amen says that the Australian Government has not done enough to ease the social tensions created by the bombings in America. "We don't care if John Howard visits us or not. He should get out into the community and preach tolerance."
by Jessica Barton
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Since April 2001, STAA has been focusing on its main goal for this year, renegotiating the Motion Picture Production Agreement (MPPA), which expires at the end of the year.
On the 29th July, STAA organised for all crew in NSW to congregate and voice their opinions concerning any issues relating to unsatisfactory working conditions. These important issues were to be considered ahead of the negotiations for the new agreement.
Following great success the meeting raised many important issues concerning inadequate working conditions endured by staff and crew. This meeting was crucial for giving insight into the issues that need to be addressed in the upcoming negotiations.
One of the most critical issues debated at the meeting was the use, or non-use, of the standard MPPA contract. Many contracts are breeching standard industry agreements by undermining its rates of pay and conditions. A greater awareness amongst crew of the existence of the STAA contract, and then the willingness to use it, needs to be increased. It was revealed that where the standard contract is not being implemented, crew are not only undermining themselves but the industry as a whole.
The debate exposed a concerning problem for the industry. The TV series, Crash Palace, which was produced at Fox Studios had employed staff to work under unfair contracts. Crew members were required to work for a rate that was "inclusive of any and all overtime." This of course breeches the terms of agreement as it fails provide employees with overtime penalty rates in which they are entitled to.
Eventuating from a STAA steering committee meeting on the 5th September was a proposal to Fox Studios raising the problematic and unsatisfactory working conditions being imposed. It sought to assure that all future Fox productions use the standard MPPA contracts.
In response to this Fox guaranteed to "ensure that contracts for subsequent productions will comply with the terms of the agreement."
In the STAA News spring edition, Sound Editor and NSW Branch Vice President Jenny Ward expressed similar concerns over insufficient and unstable working conditions. She alleged that time dedicated to the projects had been sacrificed for the fixing of equipment and software. The working conditions in post production also shows to be unstable and understaffed. There is an overwhelming concern for the "lack of respect for the craft and for those who work in the area."
On the 25th July, Sound Editors from various states drew up a standard contract. Its premise was to implement structure and "formalise" the working conditions and at the same time provide stability for staff if things go wrong.
The MEAA is now drafting this contract in an effort to enforce new contractual agreements between employers and their production crew.
"We need the MEAA because they have the right skills, diplomacy and resources," says Jenny Ward.
Another ongoing issue is the loss of jobs for make-up artists during mass movie productions in Australia. With the Matrix 2 and 3 being filmed in Australia it is assumed that the employment opportunities for Australian make-up artists would increase. In STAA News' spring edition, Delegate to the Federal Council Nikki Gooley writes about the weakening job opportunities for Australian make-up artists during the Matrix production.
Overseas make-up artists have been offered heads of department positions contravening the original understanding between MEAA and The Matrix, and denying the opportunity for equally skilled Australian artists. In response to this many Australian make-up artists have decided to boycott the production. The number of make-up artists becoming members of the MEAA is growing, which is a good sign for the industry and the action against this stand.
by Steve Wilson
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Making Art Work |
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In the Australia Council Support for the Arts Handbook 2001, the key aim of the Community Cultural Development Fund is described as enabling communities 'to advance their artistic and social aspirations by working closely with professionals artists. Through these collaborations communities are assisted to maintain or reclaim their culture, to address issues of concern to them and to create contemporary artistic works which reflect the richness and diversity of Australian communities and their cultural life' .
This definition is based on three main principles:
- a community cultural development project is the result of a collaboration between an artist and a community;
- that through this collaboration a community is assisted to re-affirm its identity by the production, practice and celebration of its culture;
- and, that Australian society is not a homogeneous culture rather a construct of a number of different cultures representative of different communities.
These days we often hear the term community used to describe the general population or the whole society of a country - especially by politicians. It has been used descriptively in terms such as community liaison officer, community health centre, community justice centre or community transport. It has a vagueness about it when used to enclose people within its definition. In contrast, a standard dictionary definition of community describes it as a 'group of people forming political or social unity, or living together, or having race, religion etc. in common
