E D I T O R I A L

Our Historical Mission
It has often been argued that unions would cease to exist when employers civilised workplaces. Our historical mission would have been fulfilled and we could pack up and spend out time enjoying the equitable society that would be the fruit of our victory.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Something Smells
The Postal Union's Jim Metcher lifts the lid on the very strange goings-on in Australia Post

Cole-Watch: Credibility Crisis
Counsels Assisting the Cole Royal Commission face a humiliating public back down in an effort to bring some balance to proceedings, reports Jim Marr.

Unions: Union Cities
Labor Council's Adam Kerslake has returned from the USA with some new ideas on community unionism

Industrial: Lib Men Gang Up Against Working Mums
Working women are in danger of missing out on an adequately funded paid maternity leave scheme, if recent bleatings are acted upon says ACTU President Sharan Burrow.

History: Eureka!
Neale Towart finds an alternative to Baden-Powell�s imperialist scouting movement, where the youth of Australia was fed such radical ideas as solidarity, collective action, equal rights and internationalism.

East Timor: Don�t Rob Their Future
After 24 years of often brutal Indonesian occupation East Timor on 20 May 2002 finally achieved their independence, writes HT Lee.

Review: Black Chicks Say It All
Dorothy can be whatever colour she wants to be and black chicks can talk about anything, writes Tara de Boehmler

Poetry: Self Regulation
While President George W Bush,leader of the heart of unregulated capitalism, has responded to the recent spate of corporate cowboydom by whipping out a swathe of new corporate controls, Australia's Prime Minister has responded with a feathered touch.

N E W S

Cole to Hear of Criminal Takeover Conspiracy

Mad Monk Stamp on Aussie Post

Calls To End Woodlawn Logjam

ANZ Fined Over Freedom Of Speech Breach

Hotels Eat Up Living Wage

Qantas Union's Gorilla Tactics

Shearers Black Ban Their Hall Of Fame

Democrats Fire Shot for Workers

Teachers Walk Out At Aust College of Technology

Rail Operators Off Track

Airport Security Worker Spat At And Assaulted

CBA Workers Say Enough Is Enough

Union Made Songs For Masses

Doco Dishes Dirt On Howard�s Gas Wrangle

Activist Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Cole Comfort
The election of a federal coalition government in 1996 marked the advent of an aggressively anti union agenda that continues to be played out to this day, writes Paul Davies

The Locker Room
Salary Crap
Phil Doyle goes wading through the hypocrisy and hubris, and discovers where the smell is coming from.

Postcard
All At Sea
It�s on again - the coastal battle between the maritime unions, the government and the shipowners, reports Zoe Reynolds.

Week in Review
The Dogs of War
The battle drums were a-rattling across this wide, brown land and Jim Marr was getting a bit tetchy

Bosswatch
Speak No Evil
The majority of Australian firms stay silent on options they offer their executives as John Howard continues to stonewall corporate law reform.

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

	About Workers Online
	Latest Issue
	Print Latest Issue
	Previous Issues
	Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation

Salary Crap

******************

The great irony of the Canterbury salary cap debacle is that the very thing that caused the problem, greed, will also prevent the National Rugby League from doing much more than huffing and puffing on the issue.

The league will make plenty of appropriate noises before savaging Canterbury with a feather.

Their real estimation of the situation will be a wish that it all goes away. I don't doubt that Canterbury are telling the truth when they say they didn't hide their situation from the NRL's auditors - what use does the NRL have to promote another scandal?

South Sydney's George Piggins has also indicated in a letter to the NRL information that implicates two other clubs in salary cap breaches. At this rate Souths may yet make the semis.

It was also interesting to note that the Salary Cap is being managed for the NRL by the former Easts' winger Ian Schubert, whose blonde locks graced suburban Sydney grounds in the seventies.

At least they didn't leave 'Hollywood' Hartley in control - at least we can

presume Schubert can count.

While there has been much hand wringing about what would be considered a fair and appropriate penalty there has also been much soul-searching on the efficacy of the salary cap itself. Some quarters have indicated that the salary cap is some kind of restraint on free trade (code for it stops Brisbane totally dominating the competition).

I have a Canterbury jumper from the eighties. Adorned across the front is the epithet, and some could say epitaph, HFC FINANCE. This is from the days before we found out that Greame Hughes is a lousy sports presenter.

Since the days of Victor Trumper, Dally Messenger and Joynton-Smith Rugby League has always been a commercial enterprise. It was a matter of time before the big end of town got its grubby paws on the silverware.

Whatever people say about the issue I'd bet Lithgow to a brick that the 'doggies aren't the only ones tied up in the caper. What we can surmise is that this 'expose' has more than a little to do with Canterbury's big Liverpool adventure - their attempt to pour another giant beer barn/pokie palace (a-la-Panthers) down the gullets of the long suffering residents of western Sydney.

What Rugby League needs is not some slick marketing package, pokie palaces, giant stadiums or greater corporate support, but the ball to be fed into the middle of the scrum, and for attacking sides to get deeper when they're running onto the ball.

If you use the term 'hit-up' in my presence I will break your nose.

This column also noticed that the recent breach is being used to try and re-introduce that slave auction, The Draft.

While some point to the AFL as being an example of the success of a draft system, there is no mention of the fact that it has turned the primary recruiting area for draft nominees, the under-18 TAC Cup, into something of a meat market. In addition the Draft Camps, selections and streaming of young talent into this program is placing enormous pressure onto very young footballers (they're just kids!) as well as abandoning those competitions that do not produce draftable players.

Despite what you read in the papers, these grass roots competitions are still the lifeblood of the national winter code in Australia. To abandon them is to abandon community. I know this is a very favourable course of action in the militaristic times but as my mum used to say, if everyone else was jumping off a cliff does that mean you would too?

Now if only Newtown could afford to breach the salary cap!

Phil Doyle - lining up a kick into the teeth of a strong wind from the sou-souwest.

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 149 contents

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/149/b_sportspage_crap.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005