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| Issue No 120 |  |
23 November 2001 |
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| Issue No 120 | |
23 November 2001 |
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Transport Workers Union state secretary Tony Sheldon says the ALP should enforce a compulsory code of practice for all political donations and contributions made to every branch of the party.
"Developed in consultation with community representatives, this code should ensure that all contributors to the party maintain responsible environmental standards, corporate practices, protect international human rights, make only ethical investments, and ensure fair labour practices, in all their national and international dealings, " Sheldon says
He made the call while rejecting calls for the Party to dilute union input into policy-making floated in the wake of the federal election disaster.
Sheldon says trade unions have had nothing to do with the decision taken by ALP bureaucrats to run a 'small target' strategy in the lead up to the election.
"We played no part in the decisions of previous Labor Governments to commit the nation to unfettered globalisation without basic protections for human rights, working conditions and the environment," Sheldon says.
"Nor were unions part of the elite group who decided to privatize the Commonwealth Bank and sell off the nation's share in Qantas, sowing seeds of doubt in the ALP's commitment to a publicly-owned Telstra."
WA Unions Cut Off ALP Funding
Meanwhile, West Australian unions affiliated to Labor are withholding their quarterly funding of the ALP WA branch to show their displeasure with the State Government.
The decision by unions comes at a time of increasing tension over the Gallop Government's failure to honour election promises.
The call to honour election promises came when WA Health Minister Bob Kucera joined about 40 LHMU members on Tuesday to celebrate the transfer to permanent positions in Royal Perth Hospital after privatisation of Housekeeping and Courier services was ended.
The workers were formerly employed by Spotless as Cleaners, Hygiene Orderlies and Mail Couriers.
Lawrence Calls Lawrnece
And LHMU nationals ecretary Jeff Lawrence has responded to the comments on union influence by ALP Frontbencher Carmen Lawrrence (no relation) with the following open letter.
Dear Carmen
I am writing with respect to your article in The Australian of 14th November.
I should first make it clear that I have no difficulty with your statement that "membership needs to broadened, participation facilitated and a genuinely democratic structure devised." I do not think however that removing union affiliation and representation from the party is the means to do this. As I understand it, your proposal isn't just an argument about whether the 60% representation that unions have at some party conferences is appropriate. It is a proposal to remove completely separate union affiliation. This would in fact mean that the ALP is no longer a labor party but rather a vaguely progressive organisation not unlike the Democratic Party in the United states.
You argue that the current structure of union affiliations is a denial of democracy and that it prevents the exercise of "one vote one value." You also say that the system of union affiliation "robs us of the active commitment and participation of ordinary union members and also disenfranchises ordinary branch members who are active in their own right".
I would like to make a number of points about this position:
1. Whilst I appreciate that this has been your view for some time, it would be extraordinary to take a step which changes the total structure of the party when this hasn't been an issue at all in the recent election defeat. This point was made very well by ACTU Secretary Greg Combet in his article in the Australian of 19th November. Whatever may have been the reasons for the party's defeat I have seen nobody argue that it arose from the relationship with the trade union movement. Indeed the trade union movement and its members were an important part of the Labor campaign on the ground and in relation to key issues, eg. aged care, Ansett, Telstra etc.
2. The union movement is the only link to a large grass roots membership base that the ALP has. It facilitates input into the party from a diverse cross section of industries and occupational and geographical groups. Surely one of the main reasons for the decline in the party's structure at branch level has been the way in which Labor governments have made decisions contrary to the party platform and the decisions of the party conferences. Without the structural link to the union movement MPs would be less constrained to follow party policy or to act in accordance with the democratically arrived at decisions of party forums.
3. Your argument about denial of democracy ignores the fact that trade unions are democratic organisations. Trade union leaders, at both branch and national level, are democratically elected and are answerable to their membership and union governing bodies. This structure does not deprive the party of the active participation of union members. In fact unions do encourage their members, especially delegates, to be involved in political activity.
4. The Unions@Work document which was prepared by a cross factional delegation under the leadership of the now President and Secretary of the ACTU has, as one of its central themes, increased participation of union members at all levels of the organisation. This is integral to the organising agenda which is now the central preoccupation of all unions under the leadership of the ACTU. Encouragement of participation in the political activity is part of this process. In the last election campaign our union focussed on involving members in a range of campaign activities. The union movement isn't just campaign fodder for the Labor party. It is integral to the ALP's policy process and its ability to present and argue a case to the Australian electorate.
5. It needs to be recognised that the union movement and leadership has significantly changed. The largest affiliates to the ACTU now represent unions in the service sector who have, if not a majority, then a significant proportion of their members who are women and from NESB backgrounds. The union movement reflects the nature of the workforce. This in turn is fed into the Labor party at state and territory level. Labor is in fact a beneficiary of the policy and campaign activity that the union movement brings.
6. The level of union influence is grossly overstated. Although unions may have a majority of the conference in a number of states the examples of Labor governments being constrained from following policy initiatives is non existent. In fact, if anything, the reverse is the case.
It is true to say that the Labor party does face a crisis because of the decline in its membership. This is a crisis however which largely exists at branch level. Substantial steps need to be taken to reinvigorate the branch structure of the party. The suggestions that you make about widening participation and making that participation more meaningful are valid. The extent to which members are disenfranchised by Labor governments taking actions which are directly contrary to their views and the policies that have been adopted in party forums, has been directly reflected in the decline in active membership in the party.
These issues should be addressed. We do not however need to tamper with the fundamental structure of the party in order for this to happen. Over the last few years the union movement has taken many positive steps to seek to address the decline in union membership. It is about time the party did the same. It shouldn't do this, however, by tampering with the one thing that it has going for it.
Yours faithfully
JEFF LAWRENCE
NATIONAL SECRETARY
LHMU
Prime Minister John Howard passed up the option for a more conciliatory approach to workplace issues and has kept his chief-head kicker in the position.
Federal industrial relations spokesman Arch Bevis has failed to win factional backing for a front-bench position, meaning a newcomer will take over the key position.
Bevis says his demotion to the backbench will not detract from his determination to work with the labour movement against the Howard agenda.
He has written to union secretaries thanking them for their support and assistance over the last three years. And he's signalled he has unfinished business on IR and will work to get back into a position.
NSW Labor Council John Robertson has paid tribute to Bevis' work in the criticial portfolio.
"Arch was always consultative and work hard, particularly in getting in place a workable system of protection for workers' entitlements," Robertson says.
by HT Lee
Building unions say the tragedy, at Dulwich Hill on Wednesday, shows why all safety concerns should be taken seriously.
Joseph Wehbe the boss of Regency Demolition was on his mobile phone. He had his back towards the wall when a sudden gush of wind smashed the scaffolding onto the wall.
Joseph was 39 years old with four young children aged six years and under. He is the third boss to be killed at a site while talking on a mobile phone and the eight building worker killed in NSW so far this year.
CFMEU organiser Steve Keenen was at the site a few days before the accident and raised his concerned with the safety standards there.
The scaffold was brassed to the wall and was erected almost right onto the footpath without any hording to protect the public--making the site not only a danger to workers but also to the public.
It appeared the sheets of ply attached to the mash on the scaffold--used as protection against the overhead electrical and Optus wires--acted as spinnakers under the wild and heavy wind giving it added weight as the scaffold smashed against the wall. The wall by that time had no other support except the brassed scaffold.
Swift Action
Arriving at the accident scene CFMEU safety coordinator Brian Miller noticed the scaffolding was swaying in the wind--there was a strong possibility the scaffold could topple onto the electrical wires and onto the road if the wind direction changed. The police and WorkCover inspectors were consulted and the busy New Canterbury Road was closed to all traffic.
The fire brigade secured the scaffold with ropes and painstakingly and carefully removed the ply and the mash to ease the weight.
A fire brigade officer remarked that builder workers faces more dangers then they do--they have been to many accidents at building sites.
This latest accident also raises the issue of working in inclement weather--workers should not be forced to work in the open in high wind and rain.
There are many similar small sites all around the suburbs of Sydney that are a danger not only to the workers but also to the public. Municipal councils must take a more pro-active role in making sure these sites are safe.
Victorians Get Industrial Manslaughter
Commenting on the tragedy, CFMEU state secretary Andrew Ferguson says it's time for a debate on whether NSW should replicate 'industrial manslaughter' laws tabled in the Victorian Parliament this week.
The Victorian Trades Hall Council has welcomed the introduction of the Crimes (Workplace Deaths and Serious Injuries) Bill. Leigh Hubbard, Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, says the introduction of the Bill is long overdue.
"The community has expectations of reasonable conduct by those in positions of authority within workplaces with respect to heath and safety issues and this Bill reflects those standards," Hubbard says.
The VTHC has campaigned strongly for the industrial manslaughter laws and have linked it to the death of young apprentice Anthony Carrick
by Noel Hester
The Liberals may have conned their way to victory in the Federal election but there are some issues that are not going to melt away. Prominent on that list is the issue of worker entitlements. The Feltex dispute highlights the inadequacy of the Howard Government's quick and empty fix on this vital concern of workers.
Priorities at the ACTU exec will be the setting of the work program for next year with a focus on delegates education, improving the rights of casuals and improving protection of entitlements.
The ALP's defeat will also be on the agenda with the ACTU making its contribution to the debate by the wider labour movement as we find a way forward for labour politically.
This week ACTU Secretary Greg Combet pointed out that the relationship between unions and Labor has been defined more by the Coalition than by the labour movement.
'John Howard, as a student of the Menzies period, knows that the conservatives can dominate when the labour movement is divided. That is why he denigrates unions and ridicules Labor politicians with a union background. Labor has been defensive about the issue, whereas a positive approach is needed,' he said.
'Those in the labour movement who argue that the Labor-union relationship should be jettisoned altogether should consider the issues very carefully indeed. They should look to build on the strengths of the relationship, rather than condemn it for its weaknesses.'
