NSW Secretary Michael Costa says the reform package is moderate and he's confident the bulk of the proposals will be acceptable to reasonable employers.
But he says he expects the Labor Government to resist any "bloody-minded" employer resistance and accept that a changing working world requires evolving regulation.
"The spread of labour hire companies and sub-contractors has created a pool of unregulated labour which is undercutting the award and bargaining streams," Costa says.
"If a Labor Government with a huge majority can't do something about these problems, there's something going wrong."
Costa's comments follows the Premier's briefing of selected journalists this week that any changes to industrial relations would require broad consensus from unions and employers.
Carr told the reporters that any change opposed by employers would need to satisfy the criteria that it would not affect investment. The Premier also revealed that Cabinet Office head Roger Wilkins had been contacting employer groups to tell them the second wave discussion paper was not official government policy.
Costa says the key reforms should satisfy the Premier's criteria on investment. "Agency fees, for instance, will have no impact on business costs," Costa says.
But he warns that if sensible reforms were opposed by ideologically based employer resistance, he would expect the government and "do the right thing by those whose interests it is the guardian."
"The Howard-Reith Government has introduced the most radical industrial relations reform in the history of this nation without even the semblance of consultation with unions. The employers have been silent in the face of this reform process.
"They can't have it both ways. They can't support on the one hand radical, unpopular reform and then cry foul in the face of reasonable, consultative change."
Costa says he'll consider taking the issue to the ALP State Conference if the government caves in to employers seeking to frustrate sensible, responsible reform.
The proposals are currently before the Industrial Relations Consultative Committee and were expected to form the basis of legislation in the first session of Parliament.
Teachers Federation president Sue Simpson says several country schools have made the offer to students placed there, highlighting a crisis in staffing in parts of the state.
And she says the problem will get worse if the Government doesn't honour its election promise to commence meaningful talks with teachers for a new award.
"A significant pay increase for teachers is necessary to ensure that all schools in NSW are fully staffed and casual teachers are available to replace absent staff," she says
The Federation is seeking a minimum of 7.5 per cent per annum pay rise as well as increased pay for casual teachers pay and increased job security for TAFE teachers.
The teachers this week inundated Education Minister John Aqulina with postcards reminding him that he has just seven weeks to strike a new wages deal before the current award expires.
The statewide action, reflects rising concerns that the Carr Government will renege on its pre-election promise to "enter negotiations so the new enhanced Award can be in place on expiration of the current award."
Simpson says the absence of negotiations to date indicates the government isn't serious about fulfilling its promise and will ignore the teaching profession.
"The Federation presented its salaries claim to the Government in August last year, over eight months ago," Simpson says.
"So far there has been no response from the Government, and there have been negotiations despite may requests."
On Tuesday night our grinning treasurer, Peter Costello announced the budget to Parliament - boasting a $5.4 billion dollar surplus, low inflation, 3% unemployment, no net debt by the year 2003 (provided we sell Telstra), a new tax system for a new millennium. The only fly in the ointment was the 7.5% unemployment - locked in for another year.
No large scale employment programs, just work for the dole, involving unemployed people in a six month program for 12 - 15 hour per week and a bailout for the disastrous privatised Job Network..
An insight into the government's attitude towards unemployment can be found buried deeply inside the budget papers - they propose that "amendments to the unfair dismissal laws and the preservation and extension of aged-based junior wages rates are policies designed to overcome restrictions on employment growth". The government claims that further award simplification and streamlining of the industrial system will produce further jobs.
Touted as an education budget, there was no attempt to repair the damage done by past cuts in university operating grants. Instead, a small amount of money was splashed around for medical research and indigenous programs. The biggest education item was an additional $339 million over four years for non-government schools.
Other initiatives in the budget included:
� Work for the dole places were doubled from 25, 000 to 50, 000 involving a commitment of $200 million over four years.
� $7.8 million boost to rural apprenticeships and traineeships with an additional $1,000 incentive payment to employers upon advancement to a higher skill level.
� Allocation of $5.6 million for the conduct of secret strike ballots under Reith Second Wave.
� $400, 000 allocated to re-write the Workplace Relations Act in plain English - which the government claims would be "of particular benefit to small business, many of which have been baffled by the complexity and legalistic nature of the system".
� Employment Advocate to receive $2 million to spend on a national advertising campaign to promote Australian Workplace Agreements and the Government's Second Round of workplace legislation.
� Additional $221 million to be spent on "the prevention, early intervention, education and diversion of drug users to counseling and treatment".
The Treasurer, in his speech to parliament announced that "this is a budget right for these times" - if this is the case it's a bad time to be unemployed, a student, welfare dependent or a low paid worker.
by Mikhael Kjaerbye
The Union will ask the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to insert into its awards a provision for workers to get a written confirmation of their accrued annual leave, sick leave and long service leave entitlements.
The written confirmation will state the number of weeks, days or hours accumulated by the employee.
LHMU Assistant National Secretary Tim Ferrari said the Union was worried that a recent survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that more than 40% of businesses did not intend to take action to avoid Y2K compliance problems.
The Y2K bug is predicted to cause havoc in old computers because they may read the two-digit '00' date as 1900 instead of 2000. This could cause the computers to crash and erase files from the computer system.
"It is prudent and reasonable that workers get a copy of their accrued entitlements in the immediate period before 31 December 1999." Tim said.
Tim said that inserting the Y2K safeguard provision into awards were the best way to deal with this problem rather than doing it site by site.
"Workplace Minister Peter Reith's stripping back of awards have left workers and employers confused about their rights and obligations. This is a disgrace as we approach the new millennium," Tim said.
The contract involves about 80 positions in the Counter Terrorist First Response unit currently filled by the Australian Protective Service (APS).
The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents the APS members whose jobs are up for grabs, argues that at a time of scare police resources, the police should be concentrating on making the community safer rather than bidding for extra work.
CPSU state secretary Malcolm Larsen says that because the airport can not operate without a full compliment of CTFR staff, police from neighbouring stations may called to the airport if assigned airport staff are sick.
"Why is the NSW Government trying to take over an area of Commonwealth responsibility?," Larsen asks.
While airports around Australia have called for security tenders, the APS was only contested at Sydney Airport. A decision is expected within six weeks.
by Phil Davey
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) released details of how their member, Mr A. Gomez of Ashfield, nearly lost his entire tax return.
