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Issue No. 192 | 22 August 2003 |
Flexing the Muscles
Interview: The New Deal Unions: In the Line of Hire Culture: Too Cool for the Collective? International: The Domino Effect Industrial: A Spanner in the Works National Focus: Gathering of the Tribes History: The Welcome Nazi Tourist Bad Boss: Domm, Domm Turn Around Poetry: Just Move On. Review: Reality Bites
Socialists Give Banks a Kicking Workers Bag Leave Entitlements Australia in Terrorists� Sights Rheem Taps into Lock Out Pattern
The Soapbox Education The Locker Room Postcard
A Harsh Lesson Axe The Max India On A Dollar A Day
Labor Council of NSW |
News Labor Pledges Taskforce Fight
Workplace Relations Shadow, Craig Emerson, gave that assurance to ACTU congress delegates in an address which argued the $60 million Cole Royal Commission was a political witch-hunt. "Labor will oppose Tony Abbott's provocative, one-sided legislation scheduled for parliament next month, because we see no fairness in singling out workers in one industry for a harsh and oppressive set of rules that go well beyond what applies to the rest of the workforce," Emerson said. "Australians have every reason to fear that the Howard Government has in mind not a watch dog but an attack dog - a coercive regulator, programmed with this Government's ideological values, intruding on the scene to inflame disputes." Emerson argued that the only passage to change in the building industry was "co-operative reforms" that involved state governments, employers, relevant unions and the ACTU. The Prime Minister, Emerson said, drew on embarrassing experiences of 25 years ago, with the Costigan Royal Commission, when, as Treasurer, he had to be dragged "kicking and screaming" before Parliament to legislate against rampant tax evasion, involving prominent Liberal Party supporters. "Answer: a Royal Commission into unions, but one that is heavily biased - a Royal Commission into the building industry with skewed terms of reference, a skewed commission with skewed inquiry processes. "He didn't want a Royal Commission delving deeply into tax scams in the building industry. "And the Government did not want to alarm employers, so Tony Abbott wrote a letter of comfort, providing an assurance that the Commission was not enquiring into any particular company, and that the focus of the inquiry would be on the unions," Emerson said. He described the Workplace Relations Minister as a "zealot" for handing over taxpayer money to anti-CFMEU witnesses convicted of dishonesty and described by a judge as "reprehensible" and "deceitful". Labor, he pledged, would not allow Abbott to use construction industry legislation as a beach head for a second wave of industrial changes aimed at stripping away remaining protections for all Australian workers.
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