While the government claims the restrictions to section 106 actions are to remove 'high fliers' from the jurisdiction, unions believe many workers will be caught out too.
The changes follow the use of the IRC by high-profile sports stars and media personalities, including Jana Wendt, to argue unfair contracts of employment in tre IRC rather than the more costly court system. It comes after intense lobbying by big business who are concerned their executives will use the system.
Limits include a $250,000 cap on claims, a three month time limit and restrictions to disputes on the wording of contracts rather than the conducts of the parties in the contract's execution.
But Transport Workers Union legal officer Andrew Metcalfe says the changes will hurt his members, such as truck drivers, for whom the jurisdiction was originally created.
Metcalfe says the monetary limit appears high, but disputes over goodwill in the trucking industry often exceed this sum. And he says the time restriction place workers negotiating a settlement at a severe disadvantage.
"The Premier should talk to workers and their representatives before making changes that will leave them worse off," Metcalfe says.
Pressures Forcing Sleepiness on Truckies
Meanwhile, the TWU is calling for urgent reforms to help save lives on our roads. In light of research showing up to 55% of NSW truck drivers may suffer from Sleep Apnea and that 31% of drivers could be at risk of excessive day time sleepiness
"The revelations on Channel Nine's Nightline program last Friday night of research results from the Institute of Respiratory Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital that up to 55% of NSW truck drivers may suffer from sleep apnea and that up to 31% of drivers could be at risk of excessive daytime sleepiness should strike terror into the heart of every NSW road user," Transport Workers Union State Secretary Tony Sheldon said today.
"Following a study of almost 1000 drivers, if these preliminary results are reflected across the road transport industry they could mean one in three drivers on the road are at risk of falling asleep during the day."
"Fatigue is already identified as the primary cause in up to 25% of fatal road accidents. "Unless something is done to address the pressures and demands being placed on drivers that are forcing them over the edge standards in the industry they are only going to get worse," Mr Sheldon said.
"In the twelve months to April this year 202 people have already been killed in accidents involving articulated trucks. To prevent even more people being killed in the busy lead up to the Christmas holidays, the TWU is calling on the both State and Federal Governments to develop a compulsory code of practice for the industry, including enforceable sustainable freight rates and provisions for clients in the industry to be held accountable."
As an additional part of the solution the TWU is calling for the release of the NSW Motor Accidents Authority Inquiry Safety Inquiry into the Long Haul Trucking Industry. Conducted by Professor Michael Quinlan from the University of NSW, the TWU believes the recommendations of this report offer an important opportunity to radically improve safety standards in the trucking industry.
"For over 9 months now Government officers have been considering recommendations from the Qunilan Inquiry. If implemented, these recommendations could help save the lives of drivers and innocent road users," Mr Sheldon said.
Tasmania defeated runner-up South Australia and third-placed Queensland. Tasmania out performed the other States with its environmental policies, and performed above average in social policy.
In a surprise outcome, NSW has slipped to fourth place, after holding the top spot for five years straight.
"The main reason for the NSW fall was a below average performance in the crucial social policy area," said Dr Christopher Sheil, who prepared the report for the Evatt Foundation.
"NSW came second last in the social policy area. This was a steep fall, and it has been compounded by the loss of the State's leading edge in environmental policy."
In another surprise outcome, Western Australia won the wooden spoon for the first time in the eight-year history of the League Table.
Western Australia recorded the worst social policy performance, and the second worst environmental performance.
"It should be noted that the Western Australian performance relates to the period of the former Coalition Government led by Richard Court", said Dr Sheil.
"The WA result continues the League Table's extraordinary track record. Every single State government that has won the Table's wooden spoon has lost at its subsequent election"
In other results, Queensland rose from fourth to third position, and Victoria rose to fifth position, finally surrendering the League Table's wooden spoon during the first year of the Bracks Labor Government.
The Evatt Foundation and the Public Sector Research Centre at the University of New South Wales produced The State of the States 2001 report.
The research is based upon data from the Commonwealth Grants Commission and the Australian Bureau of Statistics and covers the 12 months to June 2000.
NSW Police Association president Ian Ball says the return of an ocean going police vessel and police officers to the Port Kembla community was a matter of some urgency.
The South Coast community has been lobbying for the return of the vessel for some months and the issue was highlighted in an editorial in this week's Illawarra Mercury.
"It would demonstrate considerable faith between the Minister, the cops, the South Coats Labor Council and the local community," Ball says.
Meanwhile, the Police Association has reacted favourably to the Costa appointment, who formally recognised the assistance they had received during his tenure as Labor Council secretary.
"Given our new Minister's well known qualities of forthrightness and diplomacy when engaged in moments of intellectual conflict, it is with some hope that we welcome him as our new Minister," Ball says.
Ball has also pointed out that given Michael's predilection for the darker colours, it is interesting to note that the New York Police Department has return to the block uniforms.
"We trust that we are not pushed back into the serge uniforms of the past in line with this apparent fashion trend," he says.
New Minister for Education in NSW
Meanwhile, the NSW Teachers Federation has welcomed the appointment of John Watkins to the state's education portfolio.
"We wish Minister Watkins well in what is a challenging portfolio. The Federation has been able to work well with him on the education of prisoners in his previous role as Minister for Corrective Services" Sue Simpson, President of the Federation says.
Ms Simpson then went on to identify challenges for the new Minister to address in the 16 months leading to the next State Election:
* How to address the legacy of hostility toward the Carr Government which remains as a result of the bitter salaries dispute
* How to deal with community disquiet over school closures and secondary school reorganisation
* How to ensure every child has a qualified teacher at a time of worldwide teacher shortage and expectation of lower class sizes
* How to invest resources to ensure that public education is the first choice for more parents.
Ms Simpson says that outgoing miniter John Aquilina had acted in accord with the Carr Labor Government's policy. Simply changing the Minister will not in itself repair relations with the public education community. Minister Watkins must be given the backing of the Government to implement new policies to address the challenges facing public education.
The Federation's senior officers have already scheduled a meeting with the new Minister.
by Jim Marr
The court ordered the Federal Government's employment agency to pay $10,000 to the Community and Public Sector Union after finding Employment National had forced four workers to sign AWAs under "duress".
CPSU spokesperson, Jenness Gardner, revealed the union had objected to the AWAs at the time of their imposition but said the Employment Advocate had "again failed to act".
The Office of the Employment Advocate was established to promote individual agreements (AWAs), ahead of collective agreements, and was charged, in theory at least, with ensuring they met requirements laid down by the Workplace Relations Act.
In practise, the office has given the green light to document after document that has left workers significantly worse off. After the court ruled another AWA had "disadvantaged" a seaman, an office spokesman refused to accept liability.
The CPSU has just won an award with Stellar Call Centres after two years of campaigning against OEA-endorsed, take-it-or-leave-it AWAs that cut rates for jobs by more than $10,000 a year.
It has also called for action against Vodafone for alleged breaches of "freedom of association" statutes in advocate-endorsed AWAs.
Gardner said the OEA was a "key component" in a set of laws "specifically designed to tilt the playing field against working Australians".
That contention, she argued, was proved by the full Employment National judgement.
"While finding Employment National guilty, Justice Moore said the Act didn't allow the offending AWAs to be set aside.
"The $10,000 paid to the union won't go anywhere near the expenses we have incurred in proving this case."
by Greg Turner
This funding increase follows the granting of significant pay rises to staff covered by the Social and Community Services Employees Award.
ASU Secretary Luke Foley said Mr Egan's announcement will be welcomed by thousands of workers in the community sector.
"Last Friday the Industrial Relations Commission handed down long overdue improvements to the pay and conditions of community sector workers, including an immediate increase in their hourly rate of pay of more than 11.5 per cent."
The NSW Government has listened to the message that these increases must be funded in order to ensure quality delivery of social services in the non-government sector," he says.
"The Federal Government has a responsibility to follow suit and increase its share of funding to the sector."
by Phil Davey
A mass meeting of all mill workers at Broadwater this afternoon has voted (98%) to accept the management's withdrawal of lockout notices and a spectacular management climb down from its long standing insistence that core award and other employment conditions be stripped away.
Workers will now not be forced to work on all public holidays and will receive a 7% pay rise over two years.
Commenting on the victory today, CFMEU State Secretary Andrew Ferguson, who spent most of this week with affected workers, paid tribute to them.
"These guys had everything thrown at them. Deliberate misinformation was put out to local cane farmers in order to cast our guys in the worse possible light and management for two weeks attempted to starve them and their families into submission.
It is a testimony to their discipline and resolve that they have got such a solid result and not compromised their integrity."
Massive Support for Sugar Workers
Earlier in the week, three North Coast sugar mills workers touring Sydney building sites were overwhelmed by the support they have received in Sydney.
Nine mass meetings were held on Sydney sites with thousands of dollars raised for the sugar workers and their families.
Leigh Brown of Yamba expressed jubilation at the reception he received from workers in Sydney.
"I told building workers about our struggle with management, how they have refused to rule out further lock outs and how tough we are doing it up the coast," Brown says.
"We passed the hard hat around at the end of the meeting and I couldn't believe how much was in there. It was thousands.
"Construction workers in Sydney seem determined to ensure we have a decent Christmas in spite of the best efforts of our own management up the coast"
Electrical Trades Union state secretary Bernie Roirdan says the closure highlights the lack of a federal government industry policy to protect Australian jobs.
And he's condemned the company for the timing of the closure and the hardship it will create over the Christmas-New Year period.
"The employees are being told their entitlements are protected, however the Union Officials involved are not so sure," Roirdan says.
He's asked the Labor Council to keep a watching brief on the unfortunate situation.
by Dale Keeling
Optus announced another 344 permanent staff and 217 contractors in November to follow the 350 jobs lost by the SingTel subsidiary in October, almost 10% of the company's workforce. The One.Tel collapse cost up to 4,000 jobs - possibly more - whilst Vodafone is getting rid of more than 1,000 workers in addition to 365 in May. On top of that Telstra is always disposing of its loyal workforce - 12% of staff last year - whilst small contractors and re-sellers are going to the wall all the time. Hutchison Australia said last month it would cut 450 jobs.