The tax agent who held Mr Gomez's return in a trust account had gone into receivership and the trust account money was to be used by the liquidator to pay off the tax agent's creditors.
Strong representations by the CFMEU meant that Mr Gomez was speedily looked after and got all his money back. But CFMEU officials have warned that the list of those with money in the same trust account was made up almost entirely of Latin surnames.
The list had over 100 names on it, owed together over $100 000.
"The CFMEU looks after its members and was pleased to be able to help Mr Gomez with this problem" said CFMEU NSW Secretary Andrew Ferguson.
"However we worry that other members of the Spanish speaking community are unaware that their money held in trust is not protected if a tax agent goes bust."
"The tax Agent in this case was a franchise of one of the biggest tax firms in Australia. Don't assume because your dealing with a household name that your money is safe"
The CFMEU has one of the most diverse memberships of any union in Australia, over half of its 180 000 members are of Non English Speaking Background.
The CFMEU has many officials who are native Spanish speakers, and can assist any other members of the Spanish speaking community who hold a union ticket and who may have been caught in the same or a similar predicament.
by Dierdre Mahoney
Last year, Australians took part in the nation's first Sorry Day, to recognise that a year had passed since the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission had released Bringing them home, the report on the stolen generations of aborigines forcibly removed from their families up to 1970.
This year, with no apology from the Federal Government forthcoming, indigenous and non-indigenous Australians are planning to celebrate 26 May as a Journey of Healing. Unions are urged to come along en masse, with banners, to a non-religious service at St Stephen's Uniting Church, 197 Macquarie Street (opposite Parliament House) on the day at 9.45am.
After a smoking ceremony at the entrance to the church, the message sticks will be passed from hand to hand among those attending. One of the pair is decorated with 54 dots, being the 54 recommendations in the Bringing them home report. The other depicts a range of symbols, from feet walking, to represent the beginning of a journey, to a boomerang, map of Australia and shackles showing the need to recognise our history.
After the service, union members are urged to march with banners to the Botanic Gardens for a ceremony at 11am, where the message sticks will be handed over in NSW by a member of the stolen generation to a non-indigenous Australian.
Please be there and support what unions and indigenous comrades have been fighting for for years. The Sea of Hands, the highly visible project of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation last seen on Bondi Beach, will reappear at the gardens, with all attending asked to plant a hand.
Community groups are also undertaking various healing journeys (eg, on the Northern beaches people will walk from church to church), and unions may also wish to add to this. Please call me on 9286 1631 with your details and we'll add them to the next issue of Workers On-Line.
The guest speaker for the dinner will be the former Primer Minister of Austalia the Hon. Paul J Keating. The marking of the 50th Anniversary of one Australia's oldest youth organisations in November took many by surprise. However, the dinner will bring together a number of the labor movements key figures who had a grounding in the organisation.
In the Legislative Council on 10 November, 1998, the Hon. Brian Vaughan MLC made the following speech commencing at 10.56 pm ...
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY YOUTH COUNCIL FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
The Hon. B. H. VAUGHAN [10.56 p.m.]:
I draw to the attention of the House and the community the fiftieth anniversary of an historic day in the history of the great Australian Labor Party.
On 3 November 1948, in room 61 of the Trades Hall, the first provisional meeting of the Youth Council of the Australian Labor Party-which is now known as Young Labor-was held. It was born from an idea of Dick Klugman, subsequently the member for Prospect, and Bill Fisher, subsequently President of the Industrial Court of New South Wales.
Present at that meeting 50 years ago were: Frank Miller, J. Delaney, Ann Barnard, D. Klugman, F. Howard, Cecil Lisle, H. Hudson, J. Brassil, Marie Howell, Bill McNamara, Bruce Yuill, Alan Barcan, Bill Fisher and Douglas Sinclair, who for many years was Director of Henry Lawson Labor College.
The minutes of that first meeting state: "That this meeting form itself into a provisional Council of ALP Youth for the purpose of considering the draft constitution."
That motion was moved by Mr Yuill and seconded by Mr Miller. The following pro tem officers were elected: President, Bruce Yuill; Vice-President, Mr Miller; and secretary-Treasurer, Alan Barcan. The chairman stated at that meeting that he was pleased to accept the presidency. He outlined the background leading to the preparation of a draft constitution by a subcommittee. The objects of the provisional council, which were suggested in the constitution, were read out.
The following motion was moved by Mr Miller and seconded by Mr Hudson: That this meeting express its appreciation to Mr Sinclair for his great assistance in getting this present scheme under way.
The following motion was foreshadowed: "That all members of ALP branches under the age of 30 shall constitute the NSW Assembly of Youth."
That was later to be known officially as the Youth Council of the Australian Labor Party. Four or five years later, in 1953, the sixth annual report of the Youth Council of the Australian Labor Party, in which I took part, stated:
"Youth Council should be a hot-bed of radical ideas. Secondly, we should do everything in our power to obtain a real understanding with our near Asian neighbours ... There is no doubt that Labor is facing a supreme test and in this test the Youth Council, although still young, will play its role to the full."
The role of the youth council was not simply political. Regional assemblies ensured the interaction of young members, the chief function of which was to provide cultural, social, sporting and educational activities. All those things were achieved.
There were many marriages of ideas in those early years. The youth council produced a magazine called "Youth Call". The establishment of the Youth Council provided a seminal time in the history of the Australian Labor Party, the oldest, most constant and, I think, most successful political party in this country.
Many Youth Council members became members of this House, and a great number of people in Federal and State politics today cut their teeth in the organisation. Although I was a latecomer-I did not join until 1951- I am proud to have been part of this great organisation which has produced abundant fruit for the Australian Labor Party.
The night is gearing up to be a re-union not to be missed. If anyone has some their old Young Labor memerobilia to share, please bring it on the night.
The New South Wales Young Labor Executive extends a warm invitation to those of you who would like to attend the dinner on Friday 21st May 1999.
Details are as follows:
Date: Friday 21st May 1999
Venue: Le Montage Function Centre
38 Frazer Street, Leichhardt
(Bayside Entrance)
Time: 6.30pm
Cost: $75 (including 3 Courses and Drinks)
$700 for a table of 10
RSVP: 14th May 1999
Sarah Trapla on 9724 3381 or 0419 415 496 or Peter Zangari 0414 432 406.
