E D I T O R I A L

With Prejudice
For anyone doubting the ability of an incumbent government to control the political agenda, this week's sitting of the Cole Royal Commission into the Building Industry made fascinating viewing.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Class Action
NSW Teachers Federation general secretary Barry Johnson on Bob Carr's election budget and what he needs to do to win back the profession.

Safety: A Mother's Tale
Robin McGoldrick relives the tragedy that prompted her to confront Royal Commissioner Terence Cole over workplace story.

Unions: The Hottest Seat in Town
Nostalgia buffs should make a point of catching at least one session of Tony Abbott�s controversial, Royal Commission, playing to increasingly thin houses in Sydney. Jim Marr sat through the opening scenes.

International: Defensive Enterprise
How can men and women working in the unprotected "informal economy" be helped to better defend their rights? The ICTU grapples with the issue in The Congo.

Economics: A Super Deal?
Neale Towart looks at the debate raging within Labor circles around savings and investment.

History: A Radical Life
Stephen Holt gives an insight into one of the Australian Labor Party�s original true believers through his examination of papers held in the Manuscript Collection

Media: Cross Purposes
Stuart Mackenzie looks at the lines spun at the recent Senate committee hearing into media ownership laws.

Review: When the Force Is Unconscious
Cultural Theoritician Mark Morey reports on how a trip to the Sydney Writers Festival became a battle for intergalactic supremacy.

Poetry: Wouldn't It Be Loverly
For seven decades, Queensland aboriginal workers working under government control were 'paid' below-award wages which were placed into 'trust' accounts which were pilfered, levied, diverted and bled dry.

N E W S

Grieving Mum Turns Cole Around

Hamberger Grilled Over AWA Scam

Government Shrugs Off Death Sentence Charge

Action To Pay Foreign Crew Aussie Wages

Jockeys Face Insurance Crisis

Birds Get More Protection Than Workers

Budget Delivers - But Not For DOCS

Statewide Ban On Grain Loading

Howard Soft On Organised Crime?

UN Honours Building Union Drugs Program

Award-Winning Poet Wins Right To Write

Workers Out For Gay Games

Mahathir Told to Release Labour Activisits

Horta Backs Western Sahara Independence

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
It�s The Members, Stupid.
Those officials obsessed with union voting power in the ALP are missing the point, writes Luke Foley.

The Locker Room
Too Good To Be True
Phil Doyle castes his withering gaze over a week in sport that featured origin square-ups, the World Game in all its glory and a few drunken jockeys.

Bosswatch
In The Cauldron
It was another week of pull-outs, profits de-mergers and takeovers in the corporate world; but some bright news with a plan to make executive pay more accountable.

Week in Review
The Black Letter
Legal mechanisms, national and international, are throwing up challenges to all sectors of our community but the law is a beast of many shapes and sizes as Jim Marr discovers.

L E T T E R S

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In The Cauldron

Telstra Departs East Timor

Telstra will pull out of East Timor after declining to bid for a tender, fuelling concerns the company took more out of the fledgling democracy than it was prepared to put in. A Portuguese company is now poised to win the $28.4 million contract to set up East Timor's new telecommunications network, further consolidating Portugal's commercial influence in the new nation. Australia's Telstra had declined to bid for the contract, even though it has been running East Timor's entire phone and Internet network since 1999. And another Australian-led consortium failed to submit its tender documents on time. This left Portugal Telecom International as the only bidder. Last year Telstra officials here were criticised by the UN, which alleged the company has taken substantial revenues out of East Timor and put very little back in. (Source SMH)

Macca's Takes a Profit Bite

McDonalds Australia has opened 2002 with "extremely strong" profit and sales after a second consecutive earnings fall last year. Latest financial results show the hamburger giant's net earnings fell 7 per cent to $67.2 million in the December 31 year on lower revenue of $766.4 million. The fall reflects a lower contribution from the company's property arm rather than any erosion in its core fast-food business. McDonald's supplements its restaurant earnings with franchise fees and rental income, the latter collected by McDonald's Properties (Australia) Pty Ltd, one of the country's biggest landlords through its ownership of the 710-plus Australian restaurant sites.The accounts, filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, also show executive remuneration, including gains on stock options, rose 20 per cent to $16 million last year.

