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Issue No. 161 | 15 November 2002 |
From New Labor to True Labor
Interview: Life After Keating Industrial: That Friday Feeling Bad Boss: Begging to Work Organising: Project Pilbara Unions: Off the Rails International: Brazil Turns Left Environment: Brown Wash History Special: Learning from the Past Corporate: Will the Bullying Backfire? Technology: Danger Lurks For The Passive History: In Labour�s Image Politics: Without Power Or Glory History Special: A 'Cosy Relationship' Culture: Blood Stains the Wattle Satire: Iraq Pre-empts Pre-emptive Strike Poetry: The Executive Pay Cut Review: Time Out
Worker Rights Battle Goes Local Suncorp Feels Heat Over Candid Camera African Chefs Claim Visa Abuse Bushfire Volunteers Pay Heavy Price Win in Battle For Tea Break Rights Reith Adviser Plots New Era of Lawlessness Kinko�s Workers Win Copybook Campaign Sparks Fly as Build A Life Rolls On Win For Aboriginal Health Workers Safety Crisis in Detention Centres Miners Take Up Westfund Cudgels Wine Workers Go the Full Bottle Performers Close to National Deal Blair Caught in Industrial Fire Storm Nurses Call Public Into The Pink On Aged Care Environmental Research Washed Away P&O�s Shame as Inspector Banned WTO Must Incorporate Labor Rights
Month In Review The Soapbox The Locker Room Indigenous Postcard Bosswatch
Bravo Costa! Deck Chairs on the Titanic
Labor Council of NSW |
Tool Shed An Itinerant Tool
***************** Tools come in many shapes and sizes but just when you think you've gone through the range, there's someone else out there to surprise you. Move over super-tool and mega-tool, Workers Online introduces the incomparable, unsurpassable Robert Dean, fresh out of Parliament and, without doubt, a bloody big spanner in the Liberal Party works. Most people are ambivalent about a stint in the Tool Shed but Dean has positively beaten down the door to demand admission. Just for the fun of it, let's recap. Forty eight hours ago, Robert Dean as shadow treasurer, was a pivotal figure in Robert Doyle's bid to wrest state government away from Steve Bracks. He got there by dint of a messy pre-selection win in the seat of Gembrook and the clinical stalking of finance predecessor, Robert Clarke. So far, so good? Wrong. Dean, a doctor of law and close personal friend of Doyle, had made a balls-up of mammoth proportions. In order to win pre-selection, he had rented a house in working class Berwick, apparently, without any intention of moving in. He did, however, enrol there, for obvious reasons. Comfortably ensconsed in his real home in the leafy outer-suburbs he was blissfully unaware of correspondence between the real occupier of his stated address in Gardiner St, Berwick, and the state's electoral commission. Essentially, this amounted to forms and reminders to the absent one which, understandably, were returned with explanations that Dean was "not known at this address". Thus, it came to pass, that weeks out from polling day the forgetful Dr Dean found that, not only was he ineligible to contest the state election but he didn't even have the right to cast a ballot. Media outlets took the greatest pleasure in interviewing Gardiner St residents about their phantom political neighbour and would-be MP. One, who had been there for 28 years, said he had never seen any sign of Dr Dean in the street. Present occupants of his claimed residence told the Sydney Morning Herald they had "never heard of the guy". Dean, who entered Parliament 10 years ago, stands to lose a $60,000 pension for life but the stakes for one-time buddy Doyle are much higher. Doyle put a brave face on it, telling the electorate he had sought Dean's resignation - entirely redundant in the circumstances, but no doubt designed to bolster his image as a tough leader. His claims to be a sound manager, however, have frayed more than somewhat. Besides which, he now faces the tasty prospect of running with the candidate defeated by his man in the original Gembrook pre-selection, not to mention resuscitating Clark to the key finance spokesmanship, barely three months after overseeing his demise. Former Victorian Premier and Liberal hardliner, Jeff Kennett, was not best pleased. He described the incident as a "f-up". Dean can mull over the question of where he really lives during his week in the toolshed.
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