Why Wran's Right
Neville Wran was the greatest Premier in the history of New South Wales. He is a Labor hero.
His leadership role in the Republican Movement is essential if we are to actually deliver the republic.
It is only true-blue lovers of the Queen and the looney left who want a multiple choice plebiscite. It will divide and disrupt the move to an Australian republic. It will kill the republic stone dead.
Wran was a great Premier because he understood the art of the possible. He achieved great things while confusing and dividing the Tories.
Frankly, the Republican debate strikes me as a tenth order issue. But let's take the opportunity that has arisen to make some progress. No, comrade, we won't be able to have an elected President or Comissar or whatever it is you want but let us once and for all cut our ties with the British royal family. It's a symbolic change, it won't create a workers' paradise but it will slightly modernise our constitution.
Only an unholy coalition of Little Johnny Howard and Comrade Phil Cleary can stop us taking a small step forward in asserting our national identity.
So let us follow the lead of a wise and brilliant man, Neville Wran. Let's have a resident for President and repudiate the nonsense of royalty.
Andrew Landeryou
Member of AWU (Vic)
Dear sisters and brothers
I work for the UK union UNISON and was very interested in your call centre organising special issue.
Call centres are a major growth industry in the UK and especially in the areas UNISON organises in (public services and energy companies).
We have recently produced a negotiating guide on call centres and would be happy to share this with you.
I am interested in any info on the use of call centres in public services in Australia.
A number of UK local authorities are looking at call centres (often outsourced to large IT companies) to provide services eg benefits admin. Is there any experience of this in Australia?
Also the UK health service has a medical call centre service know as NHS direct to deal with enquiries. It is run by nurses .This is being developed as an alternative to traditional doctor based services. There is union recognition in some sectors but in others there is fierce opposition.
We may be able to exchange information on some of the companies. Please get in touch if we can help,
Steven Weeks
by Peter Lewis
What are the attitudes of your members to the whole drugs issue?
Firstly, I should say that the NSW Nurses Association does not have a formal drugs policy, we have a very democratic structure where our annual conference makes policy. Our members have raised and voted on resolutions to decriminalise marijuana and in July this year we will be formulating a policy on safe injecting rooms and such like.
But my members tell me they are concerned about drugs. They believe there is no one answer. They believe there should be many options for treatment. For people at some time in their drug addiction, they should be able to access methadone. They should be allowed to access naltrextone. They should be able to access a program helping absolute abstinence.
They also believe that at the moment, all options have been so reduced in NSW to the extent there are no options there for them now. As one drug and alcohol liaison clinical nurse consultant said to me the other day: "I get people coming in with $600 a day habits saying to me that they want to come off and I have to say to them: I have nowhere to send you -- not one methadone placement, not one in-house detox unit. Not one bed that I can send you to. So I have to send you out the door". So the hardest thing for them as the carer, the helper, the drug and alcohol liaison person is that they have no options for immediate care.
So that's a resource issue.
Absolutely. They also tell me that the requirements that have to be met for a doctor-run detox "clinic" are fairly relaxed. Any GP can set themselves up as a detox expert. My members say that's wrong and there should be more stringent controls on these private clinics which charge big bikkies. Who goes there? Usually schoolkids with parents with a bit of money who see that because there's no public sector programs available, they'll pop them into these clinics. They hope because it's not public sector that they may be able to protect their child's identity. So it's attractive to these wealthy people. My members say there are doubts about the quality of these programs. And on the other side of the coin, they say it's so hard now to get people onto a methadone program, that there are no places
There's also the nurses in general hospitals, accident and emergency, surgical wards and intensive care wards. I was out at a neo-natal intensive care unit recently because the nurses were concerned about security. The nurses there were telling me that because there are so many drug-addicted mothers who give birth prematurely, their babies are drug-effected. They're often on intravenous drips and in humidi-cribs. the nurses were having the experiences of fathers rushing in an aggressive state, grabbing the baby, dragging the baby off the drip and running out of the ward with them. Now the nurse won't try to step in here because the father is in a dangerous state. So they're asking for more security. That's just one example, but it's a tragic one.
The political orthodoxy is that drugs have now reached crisis point. is this what your members are telling you?
Yes. Members in both specialist fields and in general hospitals. But we've been saying it for decades. In 1981 I was part of a commission of inquiry for the Wran Government that was sent overseas to look at whether the legal provision of heroin for heroin addicts would have an effect on organised crime. We produced a report which made certain recommendations, most of which were never acted upon. So 20 years ago we were looking at similar questions, so the debate here has not moved quickly. I feel in NSW it's time to move on and not shut our minds like Fred Nile and some of the others have.
In Australia there's a strong demarcation between legal and illegal drugs. Is this an appropriate way of looking at drugs?
I believe and my members believe that it should be a health issue,. The primary consideration must be health whether the drug is legal or illegal. We believe that health should be the overdriving consideration I'm not saying there shouldn't be laws, but I am saying the laws should be reviewed and modernised. The debate is too focussed on whether a drug is legal and the law and order response, while the treatment is not given enough focus. The focus on the Wayside Chapel is important, because it shows the health need overriding the law and order issues. There should be some absolute focus with guts, passion and resources on harm minimisation. To us, that's the pivotal issue.
One area of confusion is the premise that all drugs are bad. Yet in America marijuana is used with cancer patients for pain minimisation. Do we need to look at the message we're sending out about drugs?
I think it starts with education. It must start in schools and at the moment drug and alcohol workers don't go into schools; it's left to the teachers (and there's not one active on-the-ground teacher at the Drug Summit). In many communities, you have people thinking alcohol abuse, bordering on addiction is OK; but that all illicit drugs are wrong. The problem is that kids go out and try a drug and have fun, then the message has no credibility. Our education needs to be more realistic. The line that it is wrong, just flies in the face of reality. I'm not endorsing drugs like amphetamines and ecstasy; but I'm a realist. Kids are going to try drugs and you've got to get some education that isn't based on fear or denial, but practical information about safety. I've wondered what I'd say if I had kids; I think I'd tell them about the drugs, I'd tell them about what they do to you, but I'd tell them: "be wary, don't step over the line". You can't run away from the fun, the joy, the happiness that you can get, but they need to set their own line. Now when we talk with kids about sex, we talk about precautions. Its the same with drugs, kids are going to try it; but they need to know of the danger.
