E D I T O R I A L

Bitter Pills
It had to be one of the greatest frauds of history, we had reached a stage of evolution where we no longer needed to be regulated.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: The Fels Guy
ACCC chair Professor Alan Fels on big business attacks, the waterfront dispute and where unions stand under the Trade Practices Act.

Solidarity: Life or Death?
Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora – the eternal warriors’ dilemma - filled the Sydney air this week. Jim Marr was there.

Unions: Back to Basics
Tony Papa made it to the top of the Australian union movement; now he's back at the frontline organising building workers. And he's never been happier.

International: Global Terror
The annual report into violence against trade unionists was released this week. But, as Andrew Casey reports, the killings continue.

History: Sorry Business
Dr Rosalind Kidd lifts the lid on the use of forced labour of Aboriginal people in Queensland right through to the 1960s.

Technology: Future Active
In his new book on net activism, Graham Meikle arges that ideas will ultimately triumph over assets.

Satire: Executive Presents PowerPoint Eulogy at Mother’s Funeral
A corporate affairs manager from a leading Sydney company yesterday delivered a moving presentation at his mother’s funeral, utilising the many features of Microsoft’s PowerPoint software.

Poetry: Santa Claus Was Coming to Oz
As we commemorate world refugee day, what can we learn about our treatment of refugees, from the case of one man from far away who tried to enter Australia last Christmas?

Review: Dial 'M' For Minority Report
Imagine a place where everyone knows your name, the streets are filled with smiling faces, and murder has all but been obliterated. Anyone who finds this scene idyllic has clearly not seen Minority Report.

N E W S

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

Paul Howes' Activist Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Jock or Janus?
Roland Stephens looks at Labor's progression through the eyes of 'Jock' the legendary David Williamson character.

The Locker Room
The World Game
Former Socceroo Dennis Yaager gives his take on the Cup Finals while Labourstart's Andrew Casey rates the labour performance of the nations left in contention.

Week in Review
A Law Unto Themselves
Law, domestic and international, is centre stage but Jim Marr discovers 7.1 billion reasons why big business seems to rise above it.

Bosswatch
Who Wants To be a Millionaire?
There are more of them than ever before, according to a new global survey of the world's richest.

L E T T E R S

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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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