CEPU NSW T&S Assistant Secretary Mark Brownlow told Workers Online that poor management and a get rich quick attitude to the industry was at the heart of the very serious problems now being experienced.
"The idea of raising capital and installing infrastructure as a means of generating long term capital growth and profits is anathema to many senior executives these days. Technology to them now is just a means of making millions of dollars in a very short time, then moving on to something else.
"Plus we now have the SingTel problem - which is very reminiscent of Air New Zealand's takeover of Ansett - where the principal company has paid far too much and now will ride the wild tiger trying to meet the debt costs."
Optus Chief executive Chris Anderson has warned that the company's 2002 profit would be "significantly down" from the $426 million posted last year much of which was composed of one-off items.
He had rather optimistically forecast double-digit growth figures but these have been reduced substantially and analysts now suggest that 7% would be a good outcome. Optus has up to now been able to post figures of 20% growth. Announcing his Operation Win Through razor-gang measures in August Anderson thought that profits could be kept buoyant by slashing hundreds of jobs from the pay-roll. Not surprisingly the opposite is happening. Designed to save the company between $75 and $100 million - which they will most probably do - Anderson is finding that revenues are continuing to fall. This year Europe's top 20 phone companies alone have collectively lost $US853 billion in market value on concerns of falling profits and higher spending.
For Mark Brownlow this is not surprising. "One of the structural problems that all the telco players other than Telstra has is that they all want quick results particularly as executive bonuses are based on these artificial results. So the telco boom of the 1990s was based on mobile and associated growth. Now we have 60% mobile penetration and not unnaturally they've all reached stalemate. Their executives whinge and moan about Telstra having access to the terrestrial network as a whole but they want it for nothing now that they've hit the wall."
But according to Mark it's not as if everyone is expected to suffer. "Whilst thousands of Optus workers are getting the bullet it is worth remembering that Chris Anderson received a salary and bonus package worth up to $10 million from the SingTel takeover."
The three-year research project and survey of 119 outworkers - mostly women of Vietnamese or Cambodian backgrounds - was conducted by Dr Christina Cregan of Melbourne University's Department of Management.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the study demonstrated the need for award standards to stop exploitation of Australia's 330,000 outworkers. "The Howard Government is allowing widespread exploitation of outworkers by refusing to classify them as employees.
Outworkers cannot enforce decent minimum pay and conditions without an award covering them as employees.
"Many outworkers are working virtually unlimited hours for very low wages, and nearly half of them have experience of unpaid wages that cannot be recovered," Ms Burrow said. "The Federal Government should follow the lead of New South Wales, where legislation is being introduced to classify outworkers as employees and give them the capacity to recover unpaid monies through the chain of contractors." Key findings of the study, Home Sweat Home, include:
· outworkers earned an average $3.60/hour, and as little as 50 cents/hour
· outworkers averaged more than 12 hours a day, with 74% working between 12 and 19 hours a day
· 93% worked on school holidays, 91% on Saturdays, and 87% on Sundays
· 46% experienced unpaid wages, 75% had wages not paid on time
· 62% worked 7 days per week, 26% worked 6 days per week
· 68% relied on family members to help, 31% relied on children.
The study, conducted in cooperation with the Textile, Clothing and Footwear
The Municipal Employees Union has accused the Council of failing to recognise workers rights to be represented at the workplace.
Council has pushed to hold a secret ballot on the new Enterprise Agreement and exclude the MEU from the process in an attempt to intimidate members into voting for an agreement which promotes Competitive Tendering and would lead to job loss.
In conciliation proceedings before the Industrial Commission on 21 November 2001 Council conceded that a secret ballot for the proposed enterprise agreement should not proceed prior to the MEU meeting with the Lord Mayor to discuss Council's policy of Competitive Tendering.
Meetings with MEU members on 13 and 14 November resoundingly opposed the introduction of the enterprise agreement which seeks to continue Council's Competitive Tendering regime, threatening core areas of employment at the City.
Council has advised the MEU that it has no intention to hold further negotiations with the Union concerning the terms of the Union's proposed Award application.
In effect the Council has ceased to recognise the MEU as the representative body acting on behalf of employees at the City Council. Council has refused to grant paid leave for Union delegates to meet with Union officials during working hours to discuss the Union's Award application. Tensions have been quite high at the City of late with senior management representatives subjecting an officer of the Union to physical and verbal abuse.
The Competitive Tendering issue is now of even greater significance for workers across metropolitan local government given the announcement of the Sproats Recommendations for boundary changes in Leichhardt, South Sydney and other Sydney Councils.
The MEU has called upon the City Council and the NSW State Government to place a moratorium on Competitive Tendering at each of the Councils effected by border changes for a period of three years. The Union demands that a social impact study be carried out to identify the effects of contracting out on wages, working conditions and job tenure for employees in local government.
While competitive tendering has the capacity to effect the job security of all staff at the City, Council's policy will particularly disadvantage the blue collar workforce.
by Alison Tate
Knua Buka Hatene, a new vocational education and training centre designed by Timorese architect Cidalio de Oliverio and built by Timorese building contractor Modena and Alberto Ricardo and his construction workers will be officially opened by East Timor's Secretary of State for Labor and Solidarity, Mr. Arsenio Bana. The Australian construction union, the CFMEU, and Australian building companies donated over $260,000 over the past 2 years to this project.
The creation of Knua Buka Hatene grew out of partnerships between APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad, the overseas aid organisation affiliated to the ACTU, and the Timorese non-government organisations GFFTL, LAIFET and the Sa'he Institute for Liberation.
"This has been a project about partnerships," APHEDA chairperson Tas Bull said at the opening. "Partnerships between East Timorese organisations, partnerships between unions and industry in Australia and partnerships between the people of East Timor and the people of Australia."
Knua Buka Hatene, which means a place for seeking knowledge, has been built and will continue to run under the auspices of a local board of management.
It will live up to its name and become a centre for programs such as occupational health and safety for workers, trades training, literacy, English language training and the development of small business.
by Andrew Casey
Security guards at Melbourne and Avalon airports will today welcome the commencement of their case to examine the value and responsibility of the duties they perform for the flying public.
The LHMU Security Union today lodges an application with the Industrial Relations Commission as a result of a successful bid on behalf of members a month ago for wage increases.
After members took 24 hour industrial action in October the Commission ruled for an immediate pay increase with a work study case to follow as soon as possible.
LHMU Victorian Branch Assistant Secretary, Terry Breheny said "This case is overdue. Our members have crucial responsibilities in airport security, and the flying public demands a high level of confidence and expertise from our members."
"The equipment used is worth millions of dollars, the airline industry is worth millions of dollars, and our members are worth more than $12.31per hour.
"Our members have sought recognition of their skills and responsibilities for eight months, and finally took industrial action a month ago. We are hopeful that there will be a speedy result " Mr Breheny said.
It is hoped the case will be concluded before Christmas.
The announcement followed the closure of five country news services by Southern Cross Broadcasting earlier this week.
As well as costing 60 jobs, the decision sounds the death knell for local news coverage in Canberra, Darwin, Alice Springs,Cairns and Townsville.
CPSU spokesperson Adrian O'Connell said, "There is huge unrest about this issue in regional Australia. People are tired of seeing their services cut, whether it's Telstra, the bank or the local TV news. Providing the terms of reference are broad enough, the inquiry is a good place to start addressing these concerns. We certainly look forward to participating fully in the inquiry."
However the union believes Government should be more active in ensuring people in regional Australia are not disenfranchised through the loss of local news coverage.
"Government's role is to ensure everyone has the opportunity to participate in the social and economic life of the community. Local news is a vital part of this. By creating an environment where services can be continually cut, the Government are not performing their role," he said.
The CPSU is continuing to work with community groups and local politicians to protest these cuts.
The CPSU is a long time supporter of regional broadcasting and represents hundreds of non-journalist television workers across Australia.
The venture was officially wound up this week after it was unable to find an alternative supplier in light of the down-turn in the home computer market.
All existing getonboard clients will have their warranty honoured and have been offered a comparable ISP deal through Bigfoot.
"If Gateway had not withdrawn fromn Australia, there's no doubt getonboard would still be operating," NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson says.
"The positive side is that not a cent of union members money was lost in the venture - the full risk was born by outside investors."
*****************
Pluto Press Book Luanch
IN FEAR OF SECURITY AUSTRALIA'S INVASION ANXIETY
By Anthony Burke
on Wednesday November 28 6.30 - 8.00 pm at Berkelouw Bookshop, 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt, Sydney
Key-Note Speakers: Brigadier Adrian D'Hage, Dr Anthony Burke
Bookings: Pluto 02 9692 5111 Berkelouw: 02 9560 3200
Cost: $15 Concessions: $5
ABOUT THE BOOK: Boat people. Asylum seekers. East Timor. White Australia.
Vietnam. The Kokoda Track. War against Aborigines.
This daring new book shows how Australia's obsession with security is the dark thread running through its history. An obsession in which 'our' security always depends on the insecurity and suffering of another.
Anthony Burke argues that security has dominated and distorted Australia's foreign policy and national life, from Cook's first voyage to the Asian crisis. Against this corrosive tradition, he advocates a generous and non-coercive-form of responsibility for a global existence.
In Fear of Security turns powerful academic and political orthodoxies on their heads, and offers challenging ways of thinking about history, international relations, politics and
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With an insightful analysis of the Tampa crisis and Australia's Refugee policy.
FURTHER INFORMATION
http://www.plutoaustralia.com/db/a_burke/index.html
EMILY's List Fundraiser
Xmas cocktail party-EMILY'S List salutes our candidates!