So what do you hope to get out of the Summit?
I'm in the Training Needs working group. I'm hoping to get an agreement at our working group that from the Drug Summit we set up a semi-permanent committee where we will sit down and work with GPs, nurses, teachers and churches and work out what the training needs are and come up with a plan, which must be properly resourced as well. We want to train teachers, train generalist nurses to better understand the issues drug addicts face. Youth workers need training too because they're on the front line. I'm a realist and I don't think change will happen overnight, but I think it's a bloody good idea to have an open discussion about the whole issue. And I hope that the working groups will have the opportunity and resources to move in the right direction.
Finally, the $64,000 question, have you ever inhaled?
I won't try to do a Kerry Chikarovski. As a child of the sixties, I certainly took more than two puffs and so did my friends. I partook of all sorts of drugs and alcohol, as did everybody I knew -- it was the way of the world. I also saw the damage -- three of my friends died of heroin overdoses and I have friends from that era, who are still my friends, who are still suffering with addiction to drugs. One of the problems with any discussion with drugs is that people fear telling the truth when they are in a public position. People are frightened to tell the truth because they are frightened of the punitive attitude, which their own attitudes reinforce. That's the vicious cycle we have to break.
Building Trades Group drug and alcohol program convenor Trevor Sharp, a delegate to the premier's Drug Summit, said he had been a heroin user for 12 years between 1977 and 1989.
"The only reason I am here today is that the harm reduction policies kept me alive until I was willing to embrace abstinence," Sharp told the Labor Council's Drug Policy Forum.
Now he works to ensure other workers with drug and alcohol habits have the support to make the same tough decision he did: zero tolerance.
"I had always been a union official and when I started working again after my recovery I joined the drug and alcohol committee, they were seeking volunteers and I'd been told this would be good for my recovery."
Sharp's program has been running since 1992. Funded by the federal government, he has established a drug and alcohol program in every state and also employs a full-time fundraiser.
The program has been driven by building industry unions who see, first hand, the impact of alcohol and drug abuse on construction sites, particularly the way it contributes to accidents.
The Building Trades Drug and Alcohol Committee was formed by workers and union officials in 1989. It is an innovative peer based education program that aims to reduce harm caused by alcohol and other drugs through awareness raising, a workplace policy to safeguard workers and a training program to promote peer intervention. It also assists drug and alcohol-affected workers and their families with advice, welfare and rehabilitation.
Its approach is based on harm reduction principles that focus on safety, with messages that emphasise how unsafe behaviour can affect everyone in the workplace.
The Program has long been recognised as a leader in workplace issues by the alcohol and drug sector and by government.
Development of the Program
The Committee initially understood that for a program to succeed it would have to be acceptable to its primary target group, that is the construction industry workforce.
In order to establish a program and policy that was acceptable to workers in the industry, the Committee involved those workers in its development. Meetings were conducted on a regular basis with rank and file building workers on construction sites, seeking their opinion on what the program should contain and how it should be implemented.
Notes were taken at each meeting and after much drafting and redrafting, a program for the building industry was developed. The program policy was then taken to mass meetings of workers where it was endorsed unanimously and then to the BTG where it was endorsed and became Building Trades Group Policy.
The programs philosophy is simply but comprehensibly outlined in the following slogan:
"If you choose to use alcohol or drugs, that's your business,
If you choose to do it in the workplace, it's our business.
If you want to stop drinking or using, maybe we can help."
In summary, the key features of the Program are:
� It has been developed by workers for workers, giving them ownership of the solution as well as the problem.
� It uses peer-education strategies, where fellow-workers (site safety committee or other nominated peers) undertake interventions.
� It employs a harm reduction approach that focuses on safety and emphasises the impact on all workers of unsafe behaviour caused by drugs and alcohol.
Polices Accepted by the Industry
All major stakeholders in the industry have accepted the Program's polices and it is now the industry standard for drug and alcohol related issues.
Polices on drug testing, the safe disposal of needles and syringes from worksites, and the responsible serving of alcohol at industry functions have also been developed and implemented.
The Program has presented 485 on-site awareness sessions (duration 30 to 40 minutes), with 40,079 workers attending and being exposed to the messages (March 1999).
Workplace Training Courses
A two-hour drug and alcohol safety in the workplace-training course has been designed, which includes the video "Not at Work, Mate". The course has been presented in 87 safety courses to 866 workers.
Apprentice Education
A special course for younger workers, including information on safe drinking levels, safe drug use practices and HIV/AIDS awareness, was developed to target apprentices. The course has been presented 725 time to a total of 7,923 building industry apprentices in TAFE Colleges around NSW (March 1999).
HIV/AIDS Education Campaign
In conjunction with other education and training, an HIV/AIDS eduction campaign designed specifically for building workers has been conducted since 1996.
Welfare of Workers
The Program has directly assisted 253 building workers who sought help for drug or alcohol related problems. Seventy-five (75) of these building workers who sought help in the past year. This does not include the greater number of workers who sought assistance form their workplace delegates or safety committee members trained by the Program.
Education Video
The video "Not at Work, Mate" was produced and included in the training courses. It has won industry awards and been widely acclaimed for capturing the culture of the industry, as well as its very real description of alcohol and drug problems, and the Program in practice.
Other Unions Can Follow Trevor's Lead
NSW Labor Council's occupational health and safety officer Mary Yaager says the Building Trades Group's approach to drug and alcohol abuse is being followed by many unions.
Yaager says unions that are considering developing a drug and alcohol policy should ensure the following provisions are incorporated:
� Access to employee assistance programs.
� Training programs for employees, supervisors and individuals who may be required to deal with workers affected by drugs or alcohol.
� Counselling Procedures, (It is recommended to use the four interview approach)
� Confidentiality
� Education and Information
� Implementation Strategy.
by Dr Nancy Cushing
A range of bodies, from universities, to the ABC to BHP itself, have begun to gather stories about the steelworks from the people whose lives it touched. The memories captured in this period of flux, between the announcement of the closure in April 1997 and the actual shutdown in September 1999 constitute a significant industrial heritage.
This article will explore public recollections of BHP created since the closure announcement, arguing that its gradual withdrawal from Newcastle since the early 1980s has affected the way that people remember it.
