*****
It appears that the Speaker of the South Australian parliament is off his medication again.
The phrase 'mad as a cut snake' springs to mind when one contemplates the former Liberal turned independent Peter Lewis. He has blamed his latest outburst in which he declared that politicians had "more balls than brains" on a "recent illness".
Any cursory study of the public career of this bloke with a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock shows that his illnes ain't recent. He's been off his trolley for years.
King Lewis the mad, famous for his fetish for dressing up in ceremonial regalia, was forced to apologise after his latest wanderings in the land of Lune.
Several female MPs objected to the comment and, showing a loose appreciation of which century we're in, the Speaker named Liberal MP Joan Hall for protesting.
Lewis is, of course, wrong at any rate. Politicians have neither balls nor brains.
What apparently triggered the latest foaming at the mouth episode was that quaint political ritual known as question time. Wherever the Westminster system creaks and groans parliaments are enthralled to this age-old ritual. Everyone, it seems, is resigned to the alternating Dorothy Dixers for the holders of the Treasury benches and scandal clad probing of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
Everyone, that is, except the Hamlet of North Terrace, the inimitable Peter Lewis.
Our Tool Of The Week claimed that he was trying to get MP's to "see the silliness of their behaviour". If that's the case then all he really needed was a mirror.
Lewis' 25 years in parliament have certainly been eventful, from his support for deadbeat dads to association with a number of colourful characters. He also fancies himself as a bit of a Rambo type, with murky rumours of his military exploits incongruously floating around the mild mannered madman.
All of this is no doubt comforting for the 15 000 odd employees of the state of South Australia who are having a rough time trying to get a decent deal out of the very same asylum that Lewie the Loon presides over.
He has a quaint way with language, famous for some shoot-from-the-hip-without-the-brain-engaged-aphorisms like "people without profit is poverty", and "Tell me what I need to know - not what you think I'd like to hear."
Well Pete, what you need to know is that you're a nutter.
Our Tool Of the Week should take his ceremonial straight jacket into the Tool Shed this week, politics is crazy enough without having loose cannons like Lewis yapping away.
Besides, he's giving the name Lewis a bad rap.
Maritime workers have questioned whether the Federal government�s changes to shipping laws are undermining the nation�s efforts in the war on terror.
On the same day on which the Maritime Security Bill was introduced to parliament the flag of convenience bulk carrier the Henry Oldendorf, with a compliment of 21 men from seven different nationalities, loaded a coastal cargo of fertiliser from NSW bound for Victoria.
Until very recently this cargo was carried exclusively by Australian flagged and crewed ships.
"While this is by no means an isolated event it serves to demonstrate how the government's assault on the Australian industry opens the gates to terrorist opportunities," says Dean Summers from the International Transport Federation (ITF).
Unions have warned that using flag of convenience shipping on coastal trade at the expense of Australian shipping exposes Australia to a significant terrorist risk.
The ITF has warned that flag of convenience shipping means that in most cases the true owner of the ships can never be traced. Crews made up of mixed nationalities from the poorest nations ensure that they cannot organise among themselves
Many crews on flag of convenience vessels are sourced from developing countries - described by the Federal Government as being a part of "the arc of instability". Fraudulent crew papers are also widespread, making it easy for terrorists to infiltrate ships
"The Howard Government is right to review maritime security but it must consider security in the context of some of its other objectives," says Summers. "It should weigh up whether attacking the Australian shipping industry is worth exposing all Australians to a very real threat of terrorism from foreign shipping into the hearts of our capital cities."
"While our newly enacted Maritime Security Act addresses some important issues there are other federal government transport policies that negate security measures and actually create obvious opportunities to breach national maritime security."
According to the ITF Australian ships and crews for our domestic trade equates to maritime security.
Perth Guards Unguarded
Meanwhile Western Australian rail workers are concerned about the possibility of terrorist attacks following the events in Madrid.
Local Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) secretary Bob Christison dismissed claims from the Western Australian Premier's Office that transit guards on Perth's rail system were trained in counter terrorism.
