
Issue No 18		18 June 1999

News

Upper House Reform: Lest We Forget Greiner

Reforms to decrease the powers of the NSW Legislative Council could come back and haunt the labour movement if history is any guide, unions have warned.

Describing Carr Government plans to reform the Upper House as "frightening", Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says anti-union laws would have been passed in the early nineties if it had not been for the cross-benchers in the Upper House.

"We were able to use the cross-benchers to amend the 1991 Industrial Relations Act and aspects of the Metherell education reforms," he told the weekly Labor Council meeting .

Under the plans, earmarked for a referendum in September, legislation blocked by the Upper House could be passed by a Joint Sitting of both Houses of Parliament.

But Costa says under this formula, the Greiner Government would have been able to get all its radical reforms passed into law.

"I don't understand the rationale for it; I understand the frustration at the table cloth ballot paper but there are other ways of dealing with that such as tougher requirements on registering parties and higher vote quotas," he says.

ASU secretary Alison Peters raised the concerns in a letter warning that a third of NSW voters in the last election supported minor parties or independents in the upper House as a moderating force on Executive Government.

Labor Council has urged the Government to pursue the issue with caution and will organise a forum to discuss the plans.

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Issue 18 contents

Interview: Ballot Boxing
In the midst of a key anti-union ballot, the Finance Sector Union's Geoff Derrick is learning vital lessons about life in a deregulated labour market.

Unions: Psyched Out
Intense competition in the labour market has fuelled a new renaissance in psychometric testing.

History: Rhetoric and Reality
This month will be a big one for Labor Party rhetoric about the "light on the hill".

International: ILO Adopts Child Labor Convention
Child slavery, prostitution and hazardous work have been outlawed in Geneva

Legal: Competing Agendas in Enterprise Bargaining
Recent developments show unions how they can turn the Reith laws on their head.

Review: Sister Power
A new book offers practical help for women who want to be heard.

» Carers Crisis: Victims Turned Away

» Farmers Back Social Audit

» Holiday Bugs: Government Asked to Act on Y2K

» Oakdale Miners Take Message to Canberra

» United Front for Public Sector Pay

» Talking Books Silenced

» Upper House Reform: Lest We Forget Greiner

» Pregnancy Bunfight Looms

» Horta Launches East Timor Mercy Ship

» Sparkies Back Fantastic Plastic

» APHEDA Helps Beat The Blockade

» Torture Support Day, June 26

» Guest Report

» Sport

» Trades Hall

» Piers Watch

» Chardonnay Debate Lacks Class

» GST Rally, Town Hall, Monday June 21

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