My sources are limited to the spoken or written word. Unlike other subjects of popular memory which have been studied, such as the Depression, the Homefront in World War II or domestic work, the steelworks has rarely been represented in popular culture. There is little likelihood that memories of BHP have been affected by film or television portrayals although such films as Flashdance or The Full Monty could make an impact. Formal records of work experiences are lacking
The commissioned histories of BHP put the company at their centre, while academic studies have focused on economics and workplace disputes. The BHP Review, an in-house publication, recorded retirements of long serving employees, featuring their photographs, but not their stories. In one example from June, 1938, the Review covered the function marking the retirement of Mr Jack Young at which Mr Alf Davis 'told the gathering of some amusing incidents in which he and the guest of the evening had figured during the early days of the erection of the Newcastle plant'. The memories themselves were not recorded. There are no physical memorials to BHP or its workers in Newcastle to act as aide memoires.
Elements of the site serve this purpose now, but once decommissioned, it is likely that buildings, roads and railway tracks will be removed to make way for other uses despite the recognition by the NSW Heritage Office and the National Trust that many elements of the site possess heritage value. Ironically, the building perhaps most likely to be preserved is the Inter-War Georgian Revival Administration Building constructed in 1921. With its imposing front staircase, columns and formal balance, it is a building which says much about the Company's self-image but little about the experience or process of making steel.
It is likely that the informal modes of transmission of memory - gossip, stories and jokes - will continue to be more important locally than the more formal channels of film, text and memorial. The break with the past signalled by the closure of the steelworks may be met with the establishment of a museum recording the history of the steelworks, but the principal repositories for this heritage will be public and private archives and the minds of local people.
At a national level, memories of BHP are based not in direct experience but largely through media representations. As Lucy Taksa noted in 'The Masked Disease', press accounts affect what stories are possible, how they are told and how they are transmitted.
Capital city newspapers covered the closure announcement as though Newcastle was defined by BHP. A Daily Telegraph cartoon portrayed Newcastle as an oversized tin man weeping while a small frock coated, cigar smoking man labelled BHP strode away with his heart. Beneath it, Mike Gibson opined that, 'after 82 years, it [BHP] was closing down the heart and soul of the city that had made this company the success story that it is'.
Mark Stoker, acting assistant secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, said, 'They have reached into the heart of Newcastle, its people, its heritage, and they have torn the heart out'. History and memory were used to build up the magnitude of the event. Bruce Hextall, in the Sydney Morning Herald, covered the closure in a story entitled "World War I blast furnaces can't soldier on' and linked it with the retreat from ANZAC Cove. From a distance, BHP is perceived as Newcastle's powerhouse, providing the life blood which animates the city.
The view from within gives BHP less centrality and less power to cause the death of the city. The decision to close the steelworks came as no surprise to the people of Newcastle. As one steelworker said, for the past five years he had been 'Putting patches on patches'.
Since the early 1980s, BHP had been shifting its focus of steelmaking away from the Newcastle plant. The company will not entirely disappear from Newcastle as a new wire mill will be established there but the closure of the steelworks will mark a break in people's personal histories of the city.
When considering memories of BHP in Newcastle, gender is an obvious starting point. Very few women have been employed within the gates, principally in the administrative section and only in the past few decades in the area of production. In contrast, a significant minority of men in Newcastle have had some experience of working at BHP.
Women's memories of BHP are therefore limited in their range. Like women on the Homefront, or in coal mining or factory towns, they remember as those who waited for fathers, husbands and sons sent daily to the steelworks or as more or less interested spectators.
Men have been permitted the full range of viewing positions. As a major employer of less skilled and casual labour, BHP took in students seeking summer employment, youths and those between other jobs. Short term employees often saw the worst of the steelworks and the inefficiencies of a large organisation.
The asthmatic husband of one informant suffered debilitating attacks after exposure to fumes at BHP. A student worker told me of returning over several years and being set to painting metal work which had never been stripped. His three or four coats of paint were added to the mass already there with no consideration of their utility.
For these men, who took other paths through life, the steelworks was a rite of passage into whose mysteries they received only a limited induction. Their memories provide masculine credibility over the public bar or dinner table when talk of BHP arises.
Memories of BHP are much more central to those men who spent a significant proportion of their working lives at the steelworks. Some of these were captured in a Radio National broadcast entitled 'Work: Now and Then'.
Most informants mentioned their fear and revulsion when first confronted with the heat and dirt of the steelworks and the real dangers faced by workers only balanced by their relief at having a job.
A clear generational divide in memories is apparent with older workers feeling a strong attachment to the steelworks. Until the early 1980s, an apprenticeship at BHP was seen as a wise step and a good opportunity for young Novocastrians who could expect security and high rates of pay.
A Macedonian immigrant said of BHP, 'For 36 years it's been like a home to me'. Younger men interviewed by Radio National were more critical of BHP and their elders' loyalty to the company. A current employee recalled his grandfather and father's attitudes to BHP: 'They always thought BHP was God. I mean they always said if you get a job at BHP you get a job for life.
Well those days are finished, of course'. One man described his father-in-law, a loyal employee of over forty years standing, as being like a slave on an Alabama plantation in his attachment to the Company which had exploited him for decades. A more empathetic younger man noted that BHP appeared to be like a family business for many families who had worked for three generations in the steelworks.
As so often happens when a group faces an external threat, the community surrounding the works was bonded by it. When an accident occurred:
"news would come home with the men from the shift and spread up and down the street. It was often a Mayfield man, someone's father or brother, pinned under a load of steel that slipped, mangled by a machine that should not have been turned on, or, horrid beyond imagining, slipping into a vessel of molten steel. "
These memories of hard work and mateship are the memories of the minority in Newcastle, those who actually worked at the steelworks.
Although the steelworks holds such sway over ideas about Newcastle, most Novocastrians have never entered the BHP site. A woman who has lived in Newcastle for fifty years admitted that while she had toured the steelworks at Port Kembla, she had never visited the local steelworks.
For such people, BHP functions as a backdrop for their lives, looming large at times but generally simply being there as a presence on the skyline, marked by its large plume of smoke and steam. Bruce Wilson recalled that growing up in Mayfield in the 1940s, 'the steelworks were simply there ... It was the steelworks that defined Newcastle and made us what we were'.
The sheer bulk of the steelworks was strangely reassuring, like a great fortress protecting a medieval European town. Michelle Gunn remembered 'a golden flame flickering out of a giant chimney ... There night and day, it was reassuringly constant'.
