*****
Tony Bliar (sic) is an abject lesson in the perils of a Labour leader trying to be a neo-conservative. You can't catch two trains at the same time and the man who tried to starve the British fire fighters into submission to his Third Way has found himself on the wrong track.
Bliar (sic) was running around the world trumpeting the now discredited theory of Weapons of Mass Destruction as an excuse for Texas to get its hands on Iraq's oil reserves in much the same way as our own Prime Miniature was hysterically berating anyone who doubted the integrity of Dick Cheney's stock portfolio.
Now Bliar (sic) is facing two parliamentary inquiries regarding his loose appreciation of the truth, as well as watching his approval rating fall through the floor. Liars are seldom popular in the long run but Blair has grabbed the quinella. Unlike Bush and Howard who lead loopy right wing administrations that are in thrall with the neo-conservative world view, Bliar (sic) is facing a revolt from within his own governing party.
"Disarmament of all WMD is the demand," Bliar (sic) told the House of Commons on September 24 2002. He was unequivocal. This was the reason we had to go to war against Iraq. Not regime change. Not freeing the people of Iraq from a despot. It was Weapons of Mass destruction. Disarmament was the reason we had to go to war.
If it was about liberating people then blowing them into unidentifiable pieces is a strange way of liberating them. It's a use of language that would have appealed to the British Prime Minister's namesake Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell. He appreciated that to keep the people under control you need them on a permanent war footing. Unfortunately the British PM is looking more like Jayson Blair, the New York Times journalist who simply made his stories up.
If it was about freeing people from a murderous despot then the British government could have had a look in its own historical backyard at regimes in Burma and Zimbabwe. But that, of course, would be in contravention of the rule that countries don't meddle in another's internal affairs - a mantra that has been popular with right-wing apologists for decades. Of course it has never been a problem for the United States if a popularly elected left leaning government popped up in, say, Grenada or Nicaragua.
Then again, they do things differently in the United States. The British pride themselves on a more reserved approach to these things. Besides, people like Saddam Hussein are lucrative customers for the British armaments industry. Maybe the effort to rid Iraq of Weapons of Mass Destruction was just a few Anglophone governments doing a bit of repo work for the arms manufacturers that paid for their election? This would appeal to the moral vacuum occupied by the neo-conservatives, but it would always sit awkwardly with a government based on principles of compassion and human dignity - the shibboleths Bliar (sic)'s "New" Labour apparently stand for.
The question is Tony Blair a recruit to the neo-conservative world view, or just a dangerous fool?
If his lies were a deliberate ploy to ride the Yankee coat tails onto the spoils of Iraq then he has been truly suckered in by the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration. If he firmly believed the dossier that was presented to the House of Commons on Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction then he is certainly a dangerous fool.
Either way, Bliar (sic)'s stint in the Tool Shed will be a welcome respite for him considering that he will find it very difficult to survive the growing anger in his own party and the British community regarding his slap dash approach to the truth and accountability.
After all, this is a man who prosecuted a war that has cost thousands of lives on evidence that has since been dismissed by its protagonists as a "bureaucratic" excuse. At least his government is being held accountable for its deceptions, our own leaders merely seek to profit from their own murderous delusions.
�If we ask someone to join the union they�re all over us for months,� CFMEU organiser, Martin Wyer, said, �but a man gets killed, the boss has no paperwork, basic safety precautions aren�t followed and they aren�t interested.
"It shows they have an agenda."
The dead man was bricklayer, David Hands, 62. A 3m high brick wall tumbled and struck him on the head as he crouched over his tool box. Witnesses said ambulance officers resuscitated Hands but he died of his injuries later in hospital.
His workmate, a non-unionist, scarpered but was located by police. The Irishman is now in Villawood Detention Centre facing allegations that he has worked in Australia without a permit since 1987.
The pair, along with employer Wayne Morris, made up the workforce of KLA Bricklaying, contracted on the redevelopment of a Military Rd site owned by Sutherland-based builder-developer, Innovative Property Developments.
