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Why I'm Marching
If you haven�t guessed already, I'm no Labor apparatchik. In fact my entry into politics was through the old Nuclear Disarmament Party.
Interview: The Wedge Buster
Labor's immigration spokeswoman Julia Gillard talks about her job of developing policy to blunt Howard's wedge.
History: Fighting for Peace
Was the first Palm Sunday parade a celebration or a protest, asks Neale Towart.
Unions: Rattling the Gates
When Pacific Power workers traveled from Newcastle to Macquarie Street this week life-long loyalties were on the line, as Jim Marr reports.
International: Facing Retribution
Serious fears are growing for the safety of Zimbabwean trade unionists after the tainted election defeat of their former leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Technology: How Korean Workers Used The Web
Electrical power industry workers in Korea are relying on the internet, and mobile phones, to successfully organise a militant nation-wide anti-privatisation strike.
Industrial: Working Futures
Can an assortment of economists, lawyers, historians, industrial relations specialists, unionists, journalists, sociologists and psychologists help us develop a decent future for work and social relations in Australia?
Review: Rumble, Young Man, Rumble
To compress the full and exhilarating life of The Greatest to film-length is no easy task but Ali makes a reasonable fist of the job writes Noel Hester.
Satire: GG Survival Doomed: Fox-Lew In Charge Of Rescue Bid
The hopes of embattled Governor-General Dr Peter Hollingworth took a battering last night, after he learnt that the rescue bid for his survival is being headed up by Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew.
Poetry: PSST
From Sue Robinson to Michael Kirby, some things in politics are constant...only the names have been changed to defame the innocent.
 Girl's Maiming Sparks Entry Plea
More Time Off for Babies
Workers Break Bank Cartel
State Law Push For Virgin Sites
Outrage at Privatisation by Decree
Woomera - Flames, Razors, Rope and Despair
Bus Drivers Block ALP Funds
Crean Gets on Front Foot
Nurses, Teachers On The Money
Asset-Stripping Sparks Walk-Out
Opposition Grows Over Howard's Freedom Attack
Heffernan Prompts �Right of Reply� Demands
Della Dumps Dunny Blues
Smith Flies Into Turbulence
Guards Force Drinks Break
Levy Struck to Support Rockhampton Meatworkers
ACTU Assists former Ansett Staff
Activist News
The Soapbox
The War on Terror - Impunity for Abuses?
Federal Labor MP Duncan Kerr argues that governments are using the fears of the post-Septmeber 11 environment for thier own ends. The Locker Room
Oh, The Humanity!
So, sports people are human after all. Now there�s a headline. Week in Review
Tomorrow, The World
Jim Marr picks over the entrails of a week in which world domination, or at least hegemony over that part of it in which the principal operates, is a recurring theme.
Carr and the Fire Fighters
On Inequality
Harmony Day
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News
Crean Gets on Front Foot
The Federal Opposition has taken the initiative on workers rights, rejecting Tony Abbott's assault on unfair dismissal laws and introducing legislation that makes good its pre-election commitment to protect entitlements.
The initiatives, an early sign Labor will front-end load its policy in this term of Opposition, also include relief for small business from the administrative requirements of the GST.
Labor will introduce four separate Private Members Bills to:
� Establish a scheme to guarantee payment of wages and other accrued entitlements in the case of employer insolvency;
� Make holding companies responsible for paying the workers' entitlements of a collapsed subsidiary where the holding company is implicated in the collapse;
� Ensure that employers pay their superannuation guarantee obligations on a quarterly basis rather than the current annual basis;
� Provide small business with a simpler method of calculating Goods and Services Tax payments.
Opposition leader Simon Crean also committed Labor to opposing the Howard Government's push to strip unfair dismissal rights for millions of workers employed by businesses with fewer than 20 staff.
Abbott Dodges Truth on Dismissals
Meanwhile, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott was confronted with a damning independent study that undercuts Government claims on the need for a small business unfair dismissal exemption.
According to the study, only five percent of small businesses nominated unfair dismissals as the main impediment to hiring new staff, while only three percent of small businesses nominated "changes to unfair dismissal laws" as something that would encourage them to employ more staff.
By contrast, 25 percent of small businesses nominated the lack of skilled or experienced applicants as the main impediment to hiring staff.
Labor IR spokesman Robert McClelland says that at a time when 690,000 Australians are unemployed, Government should be talking to small business about the nature of the skills and experience they need.
 Full details of the ALP policy
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Issue 128 contents
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