This role of BHP as background came through clearly in the popular collection of short stories compiled for Newcastle's bicentenary entitled Novocastrian Tales. In none of the stories is BHP a setting, but many of them refer to it, like a river or mountain, as part of the landscape.
After an adventure, two boys in Marion Halligan's 'The Perfect Fish' pause on a railway bridge: 'Over behind BHP, great white billows of cloud climbed slowly into the hot blue air and beneath their feet a train rushed through the station without stopping'. Trying to account for an explosion, Michael Stevens' characters suggest: 'BHP?' he enthused. 'Too close.' BHP is mentioned only in a few of the dozens of stories in the volume and then not as a site of action or of employment for a major character but as part of the scenery against which the story is told. This seems to epitomise general memories of BHP. For the majority, BHP has been a latent force in their lives, a presence on the margins of consciousness.
In their memories of the steelworks, Novocastrians construct BHP as an alien imposition upon their city. Workers recall a battle with BHP which demanded perseverance, mateship bravery and could cause injury or even death. Citizens remember the steelworks as a backdrop to their activities impinging upon them only incidental ways.
Instead of becoming an organic part of the community of Newcastle, BHP remained geographically and metaphorically on its margins. As in Broken Hill itself, the Company kept a wary distance and avoided intimate engagement with its site of production.
To Bruce Wilson: "BHP Newcastle has never belonged to the community. It was an outpost of an empire centred on Melbourne. Novocastrians were merely a commodity, hired for as long as we were needed."
BHP is remembered as an Other, taking in young men, providing them with a living and making them old, but not really part of the community known locally as 'Our Town'. Far from being Newcastle's heart, directed by faceless men in a distant capital, BHP was heartless.
Having waged its struggle with Newcastle for almost a century, BHP has at last announced not defeat, but strategic withdrawal. Perhaps a more apt bodily metaphor, although one which would be perceived as controversial in Newcastle itself, would be that BHP was a cancer. The cancer will be excised this year and Newcastle, while depleted, will carry on to share its memories of survival.
The era of steelmaking in Newcastle is about to come to a close. The years 1915 to 1999 will become an epoch to be recalled and revisited through heritage interpretation. In its afterlife, as personal memories are affected by those in the public domain, there may be a tendency for the BHP steelworks to be viewed as the heritage site which was Newcastle's heart, the motive force of its glory days. Like Port Arthur, the scene of labour, hardship and conflict could be transformed into a place for a picnic with the family, or, should the site be put to another industrial use, a pleasant day's reminiscences.
Oral testimony being gathered by Rosemary Melville, a doctoral candidate at the University of Newcastle, from long serving employees of BHP indicates that BHP is central to their Newcastle, as to many others in the city. However, many of the steelwork's positive associations - as a place of certain work and high wages, for example - have been eroded over the past fifteen years.
The contemporary memories as recorded in newspaper and magazine articles, radio broadcasts, works of fiction and conversations since the closure announcement are of uncertainty and running down, of BHP as a backdrop for lives proceeding in different directions.
As Newcastle survives this latest challenge and goes on to capitalise on its location, physical beauty, stock of nineteenth century buildings, port facilities and other assets, it is more likely that the public memory of the BHP steelworks will increasingly converge with the local memory which places BHP at the margins rather than the centre of Newcastle.
Dr Cushing can be contacted at mailto:[email protected]
by Peter Zangari
(1) NINE INCH NAILS- HEAD LIKE A HOLE
Trent Reznor was the Godfather of all things Industrial way before the gimmicky Marilyn Manson or Korny bands arrived on the scene. If you want an example of power and hatred, then no body does it better than Nine Inch Nails with the punch line: "I'd rather die than give you control". That line itself sounded too revolutionary for the class of the early 90's but today has obvious significance when you hear about failed former Victorian comedians cum business entrepreneurs trying to take control of worker's lives in the new information age. Your right Trent, I'd rather die than give them control.
(2) MASSIVE ATTACK- UNFINISHED SYMPATHY
This Bristol based group basically created the Trip Hop movement. This particular style of music fused electronic loops, hip hop breaks and soulful melodies with jazzed chords and big string sections, paving the way for the soundtrack of a generation. This song was from the album 'Blue Lines' back in 1991. Over the years, Massive Attack has worked with many artists, producing, remixing and re-inventing sounds like no other.
(3) NIRVANA-LITHIUM
In a scream of pop star angst the world of Kurt Cobain came to a grinding halt in April 1994. The singer/guitarist/songwriter was found dead in his apartment. The twenty-something millionaire alternative rock god shot himself in the head early one morning after enduring months of depression. This song sticks out because I saw Nirvana play a sweaty and overcrowded Hordern Pavilion in 1992 at the first ever Big Day Out. How many of us knew on that day that Kurt would never return to these shores again?
(4) ITCH-E AND SCRATCH-E - SWEETNESS AND LIGHT
Homegrown electronic music at its best. This outfit from Melbourne gave us the sweetest techno anthem for the middle nineteen nineties. Haunting samples together with a pouncing bassline make this track a definite inclusion in anyone's serious review of the 1990's music scene. These guys now go by the name of Boo Boo, Mace and Nutcase and are still churning out quality Australian beats.
(5) SMASHING PUMPKINS - DISARM
Lead singer Billy Corgan sums up Post Cold War reality in this song from the album 'Siamese Dream' by saying- "The killer in me is the killer in you". Actually, this song has nothing to do with International Relations . Instead, the Smashing Pumpkins circa 1993 were in the midst of World Domination. Pity that they went downhill from there. Their last two releases have been disappointing and go to show that most bands these days have the best formula for producing a quality album but don't have the depth to follow it up.
(6) PORTISHEAD - SOUR TIMES
The arrival of British outfit Portishead on the Trip Hop scene in 1994 marked the slow acceptance of electronic music into the mainstream. Portishead's music was a blend of melancholic, soulful melodies, hip hop beats and cool soundtrack music. Singer Beth Gibbons has one of the most unique voices which sparked a million imitators in the past few years. This song was the first single from the debut album 'Dummy', a must have in the collection.
(7) JEFF BUCKLEY- LAST GOODBYE
The death of Mr. Buckley came all too soon in May 1997. The son of tragic 70's folk singer Tim Buckley, his 1995 release 'Last Goodbye' was probably too prophetical for any fan in Australia. The song features Buckley as the master composer and falsetto singer doing what he did best. There was a double CD of unreleased Buckley demo's that came out in 1998 which was nowhere near as good as his debut album 'Grace' which is truly indicative of the strength of his musical ability.