Innovative owners, Edward Rosenbaum and Jacob Baiderman, are understood to be replacing the original house with six home units.
Wyer accused the sub-contractor of having no safe work method statement, required by law; no bracing on the wall; and allowing work to proceed without the use of hard hats.
"That's the worst thing," Wyer said, "any one of those basic precautions could have saved this man's life. We went down to the basement and that was a death trap but nobody should be killed by a wall that is only four bricks thick.
"It is very sad because it was so preventable."
Workers Online understands the tragedy has also raised question marks over whether the subcontractor was up to date with workers comp premiums or making superannuation contributions, both required by the law.
The Interim Task Force, headed by former Federal policeman Nigel Hadgkiss, was set by Federal Government on the recommendation of Building Industry Royal Commissioner Terence Cole. Its brief is to police the building industry.
The North Bondi tragedy, however, sounds like a re-run of Cole Commission hearings which refused to investigate claims that the industry was rife with safety breaches, illegal immigration and employers dodging legal obligations.
Instead, the hearings concentrated on finding fault with union responses to those situations. Already, the Interim Task Force has attracted similar accusations of bias.
In an industry that kills 50 workers a year, and was identified by the ATO as a major source of tax evasion and corporate skulduggery, the task force has yet to launch a single prosecution against an industry employer.
During EBA stoppages in Brisbane earlier this year, it was accused of bugging the telephones of ETU officials.
The Department of Resources has washed its hands of the debt, arguing it paid out Waller�s latest progress payment, $519,000, on the strength of company stat decs that said its payments were up to date.
The CFMEU has blasted those declarations as "false and misleading".
"Employers responsible for those statements should return to Goulburn Gaol, and not as visitors," state secretary Andrew Ferguson said.
Labor Council this week endorsed a CFMEU ban on further work at Goulburn Gaol until state government agrees to meet Waller's debts to subbies and wage workers.
South Coast organiser, Mick Lane, estimates 12-15 subcontractors have been dudded by Waller on the gaol project alone. At least one, a gyprock company, has already shut up shop.
Administrators met creditors over the Waller fiasco in Sydney last week. The company is believed to owe a total of $5 million to creditors.
Lane says more than 100 wage workers could have entitlements jeopardised while others will lose jobs as sub-contractors fold.
He endorsed criticisms of NSW Security of Employment legislation made by Labor Council secretary, John Robertson, who insisted the regime would remain flawed while authorities relied on employer stat decs.
Robertson says if state government is "fair dinkum" it needs to go out and audit employers.
"The Security of Employment Act is worth nothing if all we can get is a court order against a company with nothing in the bank," Lane said.
After months of fruitless negotiations, it took one day of picketing and associated media attention for workers at Southwood Press to extract a decent deal from new Upper House MP Sylvia Hale.
The workers, members of the AMWU Printing Division, had agreed to keep quiet about their problems in the lead-up to the March state election.
But when talks with management again broke down in recent weeks, they were left with no alternative but to mount a picket and take the issue to the media.
At issue was a claim for 20 weeks redundancy pay - in line with the NSW Government standard; and concerns about alleged bullying of staff by a manager.
AMWU printing secretary Amanda Perkins says that she - and many of the Southwood Press workers - voted Green, making the later breakdown in talks all the more upsetting.
"The Greens have great social justice policies and a terrific industrial relations platform," Perkins says. "But this dispute has been a warning to all Greens that if they talk the talk they better walk the walk."
"It was ironic that Sylvia Hale was keen to visit the Morris McMahon picket line, while relations in her own company were deteriorating."
Within hours of the story hitting the newsstands, Hale had released a statement saying she would accept the 20 weeks redundancy.
"Workers have always been a top priority for Southwood, and we have had a good relationship for years," Hale says. "It is of the utmost importance to us that the workers at Southwood are treated well and are happy to work there."
