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Issue No. 139 07 June 2002  
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
 Romeo and Juliet?
 Robbo's Rave
 Latham Ad Nauseum
 Our Home Is Girt By Wire
 Hands Off Hooligans!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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Howard Soft On Organised Crime?


National Crime Authority (NCA) staff are warning a Howard Government plan to downgrade their work in favour of state police investigations will be welcomed by organised crime gangs.

According to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), the NCA's multi-discipline teams of police, lawyers, financial investigators and intelligence analysts have proved to be the most effective way of combating increasingly sophisticated national crime organisations.

CPSU spokesperson Evan Hall says, "NCA staff feel the Howard Government is leaving a dangerous vacuum which puts the fight against national organised crime back 10 years. Drug trafficker and money launderers must be laughing out loud," said Hall.

State and federal governments are currently at loggerheads over many aspects of the plan including funding and investigative powers.

"It is widely acknowledged that the NCA is best placed to investigate national criminal activity and follow money trails across different jurisdictions. Despite this, the Government wants to strip the NCA of these roles and establish something called the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) which would simply collect intelligence and feed it to other enforcement organisations.

"At the moment the NCA has extensive coercive powers, and like the criminals it pursues, it is not restricted by state boundaries. If this work is farmed out to state police, NCA staff fear an effective, nationally coordinated way of preventing crime will be lost," said Hall.

The Federal Government want the plan implemented by January 2003 and legislation is to be put before Federal Cabinet on 17 July. However, any change to the NCA will also require joint complimentary legislation to be passed by each State.


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