(8) KEITH JARRETT - LA SCALA
This CD is a recording of Afro-American Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett's 1997 concert at the famous Milan Opera House. The whole concert is improvised and yet another outstanding piece of contemporary music history. The master instrumentalist takes the listener on a journey and continues on from his previous works. If you haven't heard the jazz pianists work before, one place to start would be the 'K�ln Concert' from 1975 which is now available on the ECM label. That particular CD is quite superb to say the least because it featured the first black-american musician in the early 1970's to play a packed out crowd in Germany.
(9) LAMB- GORECKI
From Britain, this Drum and Bass duo knows how to pack a punch. All that I can remember is hearing this killer track for the first time at the Vibes on a Summer's day Festival at Bondi in 1997, the day that the Wiseguys and Propellerheads first played in Australia. Starting off with an eery vocal, this track develops in to a huge beatfest. Check out their self-titled debut for more.
(10) POWDERFINGER- THE DAY YOU COME
From the album 'Internationalist' this single has a number of political undertones. It was written about the rise of the conservative Hansonite agenda in the past few years and its effect on Australian society.With a haunting chorus that grows on you, this track has to go down as one of 1998's greatest singles.
The report, "Rio Tinto: Behind the Facade" was prepared by the international union body ICEM and the Minerals policy Institute. It was released to coincide with the company's annual general meeting in Britain chronicles of litany of grievances against the firm including:
- increasing executive salaries by 27 per cent in the past year, despite profits falling 43 per cent.
- human rights abuses against West Papuan at the Grasberg copper mine.
- the omission of 25 international standards and conventions from the company's statement of business practise.
- details of Rio Tinto's active role in the drafting of the federal Workplace Relations Act.
- the acquisition of the Gordonstone coal mine and the efforts to restart operations using non-union labour.
-the deaths of ten workers in the Lassing mine disaster in Austria.
The report's authors hope that by consolidating the multinational's global activities into the one document, people will understand that Rio Tinto can be called to account.
"For years Rio Tinto has taken advantage of the isolation and weakness of communities affected by its operations and organisations campaigning against it," MPI executive director Geoff Evans says.
"For too long people have swallowed the line that the problems they were experiencing with the company are unique.
"Thanks to effective international communication we now know that there are many people who are having the trouble with the way this company operates."
His proposals to reinvigorate the ALP branch structure and give more power and responsibility to party members are moves in the right direction. By themselves, however, they will not de-institutionalise factions. Although I believe he is sincerely motivated, the effect of Costa's other ideas (the removal of proportional voting and centralised preselections) would result in complete domination of the party by head office, if unaccompanied by significant additional cultural and institutional developments.
To be of any real benefit reforms must free up the ALP's internal political system and give more meaning to party membership without slighting the organic connection with organised labour. In the spirit of Michael Costa's invitation, I offer the following suggestions.
The Disputes Committee and the Review Tribunal are charged with resolving conflicts between party members on issues such as branch stacking, irregularities in the conduct of elections and preselections, and the like. Predictably, the determinations of these bodies are almost always along factional lines. Even when party rules are on your side, there is no way of enforcing them - there is no rule of law that applies impartially to all, without fear or favour.
Persons sitting on these bodies should be drawn at random from a pool of candidates chosen by the ALP State Conference. This method should also apply to the selection of the Chair. The random element should discourage members of the Committee or Tribunal from deciding matters in an overtly factional manner.
Formal mechanisms within the NSW ALP relating to policy formulation are archaic and deprive party members of meaningful input. The ritualised conflict seen at party conferences is also rarely useful for serious policy discussion.
Party policy committees need to operate differently if they are to be useful or relevant. Changes in the manner of operation should include calling for submissions from party members, party units and even outside organisations on relevant issues, travelling to different regional centres to conduct open hearings, and other new forms of conduct which would move policy discussion from the partisan heat of an ALP Conference to a more informed way of exploring ideas.
Their collective representative nature makes trade union delegations to State Conference the organising force behind factions. This can obscure what should be their primary role in the party structure of ensuring that political Labor remains connected to the historical purpose for which it was formed - the protection and advancement of ordinary working people and all who struggle to improve society.
The logic of Costa's argument that party members should be able to directly elect State Conference delegates is compelling. Voting for the Administrative Committee (Party Executive) and delegates to the National Conference (both currently elected by State Conference) should also be subject to direct election, with half of each elected by:
(i) the trade union delegates to ALP State Conference; and
(ii) ordinary party members entitled to vote in branch elections.
This would free unions from primarily being keystones of factional organisation and encourage them to choose candidates as representatives of ALP affiliated unions. For party members, it would result in a wider field of candidates to choose from and a more open selection process than exists presently. Such new arrangements would enable both important parts of the Labor constituency to have a more direct input into the most important bodies in the party structure and increase their legitimacy.
Like Michael Costa, I think branch stacking should be somehow eliminated. However, while I share Costa's enthusiasm for more training and education for party members, I do not think attendance at week-end schools should be required before allowing them a vote in preselections.
Whatever rules are in place to govern preselection can be overcome by the dedicated branch stacker, providing they have the determination, time and other necessary resources. The existence of the collegiate method of selecting candidates for Parliament suggested by Michael Costa has not discouraged branch stacking in those states that have it.
The answer lies partly in the attitude of the party machine towards such practices, but rules are also important. To be effective, rules should be kept simple. In order to vote in an ALP preselection, party members should have to be registered with a branch for three continuous years and be on the electoral roll. While this may disenfranchise some, such as younger members, it will improve the integrity of preselection ballots.
Reform should be directed at improving bonds of mutual trust between party members and the party machine. While there is an inherent tension in such a relationship, it is important it is nurtured not weakened by changes that merely favour one group or another. The consistent and fair application of simplified rules by impartial bodies within the ALP, coupled with an enlarged and more direct role for both unions and ordinary party members would be a promising start.
Factions have always existed in the Labor Party, although not as formal or highly organised as at present. In recent years, they have proved an effective tool for managing the party and have minimised open conflict. But when they cease to facilitate, and actually operate to the detriment of the party (as in the Left faction Upper House ballot last year) they need to be reconsidered.
