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Issue No. 125 22 February 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

Unfair and Dismal
As the credibility of the Howard Government sunk under lies and conceit this week, Tony Abbott � for a moment - looked uncharacteristically subdued.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: If Not Now, When?
New Labor Council organiser Adam Kerslake talks about his plans to bring unions back to basics.

Activists: Fighting Back
Jim Marr talks to Keysar Trad, a unionist who's left the security of the Tax Office for a much bigger challenge.

Industrial: Croon And Divide
Fly a kite, obfuscate the issues, divide your opponents and continue to hammer people: the one-card-trick Howard Government�s latest kite is unfair dismissal reports Noel Hester.

Politics: Politics of Extinction
Trade unionism is a spent force; a dinosaur. This alleged truism is often heard these days, in one form or another. Rowan Cahill unpacks the lie.

History: Harry Bridges: International Labour Hero
Zoe Reynolds marks the centenary of the birth of an Australian waterfront worker who went on to lead one of America's largest unions.

International: Rats in the Ranks
The relationship between Britain�s Blair Labour Government and the union movement has hit a new low, as Andrew Casey reports.

Review: Follow The Fence, Find The Truth
Tara de Boehmler reviews a new flick that sheds light on the debate around the Stolen Generation.

Satire: Howard Screws Refugee Kids: G-G Turns Blind Eye
Startling claims that Prime Minister John Howard screwed refugee children prior to the last election, and also during a hunger strike at Woomera, have been dismissed by the Governor-General Peter Hollingworth.

Poetry: Let It Be
When a certain former Minister for Defence visited England recently, he met Sir Paul McCartney. The former Beatle thought there was something strange about him, but he didn't say anything. He decided to just Let It Be.

N E W S

 Building Workers' Bid to Win Back Lives

 Dog-Tired � Long Hours Leave Beagles Buggered

 Home Care Workers Reject Sweat

 Building Commission's Costly Spin

 Caltex Asked To Explain Price Hikes

 Palm Sunday Resurrected for Refugees

 Dismissals: Labor Blocks The Lot

 Company Collapses: Union Wants Bank Powers

 Women Wanted for Wharf

 Sanity Returns to the West

 Big Brother Raises Hackles

 Legal Action to Block Job Exports

 New Dawn for Dili Workers

 Councils Targeted in Contracting Campaign

 CFMEU Constructs Lebanese Bridge

 Israeli Aircraft Destroy Most Of Palestinian Union HQ

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Shorten's Suite
AWU national secretary Bill Shorten outlines his vision for unionism - from the relations with the ALP to its efforts to regain the heartland.

The Locker Room
Bunnies in the Headlights
Despite their triumphant return to the League, Souths story won't be the last example of tradition being trampled, writes Jim Marr.

Week in Review
Tories in Turmoil
With a constitutional crisis and a dangling mandate, it was compelling viewing for the Howard jeer squad.

L E T T E R S
 Dirty Politics Won't Wash
 Tom's Foolery
 Give Us a Spray!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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The Locker Room

Bunnies in the Headlights


Despite their triumphant return to the League, Souths story won't be the last example of tradition being trampled, writes Jim Marr.
 
 

Piggins Spray

**************

Maybe, just maybe, South Sydney fans have a sneaking sympathy for New Zealand Rugby Union officials so roundly vilified by Australian chief executive John O'Neill in recent days.

This presupposes that Rabbitohs backers give a large rodent's backside for anything the Rah Rah boys do or think which, as long as they keep out of Redfern, is probably not the case.

They might then be surprised to learn the NZRFU is facing the same poison that threatened their existence, if in a less-concentrated dose.

O'Neill has pasted trans-Tasman counterparts for sabotaging the ARU dream of becoming Australia's dominant winter code. Its plan to mutate the Super 12 into a Super 14 with additional franchises in Australia and South Africa hit a big, black snag.

But there are two sides to every story and, in this case, New Zealanders are protecting a tradition that offers the lesser paid, even the unpaid, a place in their wintery sun.

Unlike Australia, New Zealand has an organic, sustainable domestic competition that has fanned passions for 100 years.

Currently it goes under the NPC (National Provincial Championship) banner which, in three divisions, offers recognition to hundreds of footballers who will never pull on an All Black jersey.

Otago-Southland and Hawke's Bay-Taranaki mean bugger all to pay television but plenty to people in those provinces.

No All Black great is recognised as a Crusader, Highlander, Blue or any other marketing invention. Kel Tremain is Hawke's Bay, Colin Meads means King Country and the Nepia name is synonomous with the North Island's East Coast.

Last year it was the promotion bid of a third division, amateur, almost entirely Maori team from Nepia's sparsely populated stamping ground that captured imaginations and headlines across the land.

The problem is that the NPC, popular with people rather than corporates, is having the life squeezed out of it by bookends negotiated with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, namely Super 12 at the start of the season, and tri-series Tests at the end.

O'Neill, dependent on New Zealand and South Africa for credibility in his domestic

marketplace, has a point but so, too, does a country that has nurtured its own competition.

Typically, the debate contains ethical, practical and commercial considerations. But the lessons of the marketplace, no less, suggest the answers need not be mutually exclusive.

Union's ructions come as big money sports rights deals are feeling the chill breeze of recession blowing right up their jacksies.

British operation, Sportsworld Media, which holds AFL signage rights and owns the National Basketball League in this country, is on the brink of collapse. Its share price has plummeted from 220p to a derisory 3.5p in less than four months.

German media conglomerate, Kirsch, having paid over the odds for the Bundeslegia and Formula One motor racing, faces imminent bankruptcy.

The $500 million Rupert Murdoch dropped on Super League is starting to look like rabbit tucker against his global exposure. News Corp's December quarter result included a $1.5 billion write down on the $8.8 billion, over 10 years, it pitched into American sport. The company identified gridiron, NASCAR and baseball as its blackest holes.

Murdoch's BskyB has read the writing on the wall and written off the $1 billion in poured into Kirsch. The Rupert-Kerry-Ten consortium that hoofed a cool half billion into AFL hasn't leveled with shareholders yet but, eventually, it will.

The point is not that business doesn't matter, nor that it is unimportant, just that its real place in the sporting queue is a couple behind that occupied by the loyal supporter.

The NZRFU appears to be coming to terms with that reality. Souths have known it all along.


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