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Issue No. 130 | 05 April 2002 |
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Issue No. 130 | 05 April 2002 |
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Anyone who has been through the Sussex Street doors has learnt Richo's old maxim on gauging support - "get them to look you in the eyes and swear on their mother's grave they'll back you and then cut the number in half". Then again, if the Balmain Boy had taken Richo's advice, he'd never have caused the spill that saw Chikka succumb to the same sword she had herself wielded so ruthlessly on Peter Collins before the 1995 election.
As it was, once he announced the challenge he realized that not all nods equate to votes. He then spent a madcap three days trying to shore up support for his coup d'etat, emerging victorious by a single vote. In the mad scramble he was forced to promise the world to all and sundry, leaving him with a front-bench crowded with former foes and being forced to dump one of the few Libs with any talent - Fatty O'Barrell - to the reserves. I guess a win by one vote is as good as a landslide, but in the vipers nest that is the Liberals, a new leader needs more than marginal support.
Now he's in the hot seat, how will he fare? Well no worse than Chikka who was up against it from Day One when she was caught out being prompted at a doorstop by Michael ('The Vertical Corgi') Photios. Brogden's looks and demeanor make for a mainstream, moderate campaign image. He only needs to look South to see what an unknown, but polite, challenge can do to a Premier seeking a third term.
His early days in the job have been intriguing. While he's continued to chase that tired old whore Laura Norder, promising to extend the police state into the schoolyard, he's also backed the union movement's opposition to Treasurer Michael Egan's plans to privatize the strategic arm of Pacific Power. In a total u-turn on the Coalition's 1999 election policy, the Boy from Balmain says he'll maintain the entire power industry in public hands. Whether this remains a core election promise is yet to emerge, but his initial decision adds to the confusion about what he's doing in the Tory Party to start with.
He can add to the confusion next week when he has the opportunity to block new regulations that would make it impossible for workers involved in armed hold-ups or other workplace violence to receive workers compensation. If he comes to the party on this one, he'll have convinced members of his old alma mata 'St Patricks' - including the Ferguson brothers and our own Mark Lennon - that he really is a stranger in a strange land.
Either way, any Boy from Balmain who joins the Liberals and then rises to its leadership deserves a stint in the Shed - he's either joined the wrong party or is a class traitor. Either way, he's a Tool.
And, with the bank having refused to complete a new enterprise agreement before the restructure, workers are also unsure whether their entitlements will be fully protected.
The National Australia Bank will this week announce its intention to cut thousands of jobs and close scores of branches in a 'Positioning for Growth' statement. Estimates of job cuts range from 3,000 to 5,000.
The restructure comes after NAB lost $3.6 billion speculating in the United States on the failed HomeSide lending venture. This includes more than $9 million paid to two US executives who presided over the debacle.
The Finance Sector Union says the $3.6 billion would have covered the wages of 5,000 NAB workers, on an average annual wage of $30,000, for another 24 years.
FSU state secretary Geoff Derrick says the cuts show the pitfalls of banks speculating on extravagant investment schemes rather than concentrating on services to the community.
"NAB has to work out if it is a bank or a gambler," Derrick says. "If NAB decides it's a bank it should commit to customers and staff, not shed branches and workers to make good its gambling debts."
Branches Disappear
The job cuts and closures follow a steady reduction in staffing levels over the past five years.
In 1997, NAB had 46,422 fulltime employees. By 2001 this was down 44,983, of which about half are employed in Australia. In this light a loss of 5,000 jobs will equate to 11 per cent of the bank's total workforce
The FSU says the NAB average profit per employee is now $98,000 per year.
The full list of NAB Branch closures is:
NSW: Culburra, Milton, Gunning, Bomaderry, Gulgong, Molong, Baradine, Boggabri, Warialda, Manilla, Coolamon, Bangalow, Brunswick Heads, Urunga
QLD: Sugarland, Toogoolawah, Wondai, Kin Kora, Babinda, Cardwell, Horne Hill
SA: Goolwa, Angaston, Maitland, Orroroo, Peterborough, Quorn
Vic: Merbein, Charlton, Birchip, Warrambool East, Koroit, Coleraine, Dimboola, Koo Wee Rup, Warburton, Pyramid Hill, Angaroo Flat, Sea Lake, Nyah West, Tongala, Violet Town, Elmore, Rushworth, Stanhope, Mortlake, Willaura,
Winchelsea, Avoca, Beaufort, Portarhington, Queenscliff, Anglesea, San Remo, Toora
W.A. Williams
The NSW Labor Council will this week ask the Opposition and minor parties holding the balance of power in the state Upper House to block a regulation to change the way psychological and psychiatric injury is assessed.
Council secretary John Robertson says the new assessment scheme - PIRS - has been discredited by the medical and scientific community and make it impossible for victims of armed hold-ups and other acts of physical workplace violence to claim workers compensation.
Unions want the previous assessment system, basing incapacity on the financial damage the worker incurred, to remain until a nationally accredited assessment system is put in place.
The changes to assessment of psychological and psychiatric damage was one of the cost-saving measures in the Carr Government's workers compensation changes introduced last year, despite bitter union opposition.
While the legislation was passed by the State Parliament late last year, several key aspects - including the assessment system - were left to be set by separate regulation. That regulation could be blocked by a majority vote in the Legislative Council.
"We'll be asking the Opposition and the cross-benches to block the regulation when it comes before the Parliament on Tuesday," Robertson says.
"To succeed we'll need the support of the new Opposition leader. He has the opportunity to send a message to workers that he will stand up for their interests rather than follow the Far Right agenda of bashing workers and their representatives at every opportunity.
Hold-Up Victims Locked Out of Compo
The Finance Sector Union says that since the new Act came into operation in NSW on January 1, 2002, there had been 28 reported armed robberies of banks in the state.
These include:
- a violent hold-up at ANZ Annandale on March 28 resulting in two staff members being taken to hospital.
- two hold-ups at Westpac St Leonards (January 31 and February 13). At least one staff member is still off work.
- the fourth attack in four years on the Westpac city bank on February 8, leaving three FSU members still under medical care.
"While many of the injuries suffered by our members are yet to stabilize, we are now advised that none of the victims of these incidents or any of the other 24 hold-ups reported to date will satisfy the new criteria," FSU state secretary Geoff Derrick says.
"This is a major issue for FSU members," Derrick says. "Without changes to the guidelines it is now apparent that victims of post-traumatic stress resulting from workplace violence will be denied fair compensation for their injuries."
Figures released in Parliament today confirm Building Industry Inquiry supremo Terrence Cole as the highest paid public official in Australia.
For his services, the Liberal Government is paying Cole triple the amount set aside for Justice Neville Owen who is heading up the inquiry into the HIH failure, the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history.
Credibility on the Line
Cole's Commission will get a chance to salvage credibility when it arrives in Sydney this month and is confronted by a dossier of genuine building industry rorts.
Unlike other states, the NSW branch of the CFMEU is putting industrial action on ice to give the Commission another chance to prove it is fair dinkum about shonky industry practises.
The CFMEU is giving Commissioner Cole an opportunity to hose down the perception he is running a politically-motivated sideshow by addressing safety, compo fraud, tax evasion, phoenixing and the abuse of migrant labour.
Construction has an appalling safety record, accounting for 12 percent of serious workplace injuries in Australia, and the death of one building worker every week.
The union estimates that 40 percent of sub-contractors are evading workers compensation cover for at least some of their employees. Some analysts argue construction tax evasion is costing the public purse as much as $1 billion annually.
Phoenixing, whereby a company or operator goes bust leaving workers, subbies and the tax office out of pocket then resumes business under another name, is escalating, along with the use of illegal immigrants as cheap labour.
Attack on all Workers
Unless these issues are addressed, CFMEU official Tony Pappas warns, Commission hearings will turn into a witch hunt from which no worker organisation will be immune.
"Abbott and Howard have an agenda against the building unions," he says.
"They have allocated $80 million for this exercise and the motive behind it is their desire to smash trade unions. At the end of the day, their target is not just the CFMEU and building unions, it is all of us."
Labor Council endorsed his call for a mass rally outside the Commission on May 3 and will co-ordinate the protest.
It will be part of a fortnight of public activity in defence of union rights which will confront the Commission, engineered by Employment Advocate Jonathan Hamberger and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott.
Scheduled protests include: Monday, April 29, building union delegates; April 30, injured workers and families; May 1, retired unionists; May 2, environmental groups; May 3, Labor Council and affiliates; May 6, sub-contractors; May 7, community groups; May 8, union occupational health and safety reps.
It's Stinky!
Meanwhile, the CFMEU's eight metre rat has a name. Just this week it was christened, Stinky, in response to a competition run by Workers Online.
Stinky will be out and about while the Commission is in Sydney, sniffing out dodgy practises that early indications suggest the Commission would prefer to ignore.
Labor Council's own Mark Morey won the naming competition from more than a dozen entrants. Other suggestions that troubled the judges included: John Winston, Eco (Rat), Sue, and Nat (in honour of the real King Cole).
The attendants are considering using budget day to highlight the failures of the Living Wage Case - and the way the Federal Government goes about ripping off the lowest paid in this country.
LHMU Victorian branch secretary, Brian Daley the Government might want to use the budget to portray itself as a sound economic manager but the hypocrisy of this claim is underlined by its consistent failure to support a decent minimum wage increase.
He says a likely option is for attendants to lock up carparks in Melbourne's CBD on budget day in mid-May - and bring the city to a standstill.