A frontal assault will not get rid of them, even were that desirable. It is human nature to form groups. What is needed is a change to the rules that shape them, to make the party structures more open and fairer to all who wish to contribute.
Adam Searle is President of the Mid Mountains ALP Branch and Chief of Staff to Jeff Shaw Q.C., NSW Attorney General and Minister for Industrial Relations
Trevor Sharp has offered union support to the NRL in the wake of a series of incidents where players have made the headlines for exploits under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
"There are definite similarities between rugby league players and construction workers," Sharp says.
"Some first graders were actually building workers prior to the game reaching its current professional status, and many players in the lower grades are employed in the construction industry."
"They are both predominantly male with a macho culture that heavily includes alcohol as bonding agent and as a form of reward. "
Sharp says it's interesting to note that both groups are used as role models in alcohol marketing.
He also believes similar solutions could work with the two groups.
"It may be fair to say that footballers, like building workers, would resent outside interference and it is arguable that professional drug and alcohol workers would achieve a great level of acceptance.
"This was most certainly the case in the construction industry. It is therefore, conceivable that an approach similar to that adopted by the construction industry could be used to address alcohol issues among ruby league players."
In particular, Sharp believes a peer based model of involving the target group in identifying both the problem and the solution has definite merit. In the BTG Program, the target group identified safety as the focus that would get workers involved in and supporting the program.
If this model were to be pursed by NRL, the target group itself would need to identify the focus for any program.
"There are many possibilities ranging from pride in themselves and the game, through to fear of discipline for unacceptable behaviour that could resonate with the players," Sharp says.
Sharp welcomed the upcoming NRL summit on Alcohol and said the Building Trades Group Drug and Alcohol Committee would welcome the opportunity to be involved in the summit.
"We believe sharing the knowledge and experience we have gained in the development and implementation of our program could be of real assistance to the NRL, the players and the game," Sharp says.
by Mark Lennon
The EMU commenced on January 1 this year and means that some 11 nations in western Europe now have the same currency-the Euro. At present the Euro is used for all financial transactions but from 1/1/2002 Euro notes and coins will be in use and the currencies of the member nations will be withdrawn from circulation.
The introduction of the Euro is another stage in the evolution of European economic integration that commenced in the 1950s when founding member states agreed to free up trade by removing tariffs and quotas and eliminating border controls.
The 1980s saw further moves towards integration with agreement to remove further impediments to trade that arose through having different regulatory structures in each of the member states. This involved harmonisation of regulations and also adoption of the principle of mutual recognition.
This decade has seen the European Union concentrate on the macroeconomic picture. This was a logical consequence of the changes in the 80s which allowed for freer flows of capital. As capital became more mobile then the various Governments were limited as to the type of monetary policy they could run. In practice the monetary policies of the member states was synchronised by default.
The ultimate outcome was the Maastricht Treaty, named after the Dutch town where the treaty was signed,in 1992. The treaty provided for three things, a single currency, a European Central bank,and a single European interest rate.
What this treaty means is that the European economy is now the size of the United States and the Euro is in the position to challenge the US dollar as the world's premier currency.
For consumers in the European union the Euro should result in cheaper prices as the single currency will introduce more competition into the marketplace particularly through the fact that any differences in prices of particular products and services between member states will be more transparent.
There are, however, some problems. Many economic commentators believe that the European labour markets need to be freed up to allow for more flexibility in wage fixing and greater mobility of labour. If this occurs then this will cause enormous dislocation to workers as has been the experience in Australia.
One would argue to that probably a greater challenge for the European economies is to create job opportunities in growth industries such as information technology, an area where they lag behind both the United States and Australia.
Another outstanding question is that of the role of Britain. At the moment Britain remains outside the EMU. However that are to finally determine their position in a referendum in the next few years. Some would argue that it is to Britain detriment rather than Europe's if they choose to remain outside.
The larger problem for the EMU is whether it can survive without political union.
If some form of tighter political union does not occur then there is the likelihood that the EMU will fail. For the new economy to function effectively it is argued that there needs to be a centralisation of political institutions.
It will be an interesting time for Europe, who knows the outcome; but I can certainly recommend Berlin in the spring.
As the learned academics proceeded to the stage, amongst the robes and mortar boards came "a fat man in an ill-fitting suit" who nobody recognised - until he was called to address the young graduates and give them his words of wisdom before they embarked into the big wide world.
"For Piers, the speech was quite temperate," a spy at the ceremony told Workers Online. He started talking about self-censorship, before moving on to wax lyrical about Noel Pearson, who has been transformed into a Piers pin-up boy for criticising aspects of the bureaucracy's handling of Aboriginal issues, before launching into his usual Paul Sheahan rave about immigration.
As he was gathering steam the crowd starting thinning. First some Aboriginal guests decided they'd had enough; then other students and guests, until about a third of the hall had vacated the premises.
By the time the ceremony was over, the students had gathered for an impromptu protest, convincing Piers that there is a conspiracy developing against him.
Rushing into print, Piers linked the Wollongong Uni students with the Sydney Morning Herald, for promoting Workers Online's "neo-McCarthyist" $1000 bounty for information leading to criminal charges being laid against him. But again, there was no mention of Workers Online. Shoddy reporting. And a shoddy conspiracy theory.
What surprises Workers Online about the whole incident is the choice of speaker.
Having checked out Piers' entry in Who's Who a couple of weeks ago, we can attest to the fact that he has no academic qualifications. No sin in that. Many graduation ceremonies are addressed by people who have made a contribution to their field.
But where is Piers' contribution? Herald-Sun front pages? Telegraph diatribes? Just being Piers? We checked with the University of Wollongong's administration for details of the criteria for selecting speakers. Apparently, faculties and student organisations are invited to submit names. These are then forwarded to the vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton, for a final choice.
Is it a policy to get controversial speakers? "We had a scientist once, who referred to God's non-existence which caused a bit of a stir," we were told. Also, Terry Metherall announced his education policy from the Wollongong Uni stage. An unholy trinity indeed.
So who nominated Piers? We were referred to Professor Sutton's office but did not receive a response. Workers Online understands the university council will now be asking the Vice-Chancellor for a "please explain" over his choice of speaker.
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Meanwhile, with a growing pile of Hansard's extracts on our desk, we await Piers' contribution to the drugs debate with interest.
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