Despite indications to MEAA lobbyists this week that they would block passage of the Media Ownership Bill, the key independent and One Nation representative will kill the laws that have kept Murdoch out of television and Packer�s hands off the Fairfax Press.
The legislation seeks to implement the Coalition's 2001 Federal election commitment to provide for exemptions from the cross media rules and to remove the foreign ownership restrictions contained in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
MEAA federal secretary Chris Warren says the government has agreed to some minor tinkering proposed by the independents.
"But none of these will change the fundamental thrust of the bill," Warren says. "The big media corporations will get bigger as newspapers and television will fall under common ownership
"If this bill gets passed it will be an enormous free gift to some of Australia's richest families."
The Alliance is calling on all supporters of media diversity to urgently email the relevant Senators.
Brian Harradine mailto:[email protected]
Shayne Murphy mailto:[email protected]
Meg Lees: [email protected]
Leonard William Harris: [email protected]
A briefing paper on the impact of the bill is available at http://www.alliance.org.au/ownership
Leightons, the construction giant contracted to build Sydney�s multi-billion dollar western oribital motorway, has been rumbled using cheap reinforcing by vigilant AMWU delegates on the Hilton Hotel redevelopment.
The material would normally be sourced from major NSW employers such as Smorgons, BHP or One Steel.
In light of the discovery, AMWU delegates will audit employers throughout Sydney to uncover other state government operations, or contractors, using cut-price, foreign materials.
"Our delegates will do that in a thorough manner," AMWU spokesman Tim Ayres promised. "They know what is happening on their sites."
Ayres said the information would be used to "embarrass" NSW into following the footsteps of states that have established purchasing protocols giving preference to Australian suppliers.
He said State Rail was an "obvious offender", sourcing tickets from overseas, and rail wagons made in Mongolia. Millions of tickets to the city's showpiece 2000 Olympics, he revealed, had also been imported.
Printers in NSW, meanwhile, are undergoing a major downturn, costing thousands of jobs.
Fifteen places are available on a two-week ACTU-endorsed trip aimed at pressuring the Colombian Government to halt killings and human rights abuses. The ACTU is backing the exercise at the request of Colombian counterpart, CUT.
Thirty five trade unionists have been murdered so far this year in the South American country, mainly by paramiliatry death squads. In the past five years thousands of worker and community activists have died or disappeared.
The CUT has tried to have the ILO impose sanctions on Colombia but the moves have been blocked by the US and multi-national employers. Now it seeks to draw attention to the plight of its people by inviting international guests to see the situation for themselves.
The Australian delegation will be away from October 2 to 22, visiting trade unionists, government officials, political leaders, Black and peasant communities on trips to Bogota, Cali and Medellin.
Colombian-born HSUA South Australian secretary, Jorge Navas, is urging Australians to support the initiative.
Navas hasn't been to his homeland in 14 years, during which time the political situation has deteriorated markedly. Even so, he knows what worker representatives are up against.
He has lost 17 members of his family to the war, including uncles and cousins. Two uncles were elected Members of Parliament before falling to the death squads, another was shot dead at only two years of age.
Navas said organisers have approached political parties, including Labor and the Greens, as well as unions and church groups to nominate people to join the delegation.
"We want a broad group to the show the Colombians how important this is to Australians," he said.
The all-inclusive cost is likely to be between $4500 and $5000 per head. Organisers are asking unions, churches and political organisations to subsidise the participation of their members.
CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson lodged the appeal, arguing the man had been routinely "short-changed" during 12 years with Department of Housing contractor, Dennis Building.
"In the absence of any Federal Government sanction, we need to teach employers a lesson about using unlawful labour to undercut Australian wages. Wage claims are the only thing they seem to understand," he said.
"We have asked for a stay while we sort out wage and workers compensation claims."
Authorities moved to deport the man, who has languished in Villawood for the past 21 months, after he worked up the nerve to challenge his employer.
Encouraged by a $25,000 underpayment settlement with Dennis for another Korean employee, the detainee wrote to the CFMEU pleading for help with his case.
The letter from Villawood asked the union to secretly contact a former workmate, and permanent resident, who could confirm the detainee's employment details, but warned - "However, if other fellow know they will stop to meet you.
"Contact carefully ... please find out all the facts and help me."
Workers Online understands the Korean suffered serious eye and leg injuries during his time as a builder's labourer without attracting workers compensation payment.
Ferguson said the company's "predictable" first response had been to deny employing the man.
He warned that pickets, against both the contractor and Department of Housing, were being considered to highlight the issue.
Meanwhile, CFMEU pressure has won a $10,000 payout for the widow of a Korean building worker murdered earlier this year.
Ferguson said the company, operating in Sydney's ceramic tiling centre, hadn't made superannuation contributions, leaving the widow without financial support.
The union will hand over the cheque this week.
by Carly Knowles
The Transport Workers Union has set up a fund to prosecute clients of transport companies that promote unsafe practices that lead to driver fatigue.
It intends to make examples of the worst offenders, hoping this will encourage clients to accept responsibility for demands they place on drivers.
"Even some prominent industry operators, are actively encouraging drivers to breach driving hours, speed and resort to illegal stimulant use" says Tony Sheldon, TWU Secretary.
Driver fatigue was identified as the major cause of almost 25 per cent of truck related accidents. Thirty per cent of drivers working in the long distance industry have reported using illegal stimulants in order to stay awake to make deadlines.
One of the measures suggested by the union to hold clients accountable is "to adopt an enforceable code of practice for the industry including sustainable rates of pay and chain of responsibility provisions."
This will lead to "clients identified as putting drivers lives and safety at risk [being] pursued to the full extent of the law" says Sheldon.
The union expects the main contributors to the fund will be responsible drivers but also, transport employers who are concerned for the welfare of their drivers.
The fund was established in response to an industry body assisting employers back away from their responsibilities to drivers.
Statistics reveal there were 110 truck-related road deaths in NSW over the 12 months to October, 2002.
While the Carr Government has been mouthing platitudes about returning teachers to the classroom, the Public Service Association says the lack of detail on the proposal has been outrageous.
PSA President Sue Walsh has written to Education Minister Andrew Refshauge and his senior bureaucrat Jan McClelland details of where the cuts in TAFE and the Department of Education & Training will be.
"The lack of detail in the Department's proposal is simply outrageous," Walsh says. "Twenty percent of administrative and other support staff are to be eliminated and they have not provided the most general of detail."
"How can we possibly discuss their proposal if we do not know how they propose to shape corporate services and other administrative and support functions?"
"Our members have had experience with previous TAFE and DET restructures, and have no confidence that this restructure will be anything other than another cost cutting shemozzle."
Walsh has told the Minister that the union and our delegates and members must have substantial information by next Friday. If not the members will take industrial action.
The company agreed to a union initiative that will see Dean swap shifts with a part-time workmate, after informal meetings in Sydney today. The meetings were suggested by the IRC after Dean said her employer had reneged on a part-time deal and ignored a string of compromise proposals.
Her union, the ASU, says the case highlights the fact that family-friendly rhetoric will remain just that until Federal Government restores the power of the IRC.
Organiser Leonie Sharp said Dean had succeeded in "embarrassing" Air New Zealand by highlighting her grievance in the media.
"We shouldn't have to do that. There are more civilised ways of resolving these matters but, unfortunately, they are not available because the Government won't let the independent umpire hear the evidence and make a decision.
"If their talk of family-friendly workplaces is going to mean anything, workers need an authority that can resolve their issues."
Under Liberal Party changes to workplace law, the federal IRC can now only make a binding decision with the agreement of both parties.
Publicity for Dean's dilemma brought messages of support from workmates around the international airport, including several members of other unions.
Dean intends informing two other mothers, in similar disputes with Air New Zealand, about the outcome of her case.
Debus ruled out major changes to the system after insurer Allianz circulated a paper amongst unions advocating a 'streamlining' of the system.
Unions opposition to these plans, would they believed would cut compensation rights and may have even seen a return to death bed court hearings, forced the issue to be deferred by State Cabinet this week.
And Debus has written to the NSW Labor Council making it clear he will not support wholesale changes to the system.
"The Dust Diseases Tribunal is an international best practice judicial boy which provides rapid and just compensation for victims of dust diseases," Debus says. "The Government has no intention of making any changes that would undermine the role that the Tribunal plays in NSW."
But concerns remain around plans to limit access to the NSW system by victims living outside NSW, which Debus says the government will consider, in consultation with unions.
There are fears that under the Allianz proposal, workers who contracted asbestosis or mesothelioma in NSW and have since retired to Queensland would be locked out of the state system.
by Carly Knowles
Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe has shut down attempts at a recent general strike in the country.
He claims striking doctors, nurses, and electrical workers perform "essential" services, and as such their strikes are unlawful. Over 800 strikers have been imprisoned, including many union officials.
The right to strike is emerging as the key battleground in the fight for democracy.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader, is powerless to fight the government's repression of the union movement since he is himself on trial for treason.
"Inflation is running around 270 per cent and getting worse... basic goods are in short supply and the country is basically in collapse." says Peter Murphy of the Zimbabwe Information Centre.
A rally outside John Howard's Sydney office on Tuesday will implore Canberra to speak firmly against Mugabe's action in all international forums.
The drivers, members of the Transport Workers Union, have been leafleting cars at Newcastle Knights game with a simple message - 'Boral supports teamwork on the field but doesn't practice it off the field'.
In September 2002 Boral terminated its entire Canberra owner-driver workforce because they wouldn't agree to a contract with a rate cut of 30 per cent and no guarantees of job security. Despite their many years of loyal service and hard work these drivers got no compensation, no redundancy and now have no job.
At the same time using its massive finances Boral is suing its entire Sydney Concrete owner-driver workforce in the Supreme Court as a ploy to put pressure on their families and their contracts which are coming up for renegotiation.
"Boral drivers live in our communities and they work hard to help build them," TWU secretary Tony Sheldon says. "They deliver the concrete that builds our children's schools, our hospitals, our roads, our shopping centres and our sports facilities."
"All the concrete drivers want is a fair go from Boral, they want to be treated like part of the team."
Back the Boral drivers by sending an email to the Newcastle Kinghts at mailto:[email protected] and ask them why a team with good working class values are sponsored by a company like Boral, who are going after their workforce.
The Australian Workers' Union, which represents the workers said that the company, whose main business is the operation of a Wool Scourer plant, told it's employees this week that they will all be made redundant by the end of the month when the plant will cease operations.
According to the AWU, Wool Scouring is just one of the many industries that are still facing financial ruin due to the drought, more so now then ever before as many companies and farmers' cash reserves have dried up.
AWU State Secretary Russ Collison says the loss of these jobs at Cowra flies in the face of the recent report by ABARE which claimed that the drought is well and truly over.
"I challenge anyone to tell the workers at Cowra that this drought is over," Collison says.
"Rural workers and their families have been the first and silent victims of this drought and it's about time that the Federal Government step in and assume its responsibility to look after its constituents," Mr. Collison said.
The company has told the workers that their entitlements will be paid out in full. The AWU is negotiating will the company to have long-term casual employees paid redundancy and is seeking compensation for employees who took annual leave over the last few months to help the company stay afloat.
Worried bridge workers, from a range of building unions, have given the Authority until Monday to prove they have addressed 58 different health and safety issues, including concerns over equipment used by Bridge Walk operators.
They will consider the RTA's response at a joint meeting and Building Trades Group (BTG) secretary, Tony Papa, said it was unlikely work would continue if defects had not been addressed.
Papa called the health and safety situation on the harbour city icon "appalling".
Workers from the CFMEU, AMWU, AWU, ETU and the Plumbers Union will consider the RTA response. The majority are employed on routine maintainence or traffic control.
Some of their issues have also been covered in Safety Notices issued by Workcover.
"Our people have been reasonable. They've given the RTA a fortnight to address these things but, in the interests of workers and the general public, there won't be any compromise on safety standards," Papa said.
"The public pays for this facility through taxes and tolls. It is the responsibility of the RTA to maintain it in a safe condition."
Workers Online understands that crane safety, and the state of some suspended cradles are key issues, while Bridge Walk concerns centre on the integrity of attachments to the main bridge structure..
Rally for MDC
Tuesday June 24, 2003
12.30 pm
Prime Minister's Office
70 Phillip St, Sydney
Call for release of Morgan Tsvangirai and 800 detained MDC supporters
Call for Australian government action to get the negotiations started for free and fair elections and a transition to democracy in Zimbabwe
Bring your red cards, bring your whistles, bring your placards!!!
Organised by: Zimbabwe Information Centre Inc, PO Box K824, Haymarket NSW 1240. Ph: Meredith 9230 2300, Peter 0418 312 301
****************
Open Source: Where Should Labor Stand?
The Forum will be hosted by the NSW Minister for IT, Hon. John Della Bosca.
Will open source revolutionise IT or is it all just hype? Can government policy influence the market to promote Australian jobs? The forum is presented by the ALP IT Committee will explore and consider whether there is a role for Labor Party and government policy in the debate.
Speakers: Martin McEniery for Redhat, John Harvey from IBM, Duncan Bennett from Sun's Linux group, Prof Albert Zomaya from Sydney Uni's IT School, Stuart Fist from the Australian, and Martin Gregory from Microsoft.
General Public: $15, ALP Members free (bring your card)
Wednesday 25 June 2003, at 7.00pm
NSW Parliament House Theatrette
Macquarie Street, Sydney
I recently posted a comment at Melbourne Indymedia questioning whether, if I lived in Cuba, I and others who share my views could form a Green Party, openly recruit people to it and stand a Green Party ticket in elections.
The answer, according to a Democratic Socialist Party cadre/s who write/s as "Redstar", is No, and this was justified on the grounds that allowing a plurality of political parties would open the door to counter-revolution as in Nicaragua (even if, as in the case of a Green Party, the parties would not have a platform of restoring a capitalist economy) and that multi-party democracy isn't really more democratic than a single-party state anyway.
What I find disturbing about this response is that I had hoped, and believed, that after the disastrous failures of "actually existing socialism" the entire Left would have learned that a viable socialist/left project must include a range of institutional guarantees of democracy including free elections, free and pluralistic political organisation
including a multiplicity of parties, non-partisan judiciaries to uphold the rule of law, etc., etc. Instead, a mere 14 years after the Berlin Wall came down and a mere 12 after the Soviet Union collapsed, we have forces on the left (who are not insignificant given the DSP's central role in the Socialist Alliance) defending the same institutional arrangements which blighted the socialist project in its Leninist/Stalinist form, using much the same arguments that Australian Stalinists used for decades.
It appears we have an incipient "culture of forgetting" about the evils of Stalinism on the Left comparable to the "culture of forgetting" about the Holocaust and fascism which the Right exhibited over the Demidenko literary scandal.
Am I the only person on the Left who's alarmed by this?
Paul Norton.
The debate about the leadership of the Labor Party has centred around the question of who would win the most votes for Labor.
There is no doubt that Beazley is, and always has been, a more popular leader with the electorate than Crean. As Opposition Leader, Beazley's approval ratings in Newspoll averaged 45%. Crean's have averaged just 32%. Crean has consistently been less popular than Prime Minister Howard.
Yet many opposition leaders have won office despite being less popular than the incumbent. They include Margaret Thatcher in 1979, Nick Greiner in 1988, Jeff Kennett in 1992, Richard Court in 1993, Bob Carr in 1995, Geoff Gallup in 1996, Steve Bracks in 1999 and Mike Rann in 2002.
Recent polls have also asked voters how they would vote if Beazley were ALP leader. The hypothetical Labor vote is higher under Beazley than presently recorded under Crean.
The whole problem with such polls, of course, is that they are hypothetical. They don't locate voters in the real world situation of what politics would actually be like with Beazley as leader.
To give an extreme but illustrative example: in the 1960s, a pollster asked voters for whom they would vote in the bizarre scenario of Gough Whitlam leading a new party comprising a breakaway right faction from the ALP plus the DLP. It showed Whitlam's 'new' party would achieve a higher vote than the ALP was receiving. Wisely, Whitlam ignored this poll, and at the 1972 election humiliated Billy McMahon who had been as popular as Beazley at his peak when he first took over the Liberal Party.
So how can we tell whether the ascension of a popular Beazley would lead to a higher Labor vote? Fortunately, we can look back on his record. If Beazley's popularity as leader then led to Labor improving its relative vote, there may be a good chance it would do so again now.
The trouble is, Beazley's popularity did not statistically correlate with the net Labor vote (Labor's primary vote minus the Coalition's primary vote). When Beazley's popularity rose, Labor's vote did not.
To give some examples, using poll figures averaged over a month: in May 1999 Beazley's Neswpoll approval rating was 46%, and Labor had a 1 percentage point lead on primary vote in the polls. Four moths later his approval had risen to 54%, but Labor was now 5 points behind in the polls.
By April 2000, his approval fell to 43%, but Labor had a one point lead again. By March 2001, his approval had fallen slightly further to 41%, but Labor now enjoyed an 11 point lead. By November 2001, just before his last election, his popularity had risen to 49%, but Labor had lost its lead and ended up over 5 points behind on election night.
So while Beazley is more popular than Crean, there is considerable doubt that this would translate into votes. One reason is obvious: voters take account of more than just their personal feelings about the opposition leader. The degree of party unity, how close a party is to voter's personal philosophies, and its policies, all have big effects.
Many commentators have remarked on the lack of policy development during Beazley's leadership. There is little doubt this led to disaffection amongst Labor sympathisers. Many voted informal, costing Labor votes.
The informal vote in the 2001 election was nearly 5%, over 50% more than in the pre-Beazley elections of the 1990s. The two states with the highest increase in the informal vote, NSW and Queensland, were also the states with the largest drops in the ALP two-party preferred vote. Tasmania, the only state with a swing to Labor, also had the smallest increase in the informal vote. In the 10 seats with the largest increases in the informal vote, the two-party swing against Labor was 4%. In the 10 seats with the largest reductions in the informal vote, there was a swing to Labor of 0.2%.
Other voters switched from Labor to the Greens, and in turn preferenced the Coalition. About a quarter of Green voters give their second preferences to the Coalition (why would you care who gets your second preference if you see no difference between the major parties?). Other disaffected voters switched directly to the Liberals. Because of leakage to minor parties under Beazley, Labor's primary vote at the 2001 election was lower than in the landslide defeat of 1996.
Labor is in trouble, though not terminally. Averaging the most recent polls suggests that, after Crean has started issuing policies, Labor had recovered to be approximately level. His antagonist may have a higher personal approval rating, but it is questionable whether he would produce the policies that would put Labor into office.
David Peetz
Associate Professor
School of Industrial Relations
Griffith University.
The wonderful victorious marching ranks of the Prime Minister's welcome home parades call for a special song in honour of John Howard, undoubtedly the most successful wartime leader Australia has ever seen.
How about this victorious old favourite from WWII, which brought so much joy to so many*?
Flag high with ranks locked tight
Crack troops march in silent immaculate step
Veterans once brought down by the chattering leftist blight
March with us in spirit, pride and joyful pep
The street open to khaki battalions,
The street free for our crack troops dread.
Millions, hopeful, look to our flag's medallion
The day now breaks for freedom and for bread
Kindest regards
Peter Woodforde
*Trans. Horst Wessel Lied:
Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossen
S. A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
Kam'raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
Marschier'n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit
Die Strasse frei den braunen Batallionen
Die Strasse frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann
Es schau'n auf's Hackenkreuz voll Hoffung schon Millionen
Der Tag fur Freiheit und fur Brot bricht an
Treasurer Michael Egan and his team carry the mantle of debt-activists in the finest tradition of the deficit hawkes who captured the ALP in the era that bears the same name.
There is no doubt that Labor governments need to be good economic managers, better than the Tories, and the Carr-Egan Administration has been amongst the most successful in living memory.
Buoyed by the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the tax windfall from the property boom and a conservative attitude to public spending, Treasurer Egan has a track record the envy of any Tory Treasurer.
The Bart Simpson of state politics has a hard-earned record of delivering 'beautiful sets of numbers' that earn the approval of mainstream economic commentators year in, year out. More strength to him, we say.
Our question is whether delivering surplus budgets is in and of itself sufficient to claim to have delivered a 'Labor budget' - which is the Egan mantra this time of year.
Reducing deficits is important; money spent servicing a debt is money that can't be spent in the here and now.
But as any home-owner will tell you, sometimes you need to borrow to be able to afford shelter and transport, while maintaining the sort of income required to feed the family, pay the school fees and meet the doctors bills.
In 1997 Egan thought he had found his Shangri-la when he was convinced that selling off the power industry would wipe out the budget. As experience in other states has shown, privatisation would have seriously compromised the state's electricity supply, robbing future generations of secure, affordable electricity.
The French keep telling him he could get a motza for water infrastructure as well, yet to date he has resisted that temptation. And let's not forget the state's rail tracks - the Commonwealth currently wants to seize them for an $850 million investment, a necessary first step to a national sell-off of another state asset.
What these policy dilemmas show is that not even a government as fiscally conservative as Carr's believes the budget bottom line is everything.
There was a time of course, where the size of the budget deficit was an important economic lever - to drive up economic activity by injecting funds in publicly useful projects. Think Snowy Hydro, think Harbour Bridge, think Olympics. Sometimes you spend your way back to economic life.
So Egan's budget fetish is one way of managing the state's finances, but it is not necessarily the only Labor model.
Part of Egan's conservatism is borne out of the financial debacles associated with a string of Labor Governments in other states in the early 90s.
As an opposition leader at the time, Carr would have resolved firmly never to allow a disaster of the proportions of the Victorian Cain Government Pyramid Collapse to afflict NSW Labor. The question is, have Carr and Egan over-learned this lesson and taken Labor too far in the opposite direction?
There have been moments of inspiration. Land tax for properties valued at over a million dollars was an inspired piece of Laborism that targeted tax on the manifest beneficiaries of the economic boom.
But all too often the Egan budgets have been exercises in perspiration over inspiration; with the boffins steering the ship of state and the raw figures being the beginning, middle and end of the story.
So what would a Labor budget really look like?
It would show an increased investment in the public services where they are needed, both in physical and human capital.
It would be investing in projects that will improve the quality of life for citizens - an integrated public transport, a well-resourced health system, teachers who received decent recognition for the fundamental contribution they make to our society.
It would ensure that public funds are invested in public sector careers, rather than filling in the gaps with massive use of casuals and labour hire.
It would adequately fund TAFE, encourage apprentices and divert government contracts to good corporate citizens.
And it would build in indicators to ensure the money that is being spent is being fairly distributed amongst regions, with the main indicator being need.
The problem with budgets is that they are raw set of numbers that in their crudest form deliver a rating based on a bottom line: the profit and loss statement.
The state is not a corporation and we are not shareholders and we should view the Michael Egan's ninth budget as something more than a maths exam.
The role of Treasurer is to be more than a security guard on the state coffers who says no to every request for money. It involves arguing the case for increased revenue, even taxation, in the interests of building a stronger community.
That's the altogether tougher test that Egan faces if he wants to be regarded as a great Labor Treasurer.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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