Daley made the announcement the same day the ACTU went before the Industrial Relations Commission to argue for a $25 a week wage rise for low income earners.
"If the Living Wage Case won't deliver decent increases then union members, such as our car park attendants will have to look at direct action," Daley says.
Car park attendants are paid $11.10 an hour .
The LHMU has worked with the city's car park attendants over the last 18 months to organise more than 200 into a united workforce committed to improving working conditions.
Struggling to Keep Above Poverty Line
Australia's lowest paid workers are struggling to keep their heads above the accepted Melbourne University Poverty Line, Daley told the Living Wage Case hearing.
"The Living Wage increases handed down in recent years, by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, have fallen way behind the increases needed if many of our members are not to be forced into poverty," Daley said.
"The system is structured in a way that it pushes the low-paid further and further behind acceptable living standards.
" We've invited Dr John Buchanan, the Deputy Director of the University of Sydney's Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training, to brief our membership with an analysis of past Living Wage Cases and why they have not delivered the decent increases Australian workers have a right to expect."
Dr Buchanan joined Daley, immediately after opening statements, to brief members on the latest ACIRRT data.
Dr Buchanan will also outline new research, which the LHMU has commissioned, to look at how LHMU members have faired under the Living Wage, and to test anecdotal evidence of members that they are falling further and further behind.
Following the PSA’s landmark victory, the Municipal Employees Union (MEU) is preparing a case that should boost the wages of community development managers, running council libraries, youth and child care services and the like.
The case is likely to go before the NSW IRC in June.
The news comes as unions grapple with how the pay equity prinicple, generally accepted in theory, can be spread in practise.
"There are many, many women out there where this is still a problem," Labor Council deputy assistant secretary, Alison Peters says.
"The acid test will come when we attempt to move the principle into the private sector. From all the procedings to date, private sector employers have been the most vigorous in raising concerns about the application of pay equity."
A hint about the short-term direction of pay equity may be gleaned from the occupations covered by the original NSW inquiry which focused on librarians, outworkers, hairdressers, fish processors, nurses, clerical and childcare workers.
Last week's IRC full bench decision effectively removed librarians from that list.
For more about the victory of librarians, library technicians and archivists go to: http://workers.labor.net.au/130/b_tradeunion_librarians.html
The NSW Labor Council last night passed a resolution calling on the leaders of both sides to enter a dialogue and urged peak union bodies form Israel and Palestine to play a central role in righting the peace process.
Speaking to the resolution the CFMEU's Andrew Ferguson said the invasion of Plaestinian towns and villages and the killing of innocent people would only generate more support for suicide bombers.
In backing the resolution, the LHMU's Andrew Casey - an active member of Sydney's Jewish community - warned delegates not to view Israel as a "monolith".
Casey said there were at least six active peace groups in Israel, including an anti-conscription movement of reservists refusing to cross into the West Bank. He said many Israeli's, including high-ranking military officers, were currently in jail for their beliefs.
The full Labor Council resolution reads:
The Labor Council condemns the latest escalation of violence and war in the continuing territorial dispute between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Labor Council calls upon the Israeli Government to immediately withdraw their military forces from the territories administered by the Palestinian Authority and especially to halt military action against civilians and requests both Prime Minister Sharon and Chairman Arafat to immediately enter into dialogue to seek a lasting peace in the region. Council recognizes that this process must involve the United Nations.
Further, Labor Council calls on all sides in the conflict to agree to a cessation of all violence including acts of terrorism by suicide bombers. Further, that the peace process and mutual dialogue between the parties be re-initiated as a matter of urgency.
The Labor Council praises the people on both sides including international activists who "against the odds" are working for a peaceful resolution, based on mutual respect and reconciliation, to this crisis.
Further, we note that relations between the Histradut, the General Federation of Labour in Israel, and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, have collapsed as a result of the current conflict.
We urge the two trade union groupings to re-establish relationships and, in the tradition of labour solidarity, play a central role in assisting with the resolution of the current crisis in the interests of all working people in the region.
Further, this resolution be forwarded to the Israeli Government, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and the General Federation of Labour in Israel.
Union Project Victim of Palestine Conflict
Meanwhile, Australia's Union Aid Abroad organisation (APHEDA) has deplored the recent destruction of the offices of its partner organisation, Ma'an Development Centre in Ramallah.
Peter Jennings, Executive Officer of APHEDA (Australian People for Health Education and Development Abroad) said two floors of the Ma'an Centre were destroyed when the Israeli military raided and set fire to the Labour centre on the third floor of the Chamber of Commerce building in central Ramallah city. The Ma'an training rooms and offices on the above floors were also destroyed. Water was cut off and the fire brigade was not allowed access to fight the fire.
Since 1989 substantial AusAID funding and donations from the Australian community have been invested in Ma'an for skills training for the Palestinian people.
"This attack by the Israeli forces along with another attack on the Al Asra' building housing local non-governmental organisations and human rights groups is a deliberate attempt by the Israeli military to undermine positive local and international contributions to peace building," Mr Jennings said..
Ma'an director, Sami Khader, called for lifting the siege on Palestinian communities.
"There is a critical need for international peace monitors and emergency assistance. We have no water, food, electricity or access to medical services," he said.
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA, the humanitarian overseas aid arm of the Australian Trade Union Movement, assists more than 50 skills training projects in 15 countries, including projects with Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.
APHEDA supports the call for international monitors and the implementation of United Nations resolutions, starting with an immediate withdrawal by the Israeli military from the territories occupied in 1967.
Casuals employed under state awards will get the rises as casual loadings increase from 19 per cent to 23 per cent.
One in three Queensland workers is employed on casual terms, missing out on the job security, severance pay and various forms of leave enjoyed by permanent workers.
Queensland Council of Unions assistant secretary, Chris Barrett, reports increased employer interest in transferring workers from casual to permanent employment in the lead-up to this week's movement in loadings.
Barrett said the increased minimum loading was part of the phasing in of a landmark union court victory on casual pay rates.
"Unions are continuing to fight to improve wages and conditions for casuals," he said, "especially pursuing employers who have casuals for years on end and still deny permanent status.'
Queensland unions report a growth in membership amongst casual workers. Last year, in the state, casuals who were union members earned, on average, 16.2 percent, or $64, more than those who weren't.
" A rather over zealous Chubb official stood down our members for alleged acts of violence during the walk off," LHMU NSW assistant secretary, Mark Boyd, said.
"The fact that many of the stood down workers were LHMU delegates and active unionists made us very suspicious.
" The allegations have been proved false, and following talks between the union, Chubb and SRA the security guards have been reinstated on their rosters - after having spent nearly a week off, on full pay."
The walk-off before Easter by more than 400 Chubb security guards, working on State Rail trains, resulted in a quick win.
Stoppage wins amenities
Chubb and the SRA suddenly found facilities, which union members have been asking for, for a little over two years.
"The stoppage got overwhelming support from SRA security guards - both members and non-members," Boyd reported.
" Many non-members who showed solidarity have applied for LHMU membership since the walk off."
Chubb and the SRA have now provided access to clean facilities for LHMU members at Strathfield, Sutherland, Moss Vale, Lithgow, Mt Victoria and Central Stations.
Chubb has also agreed to provide dedicated guard facilities in Newcastle and Wollongong - while there are on-going talks between the union, SRA and Chubb about another 12 sites.
LHMU members at Victoria's three zoos have begun a campaign for better wages and conditions.
"Conditions have been eroded over the last 10 years, leaving our members amongst the lowest paid in the industry," Connie De Nino, LHMU Victorian organiser says.
"Pay rates are so low, that the outcome of the National Wage Case, which commenced today, will outstrip some of the rates currently paid.
" No wonder the zoo is finding it difficult to attract properly trained and experienced staff."
Seeking wage parity
Victorian zoo keepers and horticulturalists are seeking wages parity with other states, and are calling on the Victorian Government to take action before more world class expertise is lost.
De Nino says Victorian workers are paid up to 27% below their counterparts in other Australian zoos.
LHMU member, Jon Birkett, Keeper in Charge of Reptiles at Melbourne Zoo said: "I love my job and the animals I care for, but I've got my own family to care and provide for, and the current wages and conditions are not allowing me to do that properly."
Labor Council secretary John Robertson is offering to host a multi-party forum that will address the practical reality of getting Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders into meaningful training and employment.
"We should use our corporate contacts to get commitments on engaging local communities in developing structured employment programmes," Robertson says.
"Being a good corporate citizen is about more than signing a check and washing your hands of this issue and so is being a good trade unionist.
"If we are going to move beyond tokenism unions need to take a leadership role and part of that is ensuring that Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders are present at all levels of our own organisations."
Robertson was responding to an address from Kevin Tory, a trade unionist for 45 years, who convenes its Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Committee.
Tory asked Aboriginal Council delegates to identified themselves, an exercise which revealed just three of more than 100 worker representatives present were of indigenous descent.
His committee lists employment, training, education and pegging back frightening indigenous incarceration rates as targets for immediate action.
Building workers, who see one of their workmates killed in Australia every week, voted to honour the constable as four people appeared in court charged with his murder.
"Building work is a dangerous occupation, just like policing," CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson explained. "Flying these ribbons is an expression of solidarity between one group of workers and another."
At CFMEU instigation, Labor Council delegates stood for a minute's silence in Constable McEnallay's memory this week.