Dick Smith Teams Up With Sanitarium

Cereal manufacturer Sanitarium will take over the operations of Dick Smith Foods, saying it aims to turn the company into one of Australia's main brands. Dick Smith announced yesterday he had granted a 10-year licence to the Sanitarium Health Food Company to run the everyday business of his food label from July 1.The Dick Smith Foods philosophy, he said, would continue to support Australian-owned businesses and Australian farmers. Smith says he approached Sanitarium, which is owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, because he wanted to lift sales and expand the product range. Sanitarium qualifies for tax concessions because it is a religious, non-profit organisation and operates charitable institutions. It has set up a subsidiary to run the Dick Smith business. (Source SMH)

Qantas In Secret Talks For Air NZ

Qantas Airways Ltd has been secretly negotiating for a minority stake in Air New Zealand over the past 12 months, it's been revealed. Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon confirmed the Australian carrier was holding discussions with Air NZ "on a wide range of business issues, including a minority Qantas shareholding in Air NZ".

Market watchers believed Qantas had shelved its ambitions for Air NZ when the NZ government knocked back its bid for a 25 per cent stake late last year. But Air NZ chairman John Palmer this week revealed talks with Qantas had been ongoing since last May. (source Nine MSN)

Gilbertson Sharpens The Knife At BHP

A sagging share price and renewed pressure on the commodity price front has stirred BHP Billiton's chief executive-elect Brian Gilbertson to give the merged group's cost-cutting campaign a sharper edge. The new range of cost-cutting measures was decided at a meeting of the group's executive committee in Mr Gilbertson's home town of Johannesburg and will cost 100 jobs on top of the 1300 non-operational positions shed since the merger. The measures include the sale of two corporate jets - a $40 million Bombardier Challenger 604 parked at Essendon airport and a more upmarket $75 million Bombardier Global Express based in Johannesburg. (Source: SMH)

Mayne Pulls Out of Transport

Mayne Group has stunned the market by hiving off of its transport business, worth between $700 million and $735 million. Analysts have welcomed the demerger of the logistics business: "My view has consistently been that having a hospital group and an armoured car business together just doesn't make sense," one said. Meanwhile, CEO Peter Smedley has announced he has made a "personal decision" to leave the healthcare group when his contract as chief executive finishes at the end of this year. He had been expected to take over from Mark Rayner as chairman of Mayne but a shock profit warning last month and revelations that his aggressive cost-cutting strategy was alienating doctors had put pressure on the former Colonial boss. (source: SMH)

Flak Flies Over Austar Execs

Long-suffering small shareholders of struggling regional pay-TV operator Austar United Communications staged a symbolic revolt at the company's annual meeting on the Gold Coastthis week. Small investors sought to defeat a motion to award company executives more than 10 million share options, but were swamped by big stockholders who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the plan. The backlash came despite assertions by chairman Michael Fries that Austar, which lost $690 million last year, was "back on track". The move follows revelations Austar paid executives performance bonuses last year despite reporting a $682 million loss and confirming yesterday its cash reserves had fallen to $59.6 million.

(Source: The Australian)

Disclosure For Executive Packages

Disclosure requirements for director and executive remuneration have been beefed up in a proposed accounting standard. The plan, released for public comment by the Australian Accounting Standards Board last week, recommends increasing disclosure of such remuneration to bring Australian rules into line with practices in the United Kingdom and the United States. It also would require companies to value share options and other equity-based remuneration so investors can assess the value of a remuneration package. Other proposed requirements for director and executive disclosures include an increase in details of loans to directors and five top executives where indebtedness to the company exceeds $100,000, and new disclosures relating to the equity interests of the specified executives. (Source, The Age)

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