Join us to acknowledge the hard work & commitment of our candidates, thank everyone who has supported EMILY'S List in a hard year and wish each other
peace and enjoyment for Xmas & the New Year.
When? 29 November 2001. 6.00 - 8.00 pm
Where? The Furama Hotel Central, 28 Albion St, Surry Hills
RSVP: Melanie Stewart 92302970 by Tuesday 27 November or book on-line at our
website [just go to Events]
cost:$45.00-concession on request
Labor Council has put up $2000 to go towards air travel for the winner of the organiser of the year competition, which will be awarded at the executive dinner in early December.
To enter, just write 500-800 words about an experience where you've put the principles of organising into practise. Send it to Workers Online via the button below.
Entries received by December 2 will be judged by our panel of experts, with finalists announced prior to the dinner.
Previous winners are the Transport Workers Union's Bruce Penton and the Police Association's Bob Morgan.
For further details contact Peter Lewis on 9264 1691 or mailto:peterlew@labor.org.au
Dear Sir,
With some of the essential ramifications of the recent election loss by the ALP, being a period of reflection, reassessment and ruthless restructure, and a potential frenzied political blood bath in the New South Wales State structure in emulation of the federal level being a expected prospect, in an effort to apportion blame.
The elevation of Michael Costa to the position of New South Wales Minister for Police is certainly a move outside the political square. This is obviously another courageous step, in the constant and consistent reform for which "Carr Labour "governments are now renowned for. There can be no doubt as to the abilities of Mr. Costa, and his capacity to use these abilities in the promotion of those whom he represents irrespective of the pressures applied by the ruling cliques. The Premier, Bob Carr, and his right wing Sussex Street, machine, while on this program of reformation could do worse than find a safe Labour seat for Frank Sartor , the current Lord Mayor of Sydney , who would fit in perfectly as a Minister for Local Government. This is in no way a criticism of the present Minister Harry Woods, who could be found a spot more in line with country labours` "Dad and Dave" philosophies.
Would this not , be a perfect opportunity for the Premier Bob Carr, to offer respite to the Hon. Faye Lo Po, who has for , what to her , must seem like an eternity , been supping from the ministerial "Poisoned Chalice" , that of Minister of Community Services?
The exemplary manner in which this Minister has not only handled this portfolio, but effectively represented her electorate, indicates not only that she deserves reward but her achievements demand it. This Minister has shown great empathy with not only her constituents but the abused, mistreated and unfortunate humans with whom her department deals with on a daily basis.
Perhaps now would be an appropriate time for the delivery of that reward.
It is also blatantly obvious, that the new leader of Federal Labour (Simon Crean) will attempt to be of a similar ilk as Bob Carr, in accepting the challenges presented to the labour party in this rapidly changing political environment. The labour party may finally have uncovered an unlikely leader who will endeavour to lead it out of the ideological wilderness of 20th century socialism, through the forceful confrontation of those Trade Union Dinosaurs who still believe that corrupt cronyism and nepotism, reinforced by farcical disputes, fabricated to create an illusion of insecurity, is sufficient to retain an increasingly cynical and analytical potential/membership.
The flagging of a revision as to the corrupt policy of the disproportionate influence of irrelevant Unions, whose members have fled the labour party in droves is also certainly a political conundrum which must be addressed immediately. This will remove the bogey man that liberal governments have for years used as a scare tactic on your average Australian - the power of unrepresentative Union Officials within a labour government.
The reality is that the labour party of recent years has been pandering to special interest groups , the majority of whom would been burnt at the stake rather than not vote Liberal/Country Party , and neglecting those whom they believe have no other option than to vote labour. This then, particularly the New South Wales right wing has been effectively rammed down the throats of the local membership through interference in the preselection process and this is reflected by lack of quality candidates. Candidates for whom the local members refused to work for/with, and probably not even vote for!
I just can't wait for another think tank like the one after the 1996 election rout; perhaps someone will listen this time?
Tom Collins
Always have been always will be a union activist , but will I have much company? Unknown endlessly unknown.
Always have been a Labor voter took the ALP instead of food as one of 8 surviving children of a railway fettler, will I have more than 37.5%of the nation as fellow travellers in the future?, not ever without change.
I remember Chile and Allend,e I even remember Bowral surrounded by Fraser's forces , yes I know the le''ts concerns I shared them all.
I look at the bleak prospect of one world and know in time it will be one world government and guess who?.
But I also know Mr Average has views not of the left [thank god] and not even Labor [sadly] good old 60% voter has views too he/she wants coppers to spend less time making a quid out of drugs and more time putting crims inside.
He/she is offended by Indonesian sponsored rusty old boats arriving or sinking near our shores,full to the brim with queue jumpers .
She/he asks that we do not endlessly get down on our knees to say sorry for 200 year old crimes we did not commit, [ but given half a chance would openly cry if they knew of the Australian sponsored child abuse and neglect in our true Aussie communities].
She /he would not know the news paper headlines neglect to say the child of 14 who left a country mission to steel a car had one day in school ,lived in a house that had no meal time no love no future , only that he stole a car was news worthy.
Mr 60% would ask why not take that child away to educate , assist, mentor, save from a hellish life? the left would scream but not roll in with an answer to WILL MONEY ALONE EVER SAVE OUR TRUE AUSTRALIANS CAN WE SUSTAIN THEFT OF TAXPAYERS FUNDS ENDLESSLY?
AUSSIE BATTLER? the bloke with a weekender in foster a home in Sydney two cars and kids in private school has become the symbol of a battler.
Have you ever had mashed spuds and pumpkin for tea ,then the skins for breakfast?, I have ,in 1955 as a ten year old , my dad who schooled me in my honest work honest pay and vote ALP by this time did anything to get a job ,then it came the railways we eat again was his words that's a battler.
Now for today, I too work for the state government dad would not be pleased , Carr's government took it to the wire tried to not fix problems in my workplace but entrench them !selling its own peoples jobs to shonky contractors blindly heartlessly using the hilmer report a wet dream AND IN TIME HE WILL no public ownership at all?.
Unions using peter reith take unions to industrial courts? Dad would not believe it but he died at 54 years of age , stuff he used to kill grass killed him!.
One big union? A Christmas pudding that would look like a dogs lunch but unions turn members away with views they can not share drop the comrade comrades its outdated rubbish!.
Why cant we have a $30 fee for unemployed or students who want to get involved and have protection?
.Why not? We could start our officials off early and get better service, delegates are just as good if they are young and unlike me can spell[ can someone put me on to a dyslectic spell check so it will understand what I want to say?].
I want my party to not wait till government slips up to win elections, to have polices they are proud of , I want today to be the first day of the election campaign we win in a landslide I want government tears on that Saturday night, I demand a victory we earn.
Howard's socialism for the rich capitalism for the poor , will in time bring only a few defectors back to us.
Simon crean says[ Simon says?] he will get further away from unions? How much further can the ALP GO?.
Carr leaves no doubt it's a very long way indeed! .
But we the unions are the founders of this party , both us and the party need to move toward the people we claim to exist for a third way ALP in government can do far more for us than true believers forever in opersition
Belly
Re-'Sixty-Forty a good odds!' John Robertson is absolutely right in pointing to the superficial and I would argue, dishonest, campaign being waged by some in the ALP over the ties of the ALP to organised labour. The current campaign smacks somewhat of an exercise in casting about for something 'modern and different'to say, to distinguish the next bunch of parliamentary hopefuls from the last lot. A bit of 'third way' rhetoric without the full embarrassing baggage of that tired old cliche.
However, that being said, it is time that the trade union movement engaged in a little self analysis of its own. It is true as John points out, that trade unions are more popular than the ALP-but what's the point if they are never where people need them to be so they can join? For far too long the issue of union presence, or lack of it, has been spoken about in internal forums, but the time is overdue for raising it openly.
How is it that in areas of suburban Sydney where there are hundreds of thousands of potential union members, you would be flat out getting a quorum to form a workplace organising committee? How is it that the fastest growing section of the working class over the last two decades-women returning to the workplace,(often part time and casual)-is precisely that part of the working class least likely to be a member of a union, notwithstanding the fact that it is precisely these workers that need unions most? How is it that the most frequently given reply to the question "Why aren't you a member of the union?" is "no-one asked me?" For how much longer are we going to tolerate a situation where the implicit view seems to be-they should look up the telephone book and find out what union to join? The truth is that with 25% of the workforce currently organised, those that seek for their own opportunist reasons to break the links between the parliamentary party and organised labor are being given a free kick.
I agree that the union movement is still the most representative and active movement in society notwithstanding these limitations, but the truth is that unless we can do better than 25% overall, and 19% in the private sector, we are not only giving comfort to our enemies, more importantly we are failing the very constituency we say needs and likes us. There is not much point in being loved, if you are never there to provide support, is there?
Linda Carruthers
In light of what might be ahead for injured workers I was amazed to read recently about the wergild system of compensation for injured workers in ancient times and I quote: "under the wiergild system, every Anglo-Saxon, in common with other Germanic and Scandinavian peoples, knew the exact value of his life, and that depended on his rank.
The life of a churl was worth two hundred shillings; that of a thane ... six times as much, and the price to be paid for injury, like the loss of a hand or a leg, was calculated in proportion."
Have we come full circle with the way negotiations are happening now? One can only wonder.
The book is a work of historical fiction titled "Sarum" by Edward Rutherfurd and published by Arrow Books and I believe much of what is said is factual although I have not been able to validate that the wiergild system did exist. But ....
Keep up the excellent publication.
Noelene
by Peter Lewis
What are the principles that guide Hermes?
Hermes Pensions Management is one of the largest pension fund managers in Europe. It is unique in two ways, because it is a fund manager - an asset manager - that is wholly owned by a pension fund. That pension fund is BT (British Telecom) Pension Scheme, which is the largest pension scheme in the United Kingdom. And that has about £30 billion (about $85 billion) of assets which we manage, and we also manage other third party pension funds, so that in total we have $Aust. 140 billion (near enough) of funds under management.