The NSW Police Association thanked both the CFMEU and Labor Council for their support.
Labor and Refugees to Lead or to Listen?
As the debate over the handling of refugees and asylum seekers matures, two markedly different views are emerging within the ALP.
Mark Latham has been a vocal defender of Labor's support of mandatory detention, stating it is in line with the attitudes of most Labor supporters. John Robertson is a leading light in the Labor for Refugees group and a critic of Labor's position at the last federal election.
They'll be asked to discuss the following issues:
- Was the strategy on asylum seekers adopted for the 2001 election the right one?
- What is the Labor road map for developing a policy on refugees and asylum seekers?
- How does refugee policy intersect with immigration, population and multicultural issues?
Where: Upstairs, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt 6.30pm
Admission: $10 and $5
When: 7pm, Wednesday April 17
More details mailto:peterlew@labor.org.au
More than 100 social workers, psychologists, radiologists and admin staff protested outside the city's Calvary Hospital this week over pay rates.
Under Liberal control of the ACT's health budget they have seen salaries slip 12-18 percent below those applying in NSW and nationally.
Community and Public Service Union president Matthew Reynolds says if that situation is not addressed the ACT system will crumble under an "acute staff shortage."
"These people can go to Quenbeyan and get more money for doing the same work. As a result, we are already seeing staff shortages in social work, medical imaging and psycholgy. Last year, alone, we lost more than 30 percent of our staff," Reynolds said.
This week's protest focused on the hospital's failure to make an offer since its Allied Health Professionals and Support Staff agreement ended in March of last year.
Mr Reynolds said workers' patience was "well past wearing thin".
They have elected a committee to consider industrial action and have called on hospital management to resume negotiations.
"The reality is, if we want to keep a decent health service in the ACT, we have to be 'salary competitive' with the NSW and federal systems," Reynolds said.
Following an application by Shangri-La management, the Ministry of Manpower dispute resolution committee (P4P) approved the dismissal of close to 600 of the hotel's workers in May, 2001.
According to the Jakarta newspaper Tempo, the Judges' Panel of the State Administrative High Court, "handed down four injunctions. The first rejected the demurrer of the Shangri-La management. The second overturned the P4P decision. The third asked the hotel to reinstate the sacked workers. The fourth required the defendants P4P and the Shangri-La Hotel respectively to pay court costs."
Since hotel management locked the workers out of their jobs over 16 months ago, Shangri-La workers have had to face injustice, assault and intimidation. The only "unacceptable act" Shangri-La workers ever committed was their desire to secure proper work conditions and exercise trade union rights.
Early in the dispute the management and owners of the hotel adopted a strategy designed purely and simply to crush any resistance from the workers. The hotel owners launched a lawsuit targeting five Shangri-La leaders, their federation representative and the Indonesian representative of the hotel workers international, the IUF.
The lawsuit claimed damages in the order of US$13 million. Despite widespread evidence that the workers had at all times acted within the law, the notorious South Jakarta district court awarded in favour of the owners and fined the Shangri-La workers and their fellow defendants US$2 million.
While this was well below the initial amount sought, the figure was nonetheless equally outrageous, as the seven affected workers face permanent indebtedness and will lose their homes and livelihoods if the fine is upheld.
The decision of the State Administrative High Court rectifies the previous decisions of the Indonesian legal system in this case. While the civil suit remains, the Administrative Court's decision reverses the sham procedure undertaken at P4P, which legitimised management's decision to fire the workers. As such, the ludicrous nature of the civil suit stands out.
However, the decision ordering management to reinstate the workers is yet to be implemented. The Ministry of Manpower has yet to confirm or deny whether it will appeal the Administrative Court's decision to the Supreme Court. The appeal lodged by the Shangri-La workers against the US$2 million fine from the civil court is pending. The management and owners of the hotel have responded that they will appeal the Administrative Court's decision.
This means the Shangri-La workers' struggle continues.
Yet the workers have made an important breakthrough. They have never broken the laws of Indonesia and have only ever asked the hotel's owners and management to respect those laws, which guarantees basic trade union rights. As Secretary of the Shangri-La workers' union, Odie Hudiyanto stated, "We will follow up on what the management always promised - that they would obey the law of Indonesia."
Commenting on research published in the 'Australian Bulletin of Labour', NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson says the notion of a 'fulltime worker' employed for 38 hours per week is becoming a "historical throwback".
The nationwide research shows part-time employment up 135,100 while the number of fulltime jobs fell by 59,700; total hours of work on average down 1.6 per cent and a 15.2 per cent increase in 'under-employment'.
Robertson says the figures shows that the Howard Government's only labour market success has been in hiding the real problems in finding fulltime work.
"More and more workers are being forced into precarious employment, which has repercussions for financial security and long-term employment prospects," he says.
The NSW Labor Council is addressing the issue on several fronts including:
- proposing a labour hire industry award to take away financial incentives for employers to shed full-time staff.
- increasing the rights of casual workers, including guaranteeing them permanency after a fixed period of service.
- extending full-time rights such as maternity leave to part-time and casual workers.
"What we have is an absence of leadership from the federal government. It is left to the union movement to provide structural support for people who are being left behind."
Normally only available to people with relatively high levels of income, the service is being provided at prices that allow anyone to turn up and be treated. What's more, you can also get your pets treated!
Providence Homoeopathic Medical Service is an initiative of the Sisters of Charity in conjunction with the Workers' Health Centre and members of the Australian Homoeopathic Medicine Association. It is situated within the Workers' Health Centre, Ground Floor, 133 Parramatta Rd. The clinic is staffed by qualified and insured practitioners who are giving their time free of charge so that we can offer a professional service to persons without sufficient means to approach fee for service practitioners. Obviously we need to have some income to help pay the rent and replenish consumables, so fee paying clients are encouraged too.
Who can come? Anyone - grandparents, adults, children, infants. Ring 9897 2188 and make an appointment. Initial consultations for humans take from 1 to 1 ½ hours, and follow up consultations approximately 45 minutes. Small animal phone consultations are available on request. If you have a Health Care Card or are a pensioner with medical entitlement your consultations will be free and medicines will be charged at the same rate as subsidised doctor's prescriptions. Prices for other clients are modest, and union members receive a discount. Family rates can be negotiated according to circumstances. GST applies. If you are covered by ancillary health insurance, then most funds offer rebates for homoeopathic consultations but not medicines. We will give you an appropriate receipt to present to your fund if required.
What is homoeopathy?
Homoeo-what? Well might you ask. No, it has nothing to do with sexuality. Homoeo in Greek means similar. Pathy is our pathology. Loosely translated, homoeopathy means a similar condition. The aim of homoeopathy is the rapid, gentle and permanent restoration of health in the shortest, most reliable and most harmless way. It cures the causes of illness and does not merely relieve or suppress the symptoms.
Your GP treats your diarrhoea with medicines that cause the opposite effect to the symptoms you have. So he will give you kaolin or opium based mixtures in order to suppress those symptoms. If you took these medicines without the diarrhoea you would soon end up constipated, that is, in an opposite condition.
A homoeopath will try to find the one medicine that is an almost exact fit for your personal history and your physical symptoms. We believe and can demonstrate that like cures like. We can practice in this way because for the past 200 years homoeopaths have been conducting experiments on healthy persons with substances derived from the mineral, plant and animal worlds. The exact symptoms that followed taking theses substances have been meticulously recorded. This process is called proving. The symptoms of provers throughout the last two centuries are available in print and via electronic media to homoeopaths all over the world.
But knowing that onions make healthy persons' eyes smart and water and their noses run means that we don't just mince up an onion and give it to a person who in sickness has these symptoms. By the time you get Allium Cepa 30 as a homoeopathic remedy the humble onion has gone from the crude substance through a series of 30 dilutions. Starting with one drop of onion solute in 100 drops of alcohol it is shaken vigorously, then one drop of this goes into another 100 drops of alcohol and the process repeated as many times as is required for the potency (strength) sought. These days your homoeopathic medical practitioner will rarely hand make a medicine for you as there are pharmaceutical companies that produce these medicines for us according to strict homoeopathic and good manufacturing process standards. In this way the energetic potential of the crude substance is released, without the side effects.
The service is available Mondays to Fridays, from 10am to 5pm (public holidays excepted). Appointments are necessary. As well, it is possible to provide regular on-site clinics if your work place is within reasonable travelling distance of Granville. Call Carol Pedersen on 0409 152040 if you would like to explore this option. Feel free to advertise the service to your members in NSW.
Labor for Refugees Education Forum
Monday Night. Due to a time clash with a forum on at Labor Council (a speaker from RAWA) we have MOVED THE START TIME BACK. The forum will now begin at 7pm (although people will be there from 6 in case people come early). The details are as follows:
TIME: 6:45 for 7pm start (finish at 9pm)
WHERE: LHMU Auitorium (187 Thomas St Haymarket)
DATE: Monday 8th April
The speakers include:
John Robertson (Secretary of Labor Council of NSW)
Pat Lee (Independent Education Union)
Nick Poynder (Refugee Lawyer)
Amanda Tattersall (Labor for Refugees)
This forum will be an opportunity to find out more detail of the policies of mandatory detention and temporary protection visas, and explore other countries policies and practices for refugees. It will discuss the detail of Labor for Refugees demands for an end to mandatory detention and the pacific solution in the face of proposed changes to ALP Federal Policy. It will also discuss the nature of the campaign, and the kinds and types of activities Labor for Refugees should be initating over the coming months.
