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Issue No. 200 24 October 2003  
E D I T O R I A L

The Hard Yards
Two hundred issues of Australia�s first and only online workers� magazine is due reason to celebrate. It is also a good time to look at what we�ve achieved over the past five years and consider where we need to go.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: No Ifs, No Butts
Rugby League Professionals Association president Tony Butterfield on his battle to deliver a collective agreement for NRL players.

Unions: National Focus
In this month�s national wrap: Noel Hester meets a heavy hitter talking up open source unionism, truckies front the suits at Boral�s AGM, tales of corporate bastardry and Medicare birthday revelry.

Industrial: Fools Gold
Unions have thrashed out a string of protocols with the NSW Labor Government. Some, now, are questioning whether they are worth the cheap, imported paper they are written on, reports Jim Marr.

Bad Boss: Bones of Contention
Byron Bay chicken boners have nominated thier boss for a Tony after seeing their entitlements plucked.

History: The Gong Show
In late September the South Coast Labour Council (SCLC) celebrated 75 unbroken years championing the rights of workers in the coastal Illawarra region 80 kilometres south of Sydney, writes Rowan Cahill.

Politics: The Hawke Legacy
The election of the Hawke Labor government twenty years ago holds some salient lessons for today�s Labor Party, writes Troy Bramston.

International: Sick Nation
As Australia celebrates 20 years of Medicare�s universal health coverage the crisis facing American workers in need of medical care is a useful reminder of what we�ve got � and what we stand, writes Andrew Casey.

Economics: Closed Minds
Philip Mendes looks at the political influence of right-wing think tanks, their financial backing and asks why the left hasn�t been able to get its ideas out there.

Review: Mixing Pop and Politics
He's had relations, with girls from many nations... but Billy Bragg seems to like us Aussies as much or even more than any of the others, writes P�draig Collins.

Poetry: One Size Fits All
There once was a man from the Lodge - Who tried hard, our poems, to dodge... Resident bard David Peetz is back!

N E W S

 Workers Rally For �Joel�s Law�

 It�s Official: Courts Weak on Safety

 Cole Insider Highlights "Agenda"

 "Racism" as Pacific Islanders Rorted

 Academics Appeal to International Umpire

 Conroy Crashes Boral Bash

 Poll Points to Hospital Overload

 Aussie Icon Set To Head Overseas

 China Gaols Union Activists

 Victory in Dili

 AWU Rejects Bid to Fleece Shearers

 People�s Bank to Hear From People

 Unions Put Students in Picture

 Memo ALP Members: Think About Unions

 New Face in the Hunter

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

Postcard
North By Northwest
Phil Doyle returns from up north, where he survived on nothing but goodwill, good people and a great big orange bus.

The Soapbox
The $140 Million Patriot
It would be hard to imagine a steeper slide from hero to zero than the experience of Richard Grasso, the now-deposed head of the New York Stock Exchange. writes Jim Stanford.

Media
Bush's Bad News Blues
The Bush Administration is cooking up a new campaign 'to shine light on progress made in Iraq', writes Bill Berkowitz.

The Locker Room
A Tale Of One City
Phil Doyle gazes into the crystal ball for signs of life, and finds that somewhere the horses are running in the wrong direction.

Culture
With Banners Furled
There is no better account of the glory that was the annual Labour Day marches than that given by Kylie Tennant in Foveaux, her fictional account of life in inner Sydney in 1912, the year she was born.

Politics
The Westie Wing
Our favourite Macquarie Street MP, Ian West MLC, reports on the world of NSW politics.

Postcard
The Cancun Wash-Up
The dramatic collapse of the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico, last month has been followed by a deafening quiet from Geneva, Brussels and Washington, writes Peter Murphy.

L E T T E R S
 Child Labour
 Advance Australia Where?
 God Save Us All
 US Seeking Aussie Info
 Call The Doctor
 Bring Back Gough
 Bring Back Social Democracy
 Look East, Look West
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Poll Points to Hospital Overload


Public hospital emergency departments will be swamped when bulk billing rates fall and costs increase under Federal Government budget changes, according to Newspoll research.

The results, contradicting claims by former Health Minister Kaye Paterson, come in a national poll of 1200 people, aged 18 year and over, published this week.

Nine percent of respondents said they would be "most likely" to attend public hospitals if their local GPs increased consultation fees or stopped bulk billing.

Another 21 percent said, wherever possible, they would put off going to the doctor.

The polling comes amidst claim and counter claim over escalating attendances at public hospital A&E departments.

State Governments argued in their case for greater public hospital funding that falling bulk billing rates had seen thousands of extra people attending public hospitals where consultations are free.

The Howard Government argued that cost does not influence the number of people seeking first-port-of-call treatment at hospitals.

Health Service Union secretary, Craig Thomson, said the nine percent increase pin-pointed by the polling would "swamp already over-crowded emergency departments".

Meanwhile, the ACTU says the importance of Medicare is best illustrated by the privately-driven system in the world's richest country, the USA.

Latest figures show that 44 million American, 80 percent from working families, have no health cover at all.

This figure was up 2.4 million on the number in that situation in 2002, according to the US Census Bureau. Approximately, 15.2 percent of population was without any health cover for the duration of 2002, the Bureau said.

America's AFL-CIO president, John J. Sweeney said the statistics represented a health care, economic and moral "crisis".

"Since President Bush took office, the ranks of the uninsured have rised by more than 3.7 million, from 39.8 million in 2000 to 43.6 million in 2002," Sweeney said.

""All the gains the nation had made since 1998 in closing the health care gap and expanding coverage have been erased."

Families USA executive director, Ron Pollack, said the problem would be worsened by tightening state budgets. Traditionally, he said, state programmes such Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance had cushioned some of the disadvantaged.

"Now that the states are experiencing fiscal crises, they are hard-pressed to retain coverage in those public programmes," Pollack said.


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