Because we are owned by a pension fund, we have an independence other fund managers probably don't have. Other fund managers tend to be owned by banks or insurance companies and that can lead to conflicts of interest which we don't have. So the combination of that independence, lack of conflicts of interest, and the size, creates an institution that is certainly unique in Europe and is pretty unusual even on a world standard.
Hermes has a lot of money and in terms of the equity investments, most of it is invested in the indices around the world. We invest a lot of money in the UK, we invest in the European Indices; the Asia Pacific Index; Japan Index; and the US Index. On behalf of our clients we have investments in 3,000 public companies worldwide.
The basic stance is that we always support local management, provided they are creating long term shareholder value. What that means is not just maximizing short term profits, it is about long term, and that means that you must look after your stakeholders, because unless you look after your stakeholders you can't create long term value.
You can't create long term value if you kill your employees because of a bad safety record, or you pollute the environment. So it is very much a recognition that you have got to get those short term issues right if you are going to create the long term value, and stakeholders very much come into that equation.
We believe that good corporate governance does create long term shareholder value, so we have developed an international code of practice which we ask all international companies to support. It is identical to the one that has been approved by the International Corporate Governance Network, which is a network representing some $10 trillion of investment worldwide and is based on the principles agreed by the OECD and the World Bank a couple of years ago.
It is only when companies contravene those basic principles and stop doing the right things for shareholders in the long term that we will withhold our support from management in terms of annual votes or special resolutions.
So you are basically using your purchasing power to shift the focus from making a short-term percentage profit in a year to actually having long-term strategies?
When you are an index tracker, and when it is pension fund money you are investing, it is the return over 30, 40, 50, 60 years that matters and so our first requirement is that each of the companies in which we invest has good corporate governance. But about five years ago we recognized that that was not enough on its own, because you have got a lot of poor performers - of under performers.
Somebody has to do something about that. Warren Buffet used to say that acting fund managers have this gin rummy approach. They just throw away the worst card.
If an acting manager doesn't like a company and he just sells it, then he just passes the problem on to somebody else - and that somebody else are the index trackers, so we as index trackers must do more about the under-performers.
My job was created in 1996 to do something about under-performing companies. My background is not fund management, it is corporate. I spent 20 to 25 years being involved in running businesses, and I became an executive director of large PLCs in the UK and became a non-executive director as well, and the idea was that somebody that knows how companies run should be representing shareholders, talking to chairmen and chief executives of companies that are in difficulties.
So, in terms of the under-performing companies - and we have been having a lot of corporate collapses in Australia in recent times - is it actually taking a more interventionist stance there to protect workers jobs?
Yes, it is about making sure that managers are doing their job properly. That they are accountable for what they do. I think that there are all sorts of indications - when you talk about factories closing, people losing their jobs - very often the problems are made worse by bad management.
You have a world that is globalising and jobs do shift around. You do get the most labour intensive jobs shifting in different parts of the world, and that is an inevitable consequence of what happens, but if companies are managed well in that period you don't need to have a wholesale collapse - the destruction of industries that goes on.
It is about good management, and when managements go to sleep and their board of directors go to sleep and shareholders do nothing, it can often lead to mass redundancies.
What about issues like environmental standards and core labour standards? Do you have a philosophy regarding relations with unions in the companies that you work with?
Part of our core beliefs is that it is not right for shareholders to micro-manage companies. It is not for us to tell companies what their annual payroll should be. That is a director's job. But if directors fail in their basic job, so that if a company has appalling labour relations or has an appalling environmental record with oil tankers that keep polluting beaches, or any other major environment, then somebody in that company is not doing the right thing and we will want to hold the directors to account for that. We believe that the directors must take responsibility for these environmental, ethical, labour issues, and if they get it wrong they should expect to be removed by the shareholders.
What indicators do you use for that? Is it only after there has been damage that you would move in or is it ongoing monitoring of the performance of your companies?
Very much it is about transparency and reporting. We were one of the first fund managers on behalf of British Telecom Pension Scheme to come up with a policy on SEE issues - social, ethical and environmental. The concept is that the companies must be transparent in what they are doing. They must report in meaningful terms on these issues to shareholders, so that shareholders can hold the directors to account. That is the approach. It is not for us to tell them what to do, but we trust them to tell the shareholders what standards they keep. Do they follow particular standards that may be followed by world agencies? If not, why not? That is the approach.
Have you worked with the trade union movement, for instance in Britain?
Interestingly, one of our investors in our Focus Funds is the GMB, which is the GMB Pension Fund, and GMB is the third largest pension fund in the United Kingdom, and they took the view that it was good news to have shareholders doing something about management that were failing. So that is a very direct example of what we do.
My fellow director of Hermes Focus Asset Management, which is the company that does this, David Fitzwatson, he is actually on the taskforce of promoting trade unionism in the United Kingdom, alongside John Monks who is the General Secretary of the TUC and Brenda Barber, who is Deputy General Secretary of the ICFTU. So we have these close union links from that point of view. We also have been working with the AFLCIO in the USA on Premier Oil.
What sort of input have they had into your work?
It has been a two way thing. They have been very concerned about some of the issues in Burma. They have been able to pursue some angles in the United States because it is a British based company - Premier Oil. We as a shareholder in the United Kingdom have got good access to the Board there. I think considerable progress has been made and it has been very interesting taking a different approach.
The thing that people forget is that when you are a pension fund manager the beneficiaries - the millions of pensioners and future pensioners - are the beneficiaries of what we do. They are the capitalists that benefit from this, and they are also the workers - the trade unionists. When people say well it is about profit maximization for some remote capitalist, it is just not what it is all about. What we are doing is maximizing the long-term value of the companies for the benefit of the people. And those people - the pensioners - are also the workers and the trade unionists.
When you look at things in that sort of linked up way, then the interests of the shareholder; the interests of the fund manager; the interests of the unionists and the employees are all the same in the long-term. Short term situations might be different, but long-term they are all the same.
What is your evaluation of the quality of management in companies around the world? We hear a lot about the huge salaries that executive directors and board members get. Are they worth the money we pay?
Some are, some aren't. I think what is appalling is the payments that are made to executives of companies which either fail (and people get paid for failure), or large amounts that are paid with no regard for the performance of the company. That is what is so unacceptable.
I don't think that people object to skilful people at the top of their profession, whether they be professional rugby players; professional footballers; top film stars, earning a lot of money. And I don't think people really object to really good professional directors earning a lot of money, provided the shareholders are doing well.
What people object to is paying executives for failure, and that is largely the fault of shareholders around the world ignoring this issue. It is an important issue and one that we have been trying to raise in profile in the UK.
But the biggest problem is in the United States because shareholders in the United States have been impotent on this issue and it has meant that this disease that excessive executive remuneration has been exported by the United States to the rest of the world, and it is very difficult for us to fight against it.
What sort of leadership role can the union superannuation funds in Australia take in this broader project of thinking more long-term?
The first thing they should do on a global scale is the extent to which union pension funds invest internationally, then they should use the vote. They should tie in with international shareholders and the international union movement and use the vote - register their protest where it is appropriate and put pressure on boards of directors around the world who are failing their shareholders.
Finally, how confident are you that we can civilise global capital?
I think we can civilise global capital, provided we realize who the beneficiaries are, and as I say, they are the trade union members, the pensioners, the workers. What global capital is about is the long-term interests of those people - their long-term savings and having something to retire to. That is why we have to do this in a civilized way; we have to recognize that long-term shareholder value is needed to pay people's pensions. But the only way that you get it is dealing with the short term issues of pollution; of other environmental issues; ethical issues; and treating the employees in an appropriate way.
Peter Butler addressed Sydney and Melbounre forums organised by the Pluto Institute
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Richard Marles |
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This a very big case. It is certainly the biggest case that the ACTU has run in some years. It may well become one of the biggest cases that this Commission has ever decided.
So I do want to spend a little bit of time opening this case and putting into its proper context the witness evidence that you are going to hear over the coming weeks and months.
But before I do, if you will indulge me for 5 minutes, I want to tell you a brief personal story.
Last year was a great year for Australia, particularly because of the Olympic Games. I always felt that the Olympic Games would be an important part of this country's history. So even though he'd only just turned 4 years old I was very determined to take my son Sam to the Olympics.
I didn't know and I still don't know whether Sam remembers his day at the Olympic Games. But I wanted him to grow up knowing that he had been there, knowing that he had been a part of that history.
I was lucky enough to have tickets to the first session of the athletics. And so I took 3 days off work and together he and I made the pilgrimage to Sydney.
The morning we left was a very exciting morning. It was an early flight and so we left Geelong - where Sam and I live - while it was still dark. Sam had that buzz about him of a boy who had been counting down the sleeps for some considerable time until this very morning.
When I first held Sam up to the window at the airport to see how big the plane was that we were about to get in - a 747; well if the trip had stopped right there it would have been worth it just for the look on his face at that moment. Because this was one very excited boy.
We got on board and even though we had booked economy tickets we found ourselves sitting in Business Class seats. And so Sam had a very large seat for a 4 year old with more buttons on it than he could possibly imagine.
I can tell you that in the hour from Melbourne to Sydney the footrest was put up, the headrest put down, the seat was put back, the lumbar support was pushed out, the TV was turned on, the headphones were worn, the flight attendant was called and sent away (because we really didn't need the flight attendant) and the person in front was poked. I think it is fair to say that seat 15F of that particular jumbo has never before nor since had quite such a work out in its entire career.
I took a photograph of Sam on that flight which I cherish to this day because I believe that I have captured on film pure bliss. Here was a being completely enraptured about being alive.
We arrived in Sydney, met up with the cousins, had a fitful sleep that night, I was woken at 5.00am the next morning by a very hyper boy, and after a long and eventful train trip out to Homebush we eventually found ourselves going through the turnstiles and up into Stadium Australia.