The kits that are being mailed out to people will be also be available for people to pick up.
Finally information about the "Show Mercy" gala happening on the 21st April at Sydney Town Hall will be available. We will be organising a Labor for Refugees Contingent to the event so people should let me know if they want to organise tickets at the forum (more information about the logistics of the event and what is happening at the Gala will be posted to the list soon).
ASIO Powers
Mr. Howard want to give ASIO the power to hold you for 48 hours without charge and with no right to silence. Say Hello to a Police State! Smash Racism and the National Union of Students is organising a public meeting about this proposed new "counter-terrorist" legistlation.
7:30 pm
WEDNESDAY, 10 APRIL
Newtown Neighbourhood Centre
1 Bedford st Newtown, corner of King st
Speakers include:
- Ray Jackson (Indigenous Social Justice Organisation)
- Tim Anderson (lecturer and criminal justice activist)
- Paula Abood (activist, film-maker & critic)
- Damien Lawson (Federation of Community Legal Centres)
- Kerry Nettle (The Greens)
For more information please contact:
0416 294 193 [Ben]
0410 561 474 [Manoj]
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The Latest from Pluto
GOODBYE COLIN HOOD
Sadly we report that Colin Hood died suddenly last week at his home in Sydney. Colin was the founding editor of this newsletter and contributed enormously to Pluto Press.
He will be particularly remembered for his enthusiasm and for being a constant font of ideas, especially for remaking Pluto on the internet.
A special tribute will be run in the next newsletter.
His funeral service will be held on Monday April 8 at 1.30 pm at the North Chapel of the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Delhi road, North Ryde.
A celebration of his life will begin at 5.30pm in the Soho Bar (upstairs Bar), 171 Victoria Street, Pott's Point .
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PLUTO SEMINARS AT READERS FEAST IN MELBOURNE
Our non-Sydney friends often complain that Pluto book launches and seminars are invariably held in Sydney. Well this is about to change with Pluto entering into an arrangement with one of Melbourne's biggest book stores, Readers Feast at the corner of Burke and Swanston streets, Melbourne to run monthly seminars along the lines of the successful Wednesday Politics at Berkelouw in Sydney.
The first seminar will be on The Future of the Left in May, followed by Australia's Relations with the South Pacific in June and The Australias that Could Have Been, a launch/seminar of new Pluto book, Neverland.
CANBERRA PLANS
In Canberra we are planning seminars beginning in May with The future of the Australian Public Service and Australia's Relations with the South Pacific.
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PLUTO AUTHORS AT SYDNEY WRITERS FESTIVAL
Pluto authors, Clinton Walker (Buried Country), Ghassan Hage (White Nation) and Graham Meikle (Future Active) will join scores of international and Australian writers at the 2002 Sydney Writers Festival from Monday 27 May to Sunday 2 June. A highlight of the Australian literary calendar, the festival always attracts huge crowds at sessions that are always stimulating and insightful.
Further information on the website: www.swf.org.au
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AUTHOR OF YENNI ON TOUR
Our authors usually don't get the opportunity of touring the country and promoting their books, but thanks to a grant from the Tasmanian Government, Hobart author Jenny Williams whose book, Yenni will be launched by the Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon on Wednesday June 12 at Fullers Bookshop, Hobart at 6.30 PM, will be touring the eastern seaboard in July.
In Yenni, Jenny Williams tells her story of survival - her childhood experiences of World War Two and the dismemberment of her country, Hitler and then the Soviet occupation and the oppression of her Hungarian language and culture, socialist youth rallies, the Prague Spring and Dubcek's reforms and the Soviet invasion of 1968 which led to her emigration to Australia.
"This is a survivors tale. After losing everything, leaving everything behind, what is left are the truly civilised, profoundly human values Williams carried within her when all outward accoutrements have been lost, destroyed."
Kathleen Fallon, author of Working Hot
Jenny Williams will be in Melbourne July 1 and 2; Sydney July 3 - 6 , Canberra July 4 and Brisbane July 7 -10. Details of her bookshop talks will be available soon.
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WEDNESDAY POLITICS AT BERKELOUW
Sponsored by the Pluto Institute and the Australian Fabian Society (NSW Branch)
FABIAN SEMINAR IN SYDNEY
7pm, Wednesday April 17
Berkelouw Books
Labor and Refugees to Lead or to Listen?
An off-the-record stoush over three rounds:
Between ALP Member for Werriwa Mark Latham
And NSW Labor Council Secretary, John Robertson
As the debate over the handling of refugees and asylum seekers matures, two markedly different views are emerging within the ALP.
Mark Latham has been a vocal defender of Labor's support of mandatory detention, stating it is in line with the attitudes of most Labor supporters. John Robertson is a leading light in the Labor for Refugees group and a critic of Labor's position at the last federal election.
They'll be asked to discuss the following issues:
- Was the strategy on asylum seekers adopted for the 2001 election the right one?
- What is the Labor road map for developing a policy on refugees and asylum seekers?
- How does refugee policy intersect with immigration, population and multicultural issues?
Where: Upstairs, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt 6.30pm
Admission: $10 and $5
Please note: No Media Coverage will be permitted at this event
More details: Peter Lewis on 0413 873285
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Pluto Institute Seminar
WEDNESDAY APRIL 24 6.30 PM
THE FUTURE OF THE LEFT IN AUSTRALIA?
What ideas connect the broad Australian left at the beginning of the 21st Century? What are the challenges for the Left in terms of policy, organisation and political strategy? How can the Left inspire the wider society?
Speakers: Boris Frankel, Swinburne University, author, When the Boat Comes In and the classic From Prohets the Deserts Come.
Peter Botsman, Foundation Director, Whitlam Institute, and former Director of the Evatt Foundation and Brisbane Institute
Helen McCue ,Community Activist and founder, Rural Australians for Refugee
Mary Zournazi, writer, philosopher and radio producer, author of Hope and Foreign Dialogues.
Summing up by Eva Cox. Lecturer, Humanities, University of Technology Sydney. Broadcaster, writer & Boyer lecturer.
Chaired by David McKnight, Lecturer, Humanities University of Technology, Sydney, author of Next Left and Australian Spies and Their Secrets
Venue: The Gallery, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt
6.30PM
Admission: $20 and $10
Bookings: Email: brendan@plutoaustralia.com
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Pluto Institute Seminar
WEDNESDAY MAY 1
6.30PM
OPEN AUSTRALIA FORUM
A New Vision for the ALP
Lindsay Tanner MP, Member for Melbourne, Shadow Minister for Communications and author of Open Australia
Mark Latham MP, Member for Werriwa, Assistant Shadow Treasurer, author, Civilising Global Capitalism and co-author, The Enabling State,
Rebecca Huntley, lecturer, UNSW Law School and co-editor, Party Girls
Tom Morton, producer, Background Briefing, ABC Radio National
Guy Rundle Co-editor, Arena Magazine, writer of Max Gillies' smash hit, Your Dreaming.
Catharine Lumby, Journalist and columnist , The Bulletin, Associate Professor, Media Studies, University of Sydney and author Bad Girls
Venue: The Gallery, Berkelouw Books 70 Norton Street, Leichhardt
6.30PM
Admission: $20 and $10
Bookings: Email: brendan@plutoaustralia.com
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SPECIAL FABIAN EVENT IN MELBOURNE
Wednesday 10th April at 6.30 pm: Implications of the Heffernan Affair
Monash Academic Jenny Hocking follows up her biography of Lionel
Murphy with an analysis of what the Heffernan affair was about and
implications for constitutional safeguards.
International Bookshop, Trades Hall 54 Victoria St Carlton South 3053
tel 03 9662 3744 fax 03 9663 4755
www.nibs.org.au
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CONCERT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS CAMPAIGN
The Rights Campaign for Asylum Seekers and Australians for Just Refugee Programs invite you to
SHOW MERCY
An evening of music, satire, voices and theatre to raise awareness of those seeking asylum, to provide a forum for people to express their concern and to take action with the support of key human rights organisations and religious groups at
SYDNEY TOWN HALL
Sunday 21 April 2002, 4.30pm - 7.00pm
Huge cast and hosted by Julie McCrossin. Directed by Nigel Jamieson.
Special video messages from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Gustav Nossal and Dr Bryan Gaensler
You can book ($25/$15)
by phoning Ticketmaster on 1300 139 588
If Chris Puplick thought he was scoring some points for the Liberal Party by drawing the attention of the NSW Labour Council to instances of apparent union support for discrimination (Workers Online #129), he wouldn't be thanked by many of his more hard-headed colleagues.
Puplick was correct in saying that unions in Australia do not have a perfect record on the topic, since quite a few unions adopt a "don't rock the boat" attitude to prejudiced attitudes amongst the membership. Further, we must never forget that for decades the mainstream union movement supported the disgusting "White Australia" Policy. Puplick's mistake, however, was to forget the sole beneficiary of prejudice & division amongst the working class - the employers.
Racism, sexism, homophobia & other forms of discrimination are not simple "bosses' conspiracies", but employers often use whatever prejudices are around if they need to secure a cheap labour force, break a strike or undermine a common union front. In Australia today, a major way in which they do this is by exploiting prejudice against undocumented immigrants. By the use of open or implied threats of dobbing, bosses who employ undocumented immigrants can pay way under the award rate and impose shocking working conditions. They can only get away with this, however, if they can be confident that the rest of the working class will leave those workers in the lurch in the event of the dirty secret coming out. Any worker who refuses support to undocumented immigrants is giving the whole employing class a free kick by supplying employers with a horribly exploited workforce with which to undermine the position of the rest of the working class. Further, any union which goes along with this is betraying its membership &, in the long run, courting disaster.
