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Issue No. 141 | 21 June 2002 |
Bitter Pills
Interview: The Fels Guy Solidarity: Life or Death? Unions: Back to Basics International: Global Terror History: Sorry Business Technology: Future Active Satire: Executive Presents PowerPoint Eulogy at Mother�s Funeral Poetry: Santa Claus Was Coming to Oz Review: Dial 'M' For Minority Report
Fair Share: Link Executive Pay to Wages Abbott�s 'Rule of Law' Faces Court Challenge Royal Gaze Averted as Bosses Shut Down and Fined Molten Metal Sparks Safety Probe Consumer Boycotts Don't Break Law: Fels Korean Own Goal in World Focus STOP PRESS: Court Ticks Off on Service Fees Zero Tolerance on Casino Violence GIO Workers Challenge Bosses' Union Wages Nurses Reject Band-Aid Solution Saving Lives In Killer Productions McDonalds Vandal Becomes Global Hero Debate Rages Over Chinese Unions
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review Bosswatch
Tom Bites Back Root Canal Therapy
Labor Council of NSW |
Editorial Bitter Pills
The argument reached its high point with the deregulation of the Australian economy and flowed on to all aspects of our life through the wholesale privatization of public assets and Fred Hilmer's 'competition' agenda. The underlying message driving the change was that needless regulation was undermining our productivity and profitability; a free market would give us all room to move and grow and thrive. All we had to do was smash the State and it would all be better. Of course the reality has proven a little less palatable. Yes, there have been many big winners from our arrival at the global gaming table; but security, certainty and common decency have been the casualties. We have removed control of our lives from governments we voted in and out of power to corporate leaders who play by very different rules. The obscene levels of executive pay - with leaders like Macquarie Bank's Alan Moss receiving the average annual wage in just over a day - is a just a sign that these guys have become a law unto themselves. They will surely reject calls for caps on executive pay as counter-productive - they'll tell us we get what we pay for - but it would be interesting to put an executive on say $300,000 a year into the top job and see how they perform. It's these same high-fliers who are leading the charge against Professor Alan Fels and his ACCC - for having the temerity to enforce what little competition law remains. As Fels concedes in this week's interview - there is a natural, but necessary tension, between the ACCCs' role and the capitalist's desire for world domination. For unions, it's enough to observe that the same groups attacking ACCC's were the champions of labour market deregulation. You don't need to be a Marxist to see that unregulated capitalism will inevitably eat itself. The players might not like it, but sensible regulation - of competition, industrial relations, the environment and shareholder democracy - is all in our long term interest. The Top End of Town has been feeding us bitter pills for long enough; it's time they had a taste of their own medicine. Peter Lewis Editor
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