When I first saw the arena it was fantastic. There were athletes preparing, the Olympic flame was at the top of the stand and most moving for me was the Olympic flag. And the whole place was packed - 110,000 people. So we battled our way to our seats, sat down and finally settled.
And then I looked across at my son's face. It had a look on it, which I had never seen before and I have never seen since. It was the look of complete and total awe. It was like his entire being had opened up and the enormity, the majesty of this event was pouring through his little face and filling up his soul. Every sight, every smell, every sound, every ounce of the atmosphere that was Stadium Australia on that magical morning was being absorbed by this little kid.
And as I looked at him at that moment I was overwhelmed with a sense of triumph for having got there, by a sense of pride, overwhelmed by a total sense of happiness, but I think to be honest I was just completely overwhelmed. And so I am not ashamed to say that there and then I burst into tears - tears certainly of joy - but tears nevertheless, and all I could think of doing was just giving Sam a big hug.
I have had better moments in my life - when Sam was born is an obvious one that comes to mind - but I would certainly rank that moment at Stadium Australia up there in the top five or ten.
I tell you this story because while it is uniquely about me, my son, and our relationship, in so many other ways it is just an ordinary story. And I'm sure that everyone in this room and all of you on the Bench have similar stories about special moments that you have shared with people who are very close to you.
And when I contrast this with my work life I realise that I have been incredibly lucky and privileged in my work. I have met fantastic people. I have been entrusted with great responsibilities. And I have been given great opportunities, not the least of which has been running this case. But of all the fantastic moments which have arisen in my work, and I have enjoyed them enormously, not one of them comes close to that moment at Stadium Australia last September.
Because there is an old saying which is pertinent to this and very pertinent to this case. We work so that we can live, we do not live so that we can work.
And while I am sure that everyone in this room would agree with and would aspire to that proposition, unfortunately Australian society and Australian workplaces are fast becoming characterised in precisely opposite terms.
Australia is now the second longest working time country in the developed world. Only workers in Korea work longer hours than workers in Australia. And whereas working time in Korea is on the decline, in Australia it is on the increase.
That is why we have made this application. And it is also why, in our respectful submission, that at this moment in our country's history, it is essential that the Commission does something about this issue.
The Australian Industry Group in preparing its case opposing this application conducted some opinion research through the polling company ANOP. And in the ANOP report and indeed in the AiG submission itself there is a quote from a construction worker. This quote is presumably put forward to convince you not to grant this application. However, this quote for me is so imbued with sadness that it precisely expresses the reasons why this application must be granted.
The construction worker said:
You miss out on the quality things - like when Jack walked for the first time. You get pretty depressed that you don't get to see things like that. But on the other hand you want to be able to provide the best things for him, so that's why you do it.
I have no doubt that this comment was made with complete sincerity. I also have no doubt that there are many workers out there who need to work extended hours of work in order to earn a living wage. And can I say at the outset that this application will not prevent them from doing that and I'll talk more about that later.
But at a societal level, at a macro level, at the level at which you are considering this issue, this comment represents everything which is wrong in Australian workplaces today.
For above all the negative things which go with extended hours of work, for me the most serious is the dislocation caused between parents and their children. And more significantly the lesson it is teaching our kids. Because they are fast being taught that the most important relationships that a human being has - with their parents, their children, their siblings, their close friends - that these all come second and they come second to work.
If we continue to teach our kids this lesson then we will end up handing to them a country which will have become the sweatshop of the developed world. It is a prospect which does not bear thinking about. But think about it we must, for that is the responsibility with which we have all been charged in the weeks and months ahead as we hear this case.
Excessive working time and all the negative aspects which go with it - an increase in family discord, a decrease in parenting, an increase in alcohol and cigarette consumption, an increase in cardiac disease, a decrease in fertility, an increase in mental illness to mention just a few of the issues associated with long hours - these are starting to characterise Australian society in international terms. It is what the world is starting to know us for.
The ACTU is primarily seeking that it become an award standard: "that an employer may not require an employee to work unreasonable hours of work". If we manage to achieve this as an award standard we will not have changed the world. But we will have started the process of civilising our workplaces in relation to working time and redressing the balance between work and family life.
It will be the first step down a very long path. But it is a path that we must tread if we are once again to have the civilized conditions of work of which we were once so proud.
From the industrial revolution through until the immediate aftermath of the Second World War there were two issue which occupied the attention of organised labour, the negotiations between employees and employers, and the time of this Commission and its predecessors. They were wages and hours of work.
Since 1947, hours of work have really dropped off the industrial agenda. And in that time Australia has gone from being the world's leader in relation to fair working time to almost being at the bottom of the pile.
This case marks a return by organised labour, by this Commission and by industrial relations in general to the other major issue of the workplace - working time.
It is why this case is so important. And it is why, when all is said and done and this case is over, that all of us who have participated in the case must be in a position where we can each say: "I did something to make working time fairer".
by Zoe Reynolds
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Cheri |
But for her caring godfather & a princely rescue by the International Transport Workers' Federation, this young woman may not have survived to warn others about the dangers behind the seemingly glamorous life on board cruise liners
It was her first real job. Nineteen-year old Cheri had dreamt of working on board a cruise ship since she was a little girl. She imagined tropical islands, palm trees and sunshine.
Her family paid $7,000 for her to study at a private college as a beauty therapist. After graduating she was invited back to be interviewed by talent scouts. Crewing agent Steiner travel the world taking their pick of the most beautiful and promising young women.
"I was so excited when I was chosen," said Cheri. "It was my mum's dream for me. Her friend had worked on a cruise liner years ago and had a wonderful time. It sounded so glamourous. We always talked and imagined one day I could get a job like that, too. Everyone was saying 'You're so lucky.' It's the best opportunity you could get. I want to do what youıre doing. It seemed the ultimate job."
But Cheri's dream all too quickly became a living nightmare.
Cheri had to pay her own airfare to train in London along with dozens of other young women. But many also had to pay their way home again, rejected, tearful, without a job.
The fast track training was all geared towards producing sales girls - "you were judged a good beauty therapist if you could sell well," said Cheri. "All the girls said the training was terrible. Really intensive - three weeks seemed like three years. We all couldn't wait to get out of there. We thought once we were on the ship we'd have time to relax."
Cheri was flown to Miami where she joined the giant cruise liner Carnival Triumph. The spanking new (1999) 101,509 gross tonne passenger vessel flagged in the Bahamas and registered to Utopia Cruises of Miami US, sails the Caribbean, carrying up to 2642 passengers and 1,100 crew from all over the world.
"You just get told you've got this ship and you're going tomorrow. Pack your bags," said Cheri. ³I was so nervous on the flight over. I'd never been to America. I'd always been very dependent on my mum. That was another reason I was going - to learn to be independent. It was so scary, but exciting too."
Cheri flew into Miami one day and sailed out the next.
"We got on the ship and we started work that day - Saturday, June 16, 2001. We were really jet lagged but it was straight into work until 10 that night."
Above deck the rich and famous pay up to US$3000 for the privilege of a private balcony suite. Below deck was another class altogether.
Cheri's three week experience on board was anything but a working holiday - more like a floating sweat shop - 12 hour shifts, six days a week, 8 am to 8 pm with training until 10 pm every second day, sleeping in cramped twin cabins each night and all day on her one day off and all for a weekly retainer of US$50. Like all the crew on board Cheri depended on tips and a commission from selling products and providing services to make money.
"Some girls would lie to get people to buy things," she said. "Like saying you had broken capillaries and had to buy something for it. All the time you would be thinking what can I get them to buy? We got eight and a half per cent commission on anything we sold."
As the new beauty therapist Cheri got the hardest job - giving massages to passengers, both men and women, one after the other - eight full body massages each day. And on Friday Cheri had to stay back after work and scrub the salon ceiling and walls, bottles and shelves until midnight.
Exhausted and disillusioned Cheri's experience at sea came to an abrupt end back in Miami on Friday, July 6, when she suffered a crippling injury in a workplace accident now subject to legal action.
Cheri was lying on the floor, a towel underneath her foot to soak up the blood, while her workmates ran to get help.
They returned with a nurse and a wheel chair and lifted Cheri off the floor. The shipıs doctor did a few tests and determined the achilles tendon was torn. Cheri would not be able to work and the ship was about to sail. They had to get her off.
So Cheri was promptly bundled off the ship with one change of dress and undies, $300 and a scrap of paper with the name of a hospital and the telephone number of someone called Stephanie.
Left on the tarmac beside the ship in the sweltering tropical sun, Cheri watched the Carnival Triumph set sail.
Crippled, bleeding and in pain Cheri waited an hour dizzy and sweating in the heat. But the promised cab never came. Eventually someone wheeled her into the shade and called an ambulance which took her to the nearest hospital.
"The doctor didn't know the tendon was completely severed, only the scan would show that, but he did know I'd need surgery. He put my ankle in a soft caste and stitched up the wound. I got the nurse to ring the woman called Stephanie. She told me to go to the Quality Inn, they'd arranged a room for me."
Unable to explain what was wrong with her foot, Cheri got the doctor to talk to Stephanie. She heard him arguing over the phone, saying Cheri was not well enough to travel back to Australia - she'd need surgery first.
By the time Cheri arrived at the hotel it was late at night. They said they had not heard of her.
"I had to beg them to let me stay. I wouldn't have known what to do."
The hotel was far from ideal - no room service and a long walk to a lift. Cheri had to pay hotel staff to bring her food. This was her home for the next month.
"There was a big, big panic, when I got through to my parents," said Cheri. "I told them I was falling over as I wasn't used to crutches. I was still quite weak and totally alone. I had trouble getting into the bath and to the lift. I had two or three falls. Each time it made the pain in my ankle worse."
Only after the family contacted a knowing godfather and only after a call to the International Transport Workersı Federation, did things begin to look up.