Discrimination & prejudice serve the interests of the employers and thus you'll find Liberal hard-heads will run dead on the issue. Certain Liberals (who will remain nameless) even actively exploit it if they think they can get away with it. Workers, on the other hand, need solidarity, not division. The working class is so diverse, though, that it can only build that solidarity by returning to the foundation principle of unionism:
"An injury to one is an injury to all."
The working class & the employing class have nothing in common. By using our strength to fight racism, sexism, homophobia & other forms of discrimination, we will be building the new society within the shell of the old.
In Solidarity,
Greg Platt
Discerning people would not be surprised to hear that Kerry Chikarovski's colleagues voted for a male to replace her as opposition leader. Australia is backward in its attitudes towards women in politics.
The majority of political journalists are males who have never provided the opportunity for the citizens of NSW to get to know Mrs Chikarovski's intelligence and commitment to the interests and concern of families and women.
I think that as a mother of two teenagers Mrs Chikarovski brought life experiences that broaded the male dominated gorilla- like perspectives in NSW parliament.
Is it that as more men in positions of power and influence are being exposed for corruption and criminality some people may fear women in power? Women are not all squeaky clean but generally much less likely to be involved in bribery, violence, corruption, drug trafficking and paedophilia. Women who are mothers are much less likely to agree with the soft approach to illegal drugs being pushed by people like the 'mummy's boy' type who will replace Chikorovski as Opposition leader.
Women are most wasted resource in this country and as social problems spiral out of control blocking women out of power positions will yet bring peril for all of us.
Kathryn Pollard
Dear Comrdes
I thought the follwing report from the recent sucessful Socialist Alliance trade union copnference in the UK might flesh out your report last week on union disquiet around the world with labour and social democratic parties.
Regards
John Passant
Socialist Alliance's first UK trade union conference on Saturday 16 March was an outstanding success. The Camden Centre was packed, with 1,038 delegates registering for the conference. It was the biggest conference of rank and file trade unionists for two decades.
The morning session expressed anger against New Labour.
There was a general desire to see the trade union political funds democratised so that members could donate not only to the Labour Party, but also to other organisations and candidates who stood up for proper working class representation and union policies.
Medical secretaries from Sunderland on strike for decent pay received a standing ovation.
The morning plenary was followed by delegates meeting in groups in which all the major unions were represented. Fruitful discussion ensued on how to take the campaign forward in specific circumstances. Derek Simpson, the left candidate standing against Ken Jackson in Amicus, attended the Amicus union group discussion.
After lunch the conference debated supporting strikes and fighting privatisation. A standing ovation was given to 30 postal workers when they arrived from the CWU march & rally against privatisation of the post office.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary elect, addressed the conference in a personal capacity, calling for support for the May Day demonstration against privatisation and war.
Speakers from the Scottish Socialist Party, Rifondazione Comunista from Italy, and a speaker for the campaign against the anti-trade union laws were each given a rousing reception. Bob Crow, newly elected general secretary of the RMT, sent his apologies to the conference, wishing it every success.
The vast majority of delegates left the conference with spirits lifted, more determined than ever to take into the trade union movement the argument to end Labour's monopoly over the political fund. Many will be going on to campaign in the local elections for the Socialist Alliance - the embryo of a socialist alternative to New Labour.
Dear Sir,
The recent book by ILO publications and edited by A.V.Jose ,"Organised Labour in the 21ST Century" while a weighty tome of compilation by academics , has many easy to understand lessons for not only developing countries , but for activists in developed countries who have been unable to grasp the nettle of corporate trade unionism.
The extensive reference material, a world wide connection of trade union activists, and online discussion groups bringing together many diverse schools of thought give this reflective publication credibility on "Globalisation", and its effects on the labour movement world wide.
Australia was not one of the countries focused on, but, the difficulties facing the Trade Unions know no boundaries, and our isolation has continued to insulate us from the worst excesses of privatisation and our embrace of Globalisation by political parties of all colours, has been to our advantage.
If my memory serves me correctly, I believe Michael Gadiel a Labour Council Officer made several contributions to some of the online discussions which formed part of this study.
Perhaps Workers Online could once a week print some relevant abstracts from this publication, if only to give other perspectives to the generic problems that face Organised Labour , as it attempts to come to grip with Globalisation as a Class, Economic, and Socially fragmented entity.
Tom Collins
Ed's Reply: Thanks for the suggestion, we'll look into it.
This is in regard to the wine grape growers that are facing hardship and the government is doing nothing to help. The wine grape growers are severly disadvantaged to the effect that the wineries have all amalgamated to lower their prices.
Norman's going broke got the ball rolling and the wineries saw this an opportunity to resume paying lower prices and the few recent years they had been payiong reasonable prices for the wine grapes. This by the way was the first time in my recalling as I was born and raised in Renmark S.A.-Riverland all my life.
The good prices brought the value of the region up and encouraged new business into the area. The growers saw the opportunity for the first time ever to expand and 90% have all borrowed money and are in debt quite deeply thinking that the prices would of lasted at least for the next couple of years. How can the export market be booming and excelling even this year, yet they tell us here [and these are the wineries excuses]that they have an oversupply of this variety, or they didn't create the new market that they expected yet they are putting up new tanks for their juice everyday.
Next is the growers which their contracts run out this year,there is no indication what so ever some growers have been told that their contracts are not being renewed. This is giong to bring a bigger problem next year as a large percentage of growers will have no contracts next year and the problem is giong to be even bigger. You will have growers that are uncontracted with no home for their grapes as well as the uncontracted growers from this year. The prices will probably be even worse.
This year the harvest is well and trully underway and the prices were only released about 1 to 2 weeks before harvest. This is ridiculous, as the growers did not know what their budget etc. would be. Thewre are giong to be growers going broke declaring bankruptcy and going on unemployment benefits. It will cost the government $45,000 in grants per person and a family of two will recieve $760 in unemployment benefits one week and $320 for the children the other week.
The government allowed for the water to be given to the big developers and water has been cut back for us smaller growers. Now we are being told to conserve water and our water rates have risen. This whole thing is about politics and we need a voice that will not be cornered into some deal because of politics. The government needs to be persuaded to listen to us in a way that it will benefit them. They will have more unemployment rise and their populatity will fall and they will be out of pocket with the bankruptcy and many bussiness leaving very large amounts of money outstanding with not only with major banks but also with other business.It will not be good for anybody all round but the the one that will suffer the most will be the grower that has worked all his life to lose everything.
Name Withheld By Request
It is an undeniable reality that there is a crisis within and between the ALP, and the Trade Union Movement.
Fortunately in this diverse society we can call on the experience of many cultures to explain away our nightmares, and in this case , we must accept the Chinese myth of Crisis actually having a positive side to it . Is this the reason for Bob Carrs' visit to mainland China?
With the "Danger", comes the "Opportunity", and many have advocated, that the onset of a crisis, provides an opportunity for change and growth as well as a danger of regression or stagnation,"
This through the ages has been a documented fact, as many of those who we revere have only developed and bloomed through "Road to Damascus" awakenings through personal spiritual crisis, and others such as T.E. Lawrence through physical crisis, but the fact is; that those who survive the fire are much strengthen by it. This is much like our own land, where nature takes care of the weak and useless undergrowth, which provides the means of regeneration through providing the fodder for the fire which is required to free the seeds of most indigenous trees.
Sadly as I have oft repeated; in the ALP, and the Union Movement, the undergrowth resolutely refuse to carry out its natural function, thereby temporarily thwarting the universal plan. But in its futile attempt at eternal life it will eventually suffocate its very purpose of existence, and these economic perverts, like the stupid King Canute are trying to hold back the tide, rather than building channels to direct the floods of Globalization and Privatization, in to safe holding areas where they can be controlled, until more institutive and intelligent leaders are found for the common people and a clearer understanding of evolution is gained.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) stated, "The worth and value of a man is in his heart and his will: there lies his real honor. Valor is the strength, not of legs and arms, but of the heart and soul. Courage is not simply the mastery of fear through physical strength: it is that quality that springs from a certain type of spirit, honor, and integrity." Courage is habitual, contagious. "We become brave by doing brave acts,"
It is not the Maverick, Labor politician, or the loony left Union boss, playing to the gallery that displays these attributes, but it is true leadership that sees further that the few miles of arid, belt tightening desert that eventually leads to a cool and fertile oasis of economic growth.
To speak in the vernacular, these Union "leaders", need a good kick us the "Arse", and some "Harse" , words to given them a taste of reality.
While not an advocate of Mickey Mouse Politics, the Premier of NSW, Mr. Bob Carr, is one that has shown this leadership and while seeking consensus, has refused to withdraw on issues of State importance , e.g.: the appointment of Michael Costa , as a circuit breaker in Police Affairs .
This respect for strong leadership has been displayed by a continued popularity and re-election to office.
While this has been my "Oration", for many years, those that are not in the Union Business, for the members, should for the welfare their members and of the nation, Excise themselves, retire with dignity and join all the other Arthur Scargills in Union Paradise , lest they end up in the dustbin of history.
Tom Collins
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You were on Bob Hawke's staff in the eighties. How different is politics today in the 21st Century from 20 years ago?
Obviously things have changed in many respects quite substantially. In other respects, not a great deal, let me elaborate. The changes can be seen in large part in the way in which economic and international political issues have evolved over that period.
In 1983, the Soviet Union was still intact, the international world was seen in that bi-polar context to some degree and that influenced a lot of the international debate and national attitudes to those issues. I think also that the economic debate was more polarised than it is today with stronger differences about the contending ideas about how to manage the economy. So in that sense the notions of Left and Right, both between the major parties in Australia and within the Labor Party were more distinct than they are today.
The similarities however remain as they have for most of Australia's life as a nation. What the electorate looks for from its political leaders is a clear set of policies which will deliver for them better living standards and opportunities for them and particularly for their children into the future. So in some senses it's the same sort of basket of issues, but being discussed and analysed in a different context and framework.
A lot of people see government as having a lot less power to influence the big decisions today, that there is more power in the hands of the international corporates than there was when the Hawke government opened up the Australian economy. When you were involved in that decision making process did you see that trend coming?
Yes, people were very much aware of what was involved in, if you like, de-regulating or getting out of direct government decision making in a range of these areas. Interest rates, the exchange rate, and of course tariffs were all set to a very significant degree by government policy. The government and the bureaucracy played a much more deliberate role, a very deliberate role in setting the exchange rate. So, these were decisions that were taken out of the hands of Government and put pretty much into the hands of the market.
Now, to some extent the market had always had a say in those decisions, but this was a change in those circumstances and obviously you couldn't be certain what all the consequences would be. But, by and large you have to say that in terms of how the Australian economy has performed since those changes were made, you can make a pretty strong case for the benefits. These have come, not just for the economy as a whole, the incomes of people in the economy, workers in a whole range of industries, but also in terms of access to housing finance. It was a big set of decisions with a whole lot of implications. And while they may not have been understood absolutely as to how they would pan out, the general confidence was there with Bob and the senior ministers who took those decisions that they would be good for the country and good for Australian workers.
Moving to the present, your ALP review into the last Federal Election is moving apace, what as National Secretary do you want to get out of this process?
The terms of reference really identify the sort of areas that we'd like to see people talking about and proposing ideas to make us more effective and more successful both as an organisation, and also as a party contending to win Government.
There are six terms of reference and essentially they cover the range of things which people have been talking about, not just post-election, but over recent years.
- Firstly, the whole question of how we make sure we get the best possible candidate to contest Federal seats.
- How we make sure we get our policy review and development processes into the best shape, so that our policies are obviously, electorally attractive, but also policies that address the issues that concern people.
- Our relationships with the trade union movement and other community groups
- Strategies to see what we can do about increasing our primary votes and measures to broaden and increase the membership of the party
- And looking at the internal processes of the party to make sure they reflect appropriate and contemporary standards.
One would presume that any significant change would alter the power balance within the party. With the factional system still very dominant in terms of who gets into what seat, how difficult will it be to bring out any changes that go beyond window dressing?
Well I don't think that it will end up producing just window dressing. I think to some extent you've got to sort of stand back and look at the organization the party is over 110 years old and it's endured because it has adapted. We don't have to go back an awful long way in our history to think of things which the Labor Party wouldn't have a bar of today, but which were very central to some of the beliefs and attitudesin past times . So the Party has evolved and adapted, but in a structural sense, it is in many ways a bit like it was at the start: built around branch structures, with layers of reporting and all organisations need some sort of order and structure to them. I think we need a structure that is more flexible and more relevant to people in terms of the other organisations they might belong to or the other institutions they relate to in the community.
It won't be a window dressing exercise but getting change in the culture of an organisation takes time. It doesn't come because someone makes a decision or a group of people make a decision. It comes over time as you develop new ways of doing things. I think that in many respects is one of the most important tasks that Bob Hawke and Neville Wran have. Already we've had more than a hundred written submissions and it's getting into the thousands of contacts with people through forums and discussion. As many views of as many people as possible are being taken into account. We've just extended the cut off date for submissions until the end of May.
So it's not a hollow exercise, it's been more than twenty years since a review of this scale has been conducted and the fact that people are positive about it reflects that it does meet that need to modernise how we're structured and how we function.
On the organisational issues, as someone who is at the centre of the Party, what do you want to see branches delivering to the ALP?
I think the question is better put slightly differently, which is what sort of branch structure and membership involvement should we have so that people feel that membership of the Labor Party gives them a say in the affairs of the Party and in the sorts of policy debates that they may have an interest in?
what we want from branches are people t with energy,and ideas, people who have a commitment to the core values that Labor has and it bring to it their skills and contribution. What we've got to do is make sure that we've got a Party that allows them to do that.
In terms of trade union involvement, and I know it's under the microscope, what would the ALP gain from having a lower union influence?
Again I think we need to deal with this question in two parts. The first part is to say that the trade union movement has a vital, essential role in the Australian economy and society in its own right. The role that Trade Unions play in advancing the conditions and pay of working people and protecting those conditions and entitlements is absolutely fundamental and the Labor Party recognises the importance of that. Simon Crean is a former ACTU President as was Bob Hawke, so the link is pretty organic in that regard.
The debate about what role the Trade Unions play in the Labor Party is a different question. And I think that the two issues have sort of got, unfortunately, a bit tangled up. Simon said just the other day "I can't imagine the Labor Party without a relationship with the Trade Union movement". And I know from talking to Bob and Neville that they have a similar sort of fundamental commitment to that relationship between Labor and the trade unions.
But it is an appropriate thing to look at in the context of what Simon describes as "modernizing the Party". It's not the only element of the modernization that he wants to see, but it is an element. So I think it's quite an important part of the review, but it's not the only part. The other thing to stress is that in no way is anyone saying, by putting it on the agenda in this context ,that the reason we lost the last election was because we have a relationship with the trade union movement..
One of the things you've probably noticed over the last couple of years is the sliding Union membership has actually bottomed out now and that's been because of the fairly vigorous strategy of grass roots organising. Is that something you'd be looking at in terms of addressing the ALP own issues with membership levels?
Let me just use that as an opportunity to say that the other point in this discussion about Labor and the Trade Unions is the Trade Unions of course have got their own distinctive set of interests and their own distinctive agenda. Sharan Burrow and Greg Combet have been very effective as John Robertson has been in giving the Trade Union movement a contemporary relevance and importance and those figures represent that.
I think that the strategy that they follow is obviously one that has been effective for the Trade Union movement, but for the Labor Party I think the sorts of things that I was talking about before are probably going to be the most effective in getting the Party into a better shape in attracting and retaining members.
One of your responsibilities is to raise the money that funds the advertising campaigns around election time. Has the reliance on the corporate dollar effected the way the political parties operate in a detrimental way?
Well, I'm fortunate in having inherited a fundraising regime or fundraising set of practices which are guided by a fundraising code which my predecessor put in place. I'll make the point by way of a little detour. Some companies say - look we are happy to support you in terms of policy development and other general sort of development activities but we don't want to give you support for election campaigns. So you get different types of corporate support. With that code we've gone as far as we can. I think though, that you can always keep these things under review and try to make sure that there isn't an inappropriate influence through fundraising on party activity and policy.
There have been calls in NSW to actually sap the corporate financing of the party, would that be something that you would support?
I think that is an issue that we need to have under continual review. Clearly there have been instances in the past year or two where there has been very large donations and it's legitimate to ask questions about the appropriateness of particularly large amounts of money being given to political parties. By and large we depend to some degree, although not absolutely, on corporate support and I guess in the end I'm always open to discussions about that.
Finally, there has been talk in the press this week about the socialism principle within the ALP platform and the idea that someone needs to wrap up what Labor stands for in the 21st Century into a form of words that people today can relate to. As a former journalist yourself, have youe gone through this process - what in your mind what does Labor stand for today?
Any consideration of the socialism principle does bring you back to a fundamental consideration. I think that what we are about is what we have always been about. That is equality of opportunity, access, fairness, the sorts of things which find different ways of being expressed in different generations.
I think it probably isn't a bad thing that we are looking at how we formulate that statement of Labor principles and values in a contemporary way, I think it's got a lot of value both in terms of what we get in the end and what the process of talking about those things produces along the way.. So I think all of these are elements of the review process that we have initiated and I think the prospects are that it's going to be a very positive and constructive period for us.
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The PSA calls it a "historic victory" for women and the trade union movement. Employers have chosen to down-play its significance, while a newspaper, not a million miles away from News Ltd's Holt St bunker, queries its impact on state finances.
It is Pay Equity and the theory runs something like this - for decades the work done in certain industries has been undervalued because the majority of workers were women.
But, what does it mean in practise?
Well, for Sue Moir, a librarian with 16 years experience and twin degrees, it means she now earns as much as her 25-year-old son who has just graduated with an engineering degree.
Moir's salary has jumped from $53,000 to $65,000 because of the decision handed down by the NSW Industrial Commission full bench. And, she says, it hasn't come a day too soon.
"It's a victory for the people I work with and our profession," she says proudly.
"Finally, the value of what we do is being recognised."
Being a librarian, as the commission found, is not as simple as outsiders might think.
Moir works at the NSW State Library, along with around 250 of the more than 1000 workers whose wages will jump immediately, as a result of the PSA victory.
The library is a state treasure, holding books valued at up to $50,000 each, newspapers, historic photos, manuscripts, pamphlets, papers and increasingly, electronic publications.