"What that means is that they [the transit guards] have been advised that if they see an unattended package, they are to view it as dangerous and contact the appropriate authorities."
Christison labelled the WA Government's approach as a 'fingers-crossed' strategy.
"They are hoping that nothing happens," says Christison. "They wouldn't have a clue what they're dealing with."
The RTBU is calling for security on the Perth rail system to be beefed up across the board.
Unions on the Traralgon-Melbourne arm of the state�s Very Fast Rail Project have discovered at least 19 Aboriginal and Kanaky-descended being short-changed by labour hire outfit, Skilled Engineering.
Gippsland Trades and Labour Council leader John Parker says when the project delegate came across the Queenslanders, they were sharing pies and sandwiches, unaware they could use smoko rooms or toilet facilities.
The Queenslanders were sleeping in cars or bunking in caravan parks. One was wearing size 9 1/2 work boots although his foot size was 11.
Many had been hired by Skilled under the terms of Federal Government's STEPS program, providing employers with $4500-a-head bounties. "It's Government's way of getting them off the dole," Parker says.
Investigations by project unions - the AMWU, CFMEU and RTBU - revealed they had been underpaid at least $4 an hour on the project rate and, worse, had spent three weeks with no incomes at all.
Contrary to the project agreement, they had been laid off and not offered work for at least eight days when they made contact with unions. Another group, apparently, had been flown south, put through medicals, then told they were not wanted.
"You imagine hungry construction workers who haven't been paid for three weeks. They were fairly hostile and there was talk of them going into Traralgon to have it out with Skilled," Parker says.
The unions have won back pay for the Queenslanders, including living away from allowance of around $400 a week; guarantees of at least six weeks on full pay; as well as commitments to fly them home at the end of their contracts.
Officials said while unions were fighting for local jobs in the La Trobe Valley, where unemployment is still 17 percent, there was "no way" they were going to stand aside and see the Queenslanders "exploited and discriminated against".
AMWU organiser, Steve Dodd, called their treatment "outrageous". "It was a throwback to the racism of the past," he said.
The breakthrough will provide fresh impetus to the push to have the NSW Government and all local councils thinking about worker's rights when they make purchasing and tendering decisions.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has written to the NSW Labor Council conceding the way the Memorandum of Understanding is being implemented does not breach the Trade Practices Act.
The Labor Council signed agreements a number of NSW councils including Holroyd, Cessnock and Marrickville undertaking that council contractors meet award provisions and allow workers to join their relevant union.
The Labor Council also has a similar agreement with the state government.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had been investigating whether or not the agreement with Holroyd Council constituted anti-competitive conduct.
"This is a significant development,' says NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson. "This shows that the MOUs are not anti-competitive and are consistent with the Trade Practices Act."
The State Government had shied away from fully acting on its agreement with the NSW Labor Council to be pro-worker in its purchasing policies. The government had defended itself by saying that the agreement could contravene the Trade Practices Act.
"This is obviously not the case," says Robertson. "We will be raising this with the state government to ensure they adhere to the agreement by reviewing their code to reflect the approved Holroyd agreement."
AWU state president Mick Madden says mining companies are openly flouting laws governing hours of working underground and called on the Chief Inspector of Mines to urgently intervene.
"In recent times we have seen four dead at Parkes and another dead at Ridgeway - a sign of how dangerous underground mining really is," Madden says.
"State legislation recognises that excessive work hours put lives at risk - there is a legal limit for working underground of a maximum of eight hours per day, 48 hours per week in any consecutive seven days.
"These laws are clearly not being complied with, many miners - particularly those on individual contracts - are routinely under ground for more than 12 hours at a time.
"Because of the spread of contract labour (AWAs) and the resulting low rates of pay, workers feel they have no option other than to cop the excessive hours - regardless of the risk to their safety.
"The real villians in this story are the unscrupulous mine operators who routinely and deliberately flout the law - placing working men at risk and heightening the chance of a major mining disaster."