"I was boarding an aircraft when I got the call on my mobile," said Godfather Bryant Roberts. "All the warning lights went on. Who would we turn to for help? We knew no-one there. The people on the cruise ship never phoned us to say Cheri had had an accident. She had no money, no clothing, no bank account, no credit card, no lawyer."
Bryant Roberts rang the Maritime Union rooms in Perth and was put onto ITF inspector Ross Storer.
"My instinct was the MUA would have the international connections," he said. "I was right. The unions were her saviour. One phone call from me to the MUA and everything swung into action. Ross was known to everyone. It all happened in hours - just two phone calls and we got a lawyer through the ITF who specialises in crew claims. The ITF really came to her rescue."
Cheri was in contact with Jim Given from the ITF cruise campaign office in Miami and he gave her the name of a lawyer, promising to help if she needed anything.
Two days later a driver picked Cheri up and took her to the company doctor for a scan, which confirmed that the achilles tendon was completely severed. He was scheduled to operate the next day.
But Cheri chose the chief of orthopaedics at a major Miami hospital to do the operation. It was a success. Cheri will one day soon walk again without crutches.
Now back home with her family in WA township of Mandurah, Cheri remembers it all as a bad dream. Thanks to union intervention she is on around $1,000/week in compensation payments and her solicitor is fighting for a lump sum payment as well.
But sadly Cheriıs experience is all too common as the crew on board the Ocean Glory I detained in Dover in July can attest.
"I don't feel that they cared for me as a person," she said. "It was like I was a machine. Once youıre broken they discard you and replace you. Once you are no longer working and making money for them, they don't care. It's so easy to get rid of you and get someone else."²
Cruise Controversy
"They take these jobs thinking theyıll have time off to sunbake by the pool. But theyıre lucky to see daylight."
This is how Jim Given, International Transport Workers' Federation cruise campaign co-ordinator sums up how young idealistic, well educated, middle class men & women are being seduced into slavery on luxury liners cruising to exotic locations.
Suicide, sexual abuse, extortion, abandonment, bribery and beatings. Jim Given estimates that little more than half of cruise ships are unionised or covered by ITF agreements.
The ITF set up its cruise campaign office in Florida in June, 2000. A year down the track and the statistics speak for themselves: 5,000 claims processed on board Flag of Convenience liners; 2000 abandoned seafarers; US$5.4 million in backpay .
"All the cases we get are bad," said Given. "But perhaps the most ugly are the sexual assaults. Itıs not what you think. Usually men are both perpetrator and victim. It's only 3 per cent of complaints, but like suicides, it goes largely unreported. We've known of 108 complaints of sexual assault from Carnival crew in three years alone."
Most complaints involve low wages and long hours - 95.49% of crew work 7 days a week, 60% work more than 10 hours a day.
Fatigue and stress translate into accidents on board. But when they do get hurt the company does everything it can to get out of paying compensation.
"When you see grown men and women cry it gets to you. No one deserves to be shafted like that," he said.
"We're on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Given. "Weıve got to be. When you get the sack on one of these ships armed guards escort you off."
Non payment of wages (29%), dismissal (25%) & abandonment (14%) - these are the most common complaints. But fraud, graft and extortion in the industry are also making headlines:
The Panamanian company SeaCruise was busted in Canada recently for a scam involving 160,000 jobseekers paying $56 each for non existent jobs on cruise liners, Fairplay shipping magazine reports.
"In Indonesia you pay up to US$2000 for a job on a cruise ship," he said. "In India it's US$3,500 & in Romania it's US$500 for an interview and another $1,000 for the job."
Meanwhile in London the ITF has won $865,000 court costs and repatriation for the 240 seafarers stranded in Dover aboard the cruise ship Ocean Glory the 51-year old Panama-flagged ship was arrested for wrongful termination of a charter party.
by Extracted from Worksite
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Gough Whitlam, ALP Campaign Launch, 1972. The Whitlam Institute |
From the outset we must be very clear: We must resist any policy which purports to make Australia choose between China and the United States. We must resist any policy which purports to make Australian Chinese choose between Taiwan and China.
We must always insist upon honouring the premise and promise on which all our relations with China have been based since 1972. There is only one China. Anything less is dishonourable and destructive. There can be no unilateral withdrawal from our undertaking - except at the price of gross dishonour on the part of Australia and the United States.
The Founding Fathers of Federation, whose achievements we celebrate in Melbourne this week, all believed in the creation of a British nation in this continent. Some of the earliest acts of the Australian Parliament entrenched the concept of White Australia by excluding migrants from Asia and denying votes to settlers from Asia.
The Founding Fathers defied the wishes of the British Government, which ruled hundreds of millions of Asians. After the end of the First World War, in which both Japan and China were allies of the British Empire, the Australian Prime Minister asserted the policy of White Australia in the crudest terms. Others objected to migrants from China and Japan not because they were uncivilised but because they would be too clever.
After the end of the Pacific War the United States, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Empire of Japan granted independence to the countries which they had occupied in Asia and the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
'Maintenance of White Australia' was placed at the top of the Australian Labor Party's platform. It was not removed from the party's platform till 1965. It was not removed from Australian statutes till 1973. The inevitable failure of the White Australia Policy is demonstrated by the census statistics.
The futility of conducting a British Commonwealth foreign policy in the Pacific was demonstrated half a century ago. When the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing on 1 October 1949 the Attlee Labour Government in Britain recommended to its fraternal governments in Australia and New Zealand that the three governments should simultaneously recognise the new entity. The Chifley and Fraser Governments, facing general elections on 10 December, decided to delay recognition until after those elections. Attlee went ahead alone. Chifley and Fraser were defeated. The long years of the Menzies ascendancy in Australia began and, with it, the long manipulation of the China issue as part of Australia's domestic politics.
The difficulty of conducting a British Commonwealth foreign policy in the Atlantic was demonstrated when the United Kingdom and Canada joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization drawn up in Washington on 4 April 1949. The other members were Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the USA. Diplomatic relations were established between Denmark and China on 11 May 1950, just before negotiations broke down between the American and Russian forces regarding the future of Korea. On 25 June 1950 the North Korean forces invaded South Korea and the Security Council, in the absence of Russia, asked all members of the UN to render assistance to the South.
Menzies attended the Conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers which opened in London on 4 January 1951, the day on which Seoul fell to the Chinese People's Army. Attlee reported on his anxious flight to the US, where he persuaded the US not to use the atomic bomb in Korea. The conference was given two documents which the British Joint Intelligence Committee had produced for the British Chiefs of Staff. The first concluded that Western forces would probably be able to hang on in Korea provided that there was no reliance on South Korean forces and provided that the Soviet Union made no large scale air intervention. More chillingly, the second memorandum decided, after exhaustive research, that open war with China, even without intervention from Russia, and even with the use of the atomic bomb, would almost inevitably involve a major defeat of the Western powers, with consequences that might well be fatal - in the words of the memorandum - "to the whole position of the present free world". In other words, war with China was ruled out not because it was unimaginable but because it was unwinnable.
Canada established diplomatic relations with China in October 1970, Australia on 22 December 1972 and New Zealand on 23 December 1972. Prime Ministers Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard all made early visits to China after taking office and all have supported the One China policy.
Under section 51 (xxix) of the Australian Constitution - 'External affairs' - Australia is entirely competent to decide questions of foreign affairs and trade, the two subjects which mostly determine relations between China and Australia. For historical reasons America and Britain from time to time exert pressure on Australia.
On Suez and Viet Nam America and Britain pursued different policies. In each case Australia supported the wrong policy. Due to its large immigrant population there are more people in Australia than in America or Britain who understand the politics of South-East Asia and the Balkans.
The White Australia policy was not required by the Australian Constitution. It was implemented by the Australian Parliament under section 51 of the Constitution to make laws with respect to:
(xxvi) The people of any race [other than the aboriginal race in any State] for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws;
(xxvii) Immigration and emigration.
It is often claimed that the people of the aboriginal race were given votes when the words "other than the aboriginal race in any State" were excised from the Constitution in the overwhelmingly successful referendum on 27 May 1967.
In the 1890s Aborigines, both men and women, had acquired the right to vote at elections for the House of Assembly of South Australia, which included the Northern Territory of South Australia. They retained that right to vote in the Northern Territory until 1911, when the Northern Territory became the Northern Territory of Australia and all its residents lost the right to vote.
All vestiges of the White Australia policy had to be removed when my Government enacted the 1966 United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Parliament passed the Racial Discrimination Act in June 1975 and I ratified it in September 1975. The Racial Discrimination Act is the basis of all the rights enjoyed by migrants and Aborigines in Australia.
All aspects of responsible government in Australia are based on acts of parliament. The Federal Parliament initiated these reforms:
The Federal Parliament should take the following legislative and constitutional steps to enhance and entrench parliamentary democracy in Australia.
E.G. Whitlam served as the Prime Minister of Australia 1972-1975.
by Radical Melbourne - A Secret History
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From the metropolitan streets, laid in symmetrical grids to prevent twists or turns where the poor might fester, to the privately owned hotel erected upon what was once a city square, political control in Melbourne has invariably involved struggles over public space.
In the earliest days of the colony, dissenters turned to open air meetings to express their views. Street oratory, after all, requires no capital or resources, other than a few sympathisers for moral (and, on occasion, physical) support and a makeshift platform from which to declaim.
So by the depression of the 1890s, a series of regular Sunday forums had sprung up around the city. Radical speakers dodged the police to hold forth at the Eastern Market (facing Exhibition Street, between Little Collins and Bourke Streets), at Queens Wharf, outside Trades Hall, at Studley Park (down from the boatshed) and at an open area above the Merri Creek, near St George's Road.
Detective Wardley, one of the many police assigned by Victoria's rulers to quell such dangerous eruptions of free speech, recorded orators speaking on 'Socialism, Anarchy, Democracy, Capitalism, Dynamite, One-Man-One-Vote and other social reforms'. He noted with some alarm that 'Her Majesty the Queen and members of the Royal Family, governments . . . landlords, capitalists and clergymen' all came in 'for a great deal of abuse'.
But Melbourne's most successful stump - and certainly the longest lasting - proved to be that on the Yarra Bank.
During the 1890s, radicals realised that large meetings could be held on the flat ground near the boatsheds on the south side of the Yarra, just down from Princes Bridge. This was the first forum, neatly intersecting with the route of the traditional promenade down from Flinders Street.
Not surprisingly, the authorities proved less than enamoured of a motley collection of agitators delivering their harangues a stone's throw away from the CBD. After years of harassment, the forum was moved to the north side of the river, a barren patch of mud in line with Exhibition Street. In 1925, the city council - no doubt hoping to keep the whole business safely tucked away behind the railway yards - granted a degree of official sanction, with earthen mounds for speakers and freshly planted trees to shade spectators. The plain-clothes policemen, however, remained.
Over the next forty years, the Sunday forum grew into an institution.
The most regular Yarra Bankers - the Communist Party, religious groups, a number of determined individuals - maintained permanent stands from which they would speak each week. But anyone could join in, either mounting one of the ten or more stumps, or simply holding forth from where they stood. At the forum's height, it was not unknown for twenty or thirty meetings to proceed simultaneously, each speaker conducting a passionate, unamplified declamation, often punctuated by interjections and jeers. Hecklers didn't always restrain themselves to verbal interruptions -
during the campaign against conscription it became common practice for anti-conscriptionists to remove their shoelaces before taking the stump, in the expectation that they would soon need their feet free to swim.
Most of the time, in a wowserish city in which most amusements closed on Sundays, the Yarra Bank simply provided a form of free entertainment. For those interested in ideas, though, the forum offered what Labor Prime Minister John Curtin (himself no slouch on the stump) rightly described as Melbourne's
'university of the working class'.
The centrality of the Bank - as well as the relative freedom accorded to those who met there - made it a popular location for demonstrations. Perhaps the Bank's most dramatic assembly came during the monster rally that crowned the 1890 maritime dispute. At its height, the strike (a complicated struggle where sailors, shearers and wharfies combined to defend the right to be unionists) virtually paralysed the city. An eerie darkness hung over Melbourne (the gas stokers were on strike) and, throughout the country, some fifty thousand people were thrown out of work.
On 31 August, the unions called a mass rally for the Bank. As The Argus described:
From the city proper, South Yarra, Jolimont, East Melbourne, and Richmond, continuous crowds of pedestrians made their way to one common centre. The suburban trains and trams coming into Melbourne found their way by vehicle or foot to the park. The Botanical Gardens and Jolimont Bridges presented a curious sight, being continuously occupied by a moving mass of humanity, and hundreds of people took a straight course over the railway lines choosing their opportunity between the passing of the trains.
This vast throng - perhaps a hundred thousand people, from a city of four hundred thousand - confirmed for many that revolution was at hand.
But the authorities had made their own preparations. The Chief Commissioner of Police had already brought reinforcements to Melbourne from the country districts, and stocked a large cache of rifles and carbines in stations in Bourke Street and Russell Street. A thousand 'special constables' had been sworn in to service in the basement of the Town Hall and presented with a baton, a badge and a sheet of instructions.
On the day of the rally, mounted horsemen hid in the old morgue building near the corner of Batman and Swanston Streets. Hundreds more waited in the Victoria Barracks, where an impromptu army camp had been assembled.
Preparing for the union march, the commander of the Mounted Rifles, Colonel Tom Price, addressed his men:
One of your obligations imposes upon you the duty of resisting invasion by a foreign enemy; but you are also called upon to assist in preserving law and order in the colony . . . You will each be supplied with forty rounds of ammunition - leaden bullets - and if the order is given to fire don't let me see one rifle pointed up in the air. Fire low and lay them out - lay the disturbers of law and order out so that the duty will not have to be again performed. Let it be a lesson to them.
In the event, the meeting passed uneventfully. The Social Democrats established a platform a hundred yards from the main stage, decorated with what The Age described as 'a hideous daub representing the dawn of socialism in appropriate shades of red and yellow as the background to a number of allegorical figures . . . precisely like those familiar announcements which invite the unwary public to "walk up and see the wild beasts".' But the official speeches were stolid and uninspired, and the rally as a whole remained remarkably well behaved.
The strike itself dragged on for another two months, before most of the unionists were forced back on the employers' terms. But Tom Price's speech still resonates today, as a warning that in Australia, as elsewhere, the final recourse of the powers-that-be is always naked violence.
The Bank provided a venue for major rallies on many other issues, from the fight against conscription (during which The Argus managed to describe a mass anti-war stop work as being both 'futile and ridiculous' and 'dangerous and sinister') to the struggle against fascism. Its more customary role, though, was as the locus for that most durable of working class festivities, the annual May Day procession.
The first May Day in 1893 was more than a celebration. Several hundred workers tramped down from the Burke and Wills statue to the south side of the Yarra Bank (opposite Government House) in a consciously radical alternative to the somewhat staid Eight-Hour Day march. Once assembled, they heard addresses from a slate of well-known militants, including the anarchist Chummy Fleming, who had earlier shocked union officials by leading an unemployed rally behind the banner: 'Feed on our flesh and blood you capitalist hyenas: It is your funeral feast'.
The course of Fleming's political career is worth noting, for it coincides neatly with the rise and fall of the Yarra Bank as an institution. As May Day's founder, Chummy insisted on taking pride of place in the march, waving his anarchist flag defiantly. In the 1930s, when the less-than-sympathetic Communist Party dominated proceedings, he maintained his position, starting a block ahead of the other marchers, and proceeding so slowly that the rest of the procession gradually caught up to him.
Each Sunday, Chummy gave voice to his anarchist principles from his private stump on the Bank. Unless ill or in gaol (he was a constant target of police harassment), he could be relied upon for a weekly defence of libertarianism from the 1890s until his death in 1950. On occasions, his lectures attracted sizeable crowds. More often, he stood with a flag proclaiming 'No Gods, No Masters', facing an audience that was small and sometimes hostile. It was not
unknown for him to be physically attacked.
When Fleming died, his friends (in accordance with his wishes) took his ashes (augmented to make a respectable pile with some char from a fireplace) to scatter on the Yarra Bank.
In the mid-1970s the veteran Communist Party orator Jim Coull recalled the event:
We'd arranged to hold a meeting, had a lorry there, where they have the May Day platform . . . There were different meetings and groups on the Bank, and I was to blow a whistle and all meetings would stop, and the people would gather round the Party platform. There was a big crowd. Ralph [Gibson] spoke first then myself. I said that we were there to remember Chummy Fleming, say a few words about his activities, and his loyalty to the working class which was never, ever in doubt.
Then I called on Neville Preston, who was a personal friend of Chummy's to say a few words and distribute the ashes. Naturally I thought that he'd have a little box like a snuff box or a matchbox and he'd blow them away as we'd usually seen it done. But another man hands him up a Groves and McVities Biscuit tin. And this tin is filled with sand and what looked like powder. And it was funny . . . it was a very windy day, really blowing . . .
So the man said, 'I will now cast the ashes of my dear departed comrade to the winds', and he dived his hand into the biscuit tin, and heaves forth these ashes. And he didn't use just one hand, but he went on with three or four and more. And the people are staggering back. It was blowing in their faces. And they'd had Chummy - didn't care what happened to him.
Much later, Coull was recorded as declaring: 'I still after all these years can't get the taste of Chummy Fleming out of my mouth'.
As a forum, the Yarra Bank outlived Chummy but not by long. The social ferment of the 1960s and 1970s did not prevent its gradual decline. The universities provided sites for discussions on the Vietnam war; the streets themselves the venue for protests. The forum became the property of a diminishing group of diehards, and eventually collapsed altogether.
Today, the area around the speakers' mounds has been sliced into by the Tennis Centre, a huge extension of Exhibition Street and, most recently, ornamental ponds. It's now a shady triangle of about an acre, at the south-eastern corner of Birrarang Marr. The developers have attempted to compensate for obscuring the site by installing some historical plaques, additions that serve only to more clearly identify the forum as a museum exhibit rather than part of a living culture.
However, in a new century, the problem that motivated Chummy Fleming and his comrades to take to the Bank has reasserted itself with a vengeance. In the new Melbourne of casinos and giant outdoor television screens, there are almost no places in which people can congregate. The inadequate space outside the State Library has become the focus for every rally and demonstration, simply because nowhere else exists.
Radical Melbourne - A Secret History is published by Vulgar Press
by Chris Shiel
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State of the States |
After five years straight -- which aligns with the first five years of the Carr Labor government --New South Wales has fallen from first position. Moreover, the fall has been dramatic, with the State dropping from first to fourth position. Why has New South Wales suddenly fallen so far?
The short answer is that the government has become steadily less competitive in the crucial social policy area, where the State led during the first two years of the Labor government, but where it is now heading toward the wooden spoon. New South Wales performed 18 percentage points better than the CGC average in social policy in the 1997 and 1998 League Tables, and held first position. The State slipped to four percentage points better than the CGC average in both the 1999 and 2000 League Tables, but still held second position in the category. This year, New South Wales has been thoroughly outpaced by the other leading jurisdictions, and is now seven percentage points below the CGC average. Over the same time, New South Wales also lost its leading edge in environmental policy. After holding first position in 1999 and 2000, the other jurisdictions have now consigned the major State to third position, albeit with a score that remains above the CGC average. In its economic policy performance, the State has maintained third position, behind Queensland and Western Australia.
Environmental policy--slipping, but still above the average
With third position overall, New South Wales took first position in the availability of its public transport and the proportion of household vehicles running on unleaded petrol, and third position in national parks and wildlife services and sanitation and environmental protection. The State's poorest performance was in cultural and recreation services, where it came fourth. While New South Wales has slipped in its overall environmental performance relative to the other States, note that it still performed above the average in all categories, with the exception of cultural and