It attracts all types - from those wanting to boost their chances at the casino or improve their marijuanna crops to writers, film makers and artists researching their subjects.
Peter Weir's researcher based the costumes and settings for Picnic At Hanging Rock on photos from the Allen Family Albums, while acclaimed novelist and Orange Prize winner, Kate Grenville, is in and out, collecting data for her next work.
The library backs writers festivals, literacy programmes and has vast Health Information, Family History and Legal Information resources on tap.
At the hub of the operation are the librarians, library technicians and archivists affected by the Pay Equity decision.
Moir, generally in charge of 11 other workers, has just been alloted a special four-month project on Australian Performing Arts. An offsider is hauling together the thousands of different legal advices and papers published on the web, cataloguing and archiving them for accessibility.
"Paper is a very friendly format," Moir explains, "but electronic documents are another story.
"In 20 years time, who will know what you were doing on your little website at the Labor Council? Unless it is being stored in a retrievable fashion, we are going to lose our history.
"We have people, upstairs, archiving all sorts of web sites and electronic documents. They are saving them for future generations."
With technology coming in and out of vogue, it's not just about collection and storage but ensuring data can be retrieved in 20, or 50, years time.
As more and more evidence was presented, Steve Turner the PSA officer who ran the Pay Equity case, started to wonder whether or not the women had been sold short.
"As things developed it became apparent the work they performed - primarily the storage and retrieval of information - was more akin to IT workers than the engineers we had claimed parity with," he explained.
Moir doesn't doubt some talents have left the library because of low wages but reckons their numbers would be few.
Why? Because, she says, most are driven by love for and commitment to the job.
She began agitating for better recognition years ago and filed her first formal submission more than two years ago.
But, she recognises, the battle for gender equity has been waged over decades. Former workmate, Lesley Payne, was pushing the issue in the 1970s.
"It's a great result," Moir says, "but they are the ones I feel sorry for, the ones who won't get the advantage. A lot of people worked here for a long time and have moved on or retired."
by Jim Marr
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Joy Buckland |
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Graham James Ingliss is a big man with a red face and bull neck. He lives in affluent North Sydney and is a disciple of something called "breakout culture".
He introduced breakout culture to his domain at the ANZ bank immediately on being appointed district manager and it was "breakout culture", apparently, that made him see red when Padstow branch manager Joy Buckland appeared to put workmates ahead of the bank.
It mattered little, it seemed, that Ms Buckland was national president of a union, the Finance Sector Union, engaged in industrial action over failed wage negotiations.
Ingliss counselled and warned Ms Buckland, in meeting and by letter, that her position was in jeopardy.
He was in the Federal Court at Sydney, last week, defending his contention that when union and bank interests collided it was her duty to back the bank.
But back to breakout culture. What, in the name of all that's holy, does it mean?
Simple, according to Ingliss, embracing the values of the bank and being passionate about the organisation's goals and aspirations.
"It's trying to get people to think differently, to thing outside the square and be bold. It's the three words - perform, grow and breakout," he explained.
Or, as Justice Wilcox observed, three words where one would have done.
"It's just a great shame that ordinary English words can't be used. They are much more meaningful," His Honour lamented.
Mr Ingliss went on to tell the court that managers didn't only have to enact bank policies, they had to believe in them, That the bank's "values" must be applied to all their decision-making.
Ms Buckland appeared to have bucked these fundamental tenets by seeking to ensure stop work action was successful and, worse still, speaking to the media, as the FSU and ANZ locked horns over their EBA deadlock.
Other issues, too, fizzed in the background - overtime cutbacks, staffing levels and the ANZ's "flexible relief model" - code for using temps to cover employee absences.
Ms Buckland it seemed, not only failed to push certain bank positions but, sure as hell, she didn't believe in them.
His Honour asked Mr Ingliss if the union president was entitled to tell fellow workers she felt the bank was wrong "when she, on your own admission, probably knows more about the state of negotiations than you, because she was present and you weren't at the negotiating table? Is she supposed to say nothing even though she thinks what's coming down from the Bank's negotiation is wrong, and even though she's been trusted by her constituency as the head of elected representatives in FSU, to look after the interests of the members?"
"I don't believe," Mr Ingliss said, "that her role as a manager should be to pass those views on."
"You don't think you're a tad one-eyed about this, Mr Inglis?"
"I believe in what I'm doing."
Mr Ingliss was insistent, it was Ms Buckland's role to promote the bank's views, irrespective of the FSU's position on any issue. Her failure to do this, he insisted, was part of the reason she had been censured.
The district manager conceded that, in a heated post stopwork exchange, he had ordered removal of union material from a noticeboard inside the secure area at the Padstow branch and labelled the noticeboard "a shrine" to Buckland and the FSU.
But he ducked and weaved when it came to how a union representative might operate in his breakout culture-driven world. He hadn't, he said, even thought about the relationship between bank and union, nor, did he necessarily, think he should.
"If it happens a union spokesperson, an elected official, is a bank employee, you would expect them to do the right thing by their members by being prepared to speak out frankly, as needs be, would you not?" Justice Wilcox pressed.
"Look, I don't really believe I am qualified to answer that. I don't know what the union talk to their members about."
"That's not the point. We're talking about the principle. You'd expect somebody who represented you to speak out when the need arose to protect your interest, wouldn't you?"
"I'm not in a union."
Finally, he would, he agreed if his representative was a lawyer or MP.
The FSU is alleging five separate breaches of Workplace Relations Act provisions by the Bank in regard to various warnings and censures against its president, dating back to 1999.
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Rather than acknowledge that being a principle free zone cost Labor the last election, and that having democratic participatory processes that leads to policies that make a difference is the key to relevance, the spin doctors who first floated throwing unions out of their own party now are now advocating putting out the Light on the Hill, the ALP's Socialist Objective.
There are three possible reasons why you might argue that the Labor Party should dump the Socialist Objective:
1. You have not read it;
2. You do not understand its historic significance;
3.You are a Liberal.
In a world of increasing inequality where Labor's challenge is to reconnect with working people,the socialist objective is more relevant than ever because it provides a philosophical anchor for a reinvigorated Labor policy agenda.
Every Labor membership card contains the objective. It reads very simply. It supports the "democratic socialisation of industry, production and exchange, to the extent necessary to eliminate exploitation and other anti-social features."
The socialist objective is a recognition that it is the role of government in a democratic society to intervene to ensure that all citizens get a fair go and that we live in a decent society. Its focus is on outcomes for people, about eliminating exploitation and anti-social features. Market intervention is limited to the "extent necessary".
The pledge is a practical, flexible, commonsense statement of how a good government should operate for the best interest of all citizens. It contains 22 statements of principle including explicitly recognising the right to own private property. It speaks to all the issues of modern society as it has been regularly fine tuned over the years. In contrast, opponents of the pledge appear ideologically obsessed with painting a picture of a tired, outdated Marxist manifesto rather than dealing with what it actually says.
Those against the pledge have to ask themselves: are they against eliminating exploitation? Against eliminating anti-social features in society? Or are they just against challenging unfettered free-market ideology? If they are not prepared to challenge the market for the good of the many, then they are against the very reason Labor exists.
Labor's historic reason for existence is to create democratic institutions that protect ordinary citizens from exploitation by corporate power. The socialist objective statement of its reason for existence talks of "the aspirations of the Australian people for a decent, secure, dignified and constructive way of life" and the necessary historical struggle of unions for this aspiration that gave birth to party
It is a simple assertion that a fair society is more important than a market ideology. It could not be more modern or historically relevant. Why throw this away?
Nothing sets Labor apart from other parties more than its grand history. It's birth so dramatically altered the public debate about the role of government that the early Liberal leader Alfred Deakin declared "we are all socialists now". Labor carried the Australian ethos of a "fair go" into areas as diverse as work, health care and pensions. From the conscription referendum to the dismissal, from the depression to our leadership during World War II, the influence of Labor values has been the decisive force in our nation's political life.
To throw this all away on the glib advice of a few spin doctors would be as disastrous as throwing South Sydney out of the National Rugby League. Take away the team colours and the supporters won't recognise the team. Labor, after its lowest primary vote since before World War I, needs to reconnect with its potential supporters, not further confuse them.
Simon Crean's Labor must draw on its fundamental principles to create an agenda that connects to real issues faced by ordinary Australians in the same way Whitlam did before 1972. The fact that Chifley and Whitlam could respond differently in different times places them in the Labor tradition of practical application of principle. They did not need to throw out the principle.
A policy of offering nothing different cost Labor the election. Those who want to get rid of Labor's principles and kick out the unions who started the party are part of the problem, not the solution.
Labor in New Zealand went back to first principles and advocated setting a peoples bank. The aspirational voters in the marginal seats loved the idea of lower fees and better service and Helen Clark is know the Prime Minister. Citizens who feel insecure for economic reasons actually want the government to do something.
In age where the collapses of the Enron and HIH' are destroying people's lives, the objective's historical commitment to stand up for the Australian Citizens against the big end of town is an electoral asset not to be thrown away.
Labor's opportunity is to do what is has always done: argue for economic and social policies that benefit the many, not the few. Within this framework of Labor principle there is opportunity for debate as to the best way forward. For those who don't like Labor principle, they can always join the Liberal Party.
Paul Smith is a Labor Councillor on Sutherland Shire Council, the secretary of the NSW Fabian Society and an ASU activist in the IT Workers Alliance.
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James Tobin said "I have nothing in common with these anti-globalization rebels." Tobin has passed away but the Tobin Tax lives on as a powerful symbolic idea.
The break between man and idea happened some time ago. The Tobin Tax is now a powerful symbol for many NGOs and activist networks around the world. The best know is the French based ATTAC (now translated as Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions To Assist the Citizen) that was launched in 1998. ATTAC was the prime mover behind the first World Social Forum at Porto Allegre in 2001.
James Tobin himself disowned the politics of people whose ideology he didn't agree with. In this he was like the man whose ideas inspired his interest in economics - John Maynard Keynes. Tobin has described himself as a disciple of Keynes and as with Jesus Christ's' disciples, he had more flaws than his guiding light.
Keynes' Ideas and What Became of Them
Keynes too was very opposed to leftists, although he did flirt with the British Labour Party at one time. Keynes was a person who early on felt that managing international finances was best left to a few good men in the City. Perhaps if they had the same enlightened views as Keynes this may have been almost a good idea. However this was a political impossibility given the sensitivity of politicians to lobbying from certain quarters. It would also be a removal of any prospect of democratic input into monetary and fiscal policy (faint hope such input would have of a hearing notwithstanding).
Later in Keynes life, after World War II when international financial institutions were taking shape, he also saw that this was a dangerous idea, as he fought unsuccessfully to prevent the IMF and World Banks taking the form they did. The world system and these institutions have been described as Keynesian since 1944 and Bretton Woods, but as George Monbiot points out "in truth, Keynes bitterly opposed them. He predicted that if the world economy was managed by these means, the wealth and power of the creditor nations would be massively enhanced, while the debtors would sink ever further into poverty and dependency. He called instead for an "international clearing union" which would automatically redeem imbalances in trade and cancel debt, by the ingenious means of forcing creditors to pay interest on their international currency surplus at the same rate as debtors.
Once again, the United States objected. It threatened to withhold its war loan if the British delegation, led by Keynes, persisted with his proposal, and he was forced to back down and agree to the formation of the bodies which later became the World Bank and IMF. In a letter to the Times soon afterwards, Keynes conceded that the commercial policies the new bodies would permit may prove to be "very foolish" and "so destructive of international trade that, if they were adopted, Bretton Woods will have been rather a waste of time."".
Tobin was a classical US liberal establishment figure and as with Keynes in England, he had strong links to the US establishment and worked closely with the Kennedy administration and was an advisor to George McGovern during his unsuccessful run at the Presidency in 1972. This was also the time his idea of a tax on international currency transactions came out. The Bretton Woods system was in crisis, largely because of the way the US had financed the Vietnam War, and currency speculation was developing as computer transactions were beginning to dominate. So he suggested a tax of 0.1% to 0.5% on foreign exchange transactions. With foreign exchange trading now running at about $2 trillion per day, the finances here are enormous.
Ideas On The Loose
This was the idea that has been taken on by what Tobin called "the wrong side" in an interview he did with German magazine Der Spiegel. "I have nothing in common with these anti-globalization rebels" he said.
This is where the establishment economist reveals his alarm about how what he thinks is "his" idea being taken over by others and also his difference from Keynes. He says he supports the IMF and World Bank and the WTO, all institutions that ATTAC is calling for the abolition of. He says that the revenue from his proposed tax should be put at the disposal of the World Bank. I think ATTAC would see this as the drunks in charge of the hotel. Tobin states that he believes in the market and free trade.
Daivd Moberg in InTheseTimes.Comquotes Susan George, spokesperson for ATTAC and long time critic of the power of transnational corporations and the world economic system, who looks at thinks very differently. "People feel that there's a public sphere, a social sphere - something outside the market". They want freedom from the "dictatorship of the market" imposed by "financial globalization." Tobin called for the IMF to be strengthened and broadened. Here the key difference is the small liberal regard for their own intelligence, and the general disregard for discussion of their views with people. In his Der Spiegel interview, Tobin says that ATTAC did ask him to speak with them, but he refused.
Tobin did advocate the reining in of the markets, particularly in comments made after the 1997 Asian crisis. He lauded the role played by Greenspan in the strong expansion of the US economy since the early 1990s, another example of his faith in economic experts to know what's best for the rest of us.
The Tobin Tax idea has been supported by moderate politicians from some European countries and Canada. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin seems to favour the idea, much to the horror of the British Labour Party. While the French left parties aren't exactly wildly radical, Will Hutton compares the politics there very favourably with the situation in England - "the dreary laws of Gradgrind economics that we accept as axiomatic ...are being disproved daily by our old rival....Vive smart regulation. Vive the social contract. Vive high public spending. Vive la France."
The tax itself, as Tobin himself saw later on, has great implementation problems and the main economic critics of it see this as the great stumbling block, apart from neo-classical economic opposition to its interference with efficient market mechanisms. For a good rundown on the practical and political arguments over the Tobin Tax, and its prospects see a paper from Oxfam by Heinz Stecher
Stecher gives a brief rundown of the groups who are using the symbolic idea of the Tobin Tax as their organising focus, including ATTAC, but also the Canadian Halifax Initiative, the Californian-based Tobin Tax Initiative and many other US groups, the UK based War On Want, several NGOs in Brazil such as the Rede Bancos network, and the coalition of Catholic development agencies, CIDSE.
Moberg and Susan George see the key to ATTAC and similar organisations as beginning to counter the main barrier to organizing on the left, the "sense of inevitability" about contemporary capitalist globalisation, by raising hopes that "another world is possible."
For an overview of James Tobin's life and work see Godfrey Hodgson in The Guardian
by Andrew Casey
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Italy's big three national trade union centres, representing about 12 million members, have called a one -day general strike for Monday week ( April 16) against the right-wing Berlusconi government's plans to introduce new laws which will make it very easy to sack workers.
The general strike, the first in twenty years, is expected to get overwhelming support from the union movement's membership.
Until Silvio Berlusconi's arrival on the political scene Italy has always had a strong tradition of consensual government, and the labour movement has always had a strong influence in the running of the country.
But Berlusconi's political heroes are Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher.He emerged victorious in elections last year, with the promise of overhauling labour laws, and cutting back the traditional power of the union movement.
Ironically Berlusconi's greatest current ally in Europe is Tony Blair, the UK Labour Party's PM - while the German and French political leadership look on askance at what Berlusconi is doing.
The major left national union centre, the CGIL, demonstrated the mass anger at the government's employment policies at the end of March when estimates of between 1 million and 2 million people turned up to a rally in the streets of Rome.
The CGIL demonstrators, brought in from all over the country on 9,000 buses, 60 trains, three ships and two planes turned the city's Circus Maximus - the site of ancient Roman chariot races - into a sea of red flags and banners.
The Left was also enraged because Ministers in the Berlusconi government had suggested that a political murder - four days before the rally - of a government labour adviser had happened because of the urgings of the trade union movement.
Marco Biagi, who had been killed by an off-shoot of the Red Brigades, was the controversial author of the new laws which are strongly opposed by all sections of the union movement.
As a result of the huge turnout at the Marc rally trade union leaders are confident that the general strike will get huge support .
The other - national trade union centres, the CISL and the UIL - which did not support the CGIL March Rome rally, are backing Monday week's general strike.
Sergio Cofferati, the CGIL head , committed his union centre to organising the successful mass rally in Rome, which was described by some Italian newspapers as the biggest of its kind ever to take place in the country.
The extraordinary success of the rally is now being seen as a personal victory for Cofferati.
He is now being hailed as the man who could at last bring unity to the divided and bickering ranks of the Italian Left and turn it into an effective opposition to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Many of his political allies, and opponents, warned against holding the March rally saying the Left would be wrongfooted by the tragedy, and would find it hard to mount a determined protest to laws designed to give employers much greater freedom to fire their workers.
But Cofferati had different ideas.
"We are here to fight terrorism, to support democracy and to show the government its intentions are wrong," he told the demonstrators.
"With your courage and your passion, we will realise our dreams."
Cofferati's CGIL has 5.3m members, a mainly blue collar union grouping with its roots in the industrial north. It had close ties with the former Italian Communist party and now its modern heirs, the Democrats of the Left and the far-left Communist Refoundation party. Founded in 1906, it is by far the oldest of the three Italian national union centres..
Savino Pezzotta's CISL, with its 4m members, is a more centrist, predominantly white-collar union grouping, strong in the south and in public administration. It was closely linked with the defunct Christian Democrat party which dominated post-war Italian politics until brought down by the bribes scandals of the early 1990s.
The smaller UIL, led by Luigi Angeletti, is about half the size of the CISL. It has a more balanced territorial and occupational make-up than the other unions, with a significant membership among middle management. Politically, it was tied to the Socialist party which had its heyday under Bettino Craxi in the 1980s and also disintegrated under the corruption probes
by The Chaser
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The Chaser |
But the victory comes amid concerns that the judging process may have been tainted.
Several members of the nine-man judging panel expressed surprise at the 438 to 9 vote outcome. However, 78-year-old Mugabe explained the freakish result by saying, "What I may lack in youth I more than make up for with bootyliciousness."
Mugabe was warmly greeted by his supporters after the victory, including Miss South Africa and Miss Nigeria, who described Miss Zimbabwe's masculinity and long-lasting marriage as "minor administrative oversights".
The dictator raised eyebrows early on in the pageant, answering the question, "If you were crowned Miss Zimbabwe what would you try to achieve?" with, "World dom