The AWU will officially approach the Chief Inspector of Mines to conduct a state wide audit of underground working hours and proceed with prosecutions of employers who are breaking the law.
Teachers have found the $84 million system to be cumbersome, and there have been significant technical problems.
Teachers, already facing heavy workloads, have also expressed concerns over their ability to effectively implement the program as well as raising privacy and access to training and development concerns.
The Federation has held discussions with The Department of Employment and Training (DET) over a period of 18 months to gain assurances about their concerns.
No guarantees have been forthcoming from DET. The 'e-learning system' is currently being piloted in 51 schools and TAFE colleges.
On 18 March, the NSW Premier publicly announced the roll out of the 'e-learning system'. The roll out is to begin in schools in southwestern Sydney in Term 2 this year and the rest of NSW over the next 18 months.
A commitment by former Minister John Watkins, and the previous Director-General, Jan McClelland, that teachers would be consulted about all future decisions concerning the project - and that it would not be rolled out until the implementation of the pilot was successful - has not been honoured.
No provision exists for technical support in schools. The current plan for training and development to support implementation merely consists of a CD-Rom which teachers would have to access in their own time.
The NSW Teachers Federation has slammed this as "totally unacceptable".
The ban on the "e-learning system" does not extend to the use teachers already make of emails and the internet as this is accessed through a separate system.
According to a report in Newsday a fleece pullover embroidered with the Bush�Cheney �04 logo bore a label stating it was made in Burma.
Last year Bush signed a law banning Burmese imports because of that country's use of forced labour and violations of human and workers' rights, but now its election time, that law has become an ass.
The US Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act bans the import of products from Burma and all payments to Burma.
Official merchandise for Bush's opponent in the November elections, John Kerry, is made in the United States by union members.
As president, Kerry says one of his first priorities will be to restore lost jobs. Nearly 3 million jobs have disappeared under the Bush administration.
"It says a lot about [President George W.] Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney that they would have for sale items made by 7 cents-an-hour slave labor in a venture operated jointly with the Burmese military," says Charles Kernaghan, executive director of a workers' rights advocacy group.
"Clearly, human and worker rights are not being discussed in the Bush administration."
Winson's father was in a coma for five days before he passed away last week, leaving behind a grieving widow and seven children without a breadwinner.
"I want justice,' says Winson. "The boss didn't help me. The boss just wanted to protect himself."
The boss is builder John Jin (Jun Jian) of QW International Investments Pty Ltd. He employed, illegally, Winson's father Kow Chey, who was in Australia on a tourist visa, but was employed as cheap labour at John Jin's Strathfield building site.
"The safety on the site was appalling," says Andrew Ferguson of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), who has slammed the builder for not even offering to provide assistance for a decent funeral.
Kow Chey's family are Bhuddists, who view as very important the rite of praying at the site of where a person passes away. When they approached Mr Jin to pray at the site of their father's deadly fall the builder closed the gates on them.
"This is an issue of human decency," says Ferguson. "It demonstrates the bastadry that takes place in workplaces where there is complete contempt for workers."
Through the intervention of the CFMEU Kow Chey's family finally accessed the site to conduct memorial prayers. A week-long picket of the site has secured $25 000 to assist the family with funeral, medical and living expenses.
The CFMEU is also pursuing a mortality workers compensation claim.
"Fortunately I went to the union to help my family," says Winson. "Many of the members there have treated me like a son."
"Before my mother was very down, now she's a lot better because of the justice the CFMEU has brought my family."
"You should be very proud of the way your union has helped us."
The CFMEU and the Labor Council have also slammed the protocols following such deaths, with emergency services other than police not required to notify WorkCover in the event of such deaths.
The incident is not an isolated one according to Community and Public Sector Union Regional Secretary Bill Marklew.
"Similar episodes have happened in the same workplace, as well as in other call centres."
The power surge caused the Telstra workers to suffer the symptoms of Acoustic Shock - a response to a sudden loud sound heard from handsets and headsets of telephones. The symptoms include nausea, vertigo and hearing problems.
The matter of acoustic Shock has a long history at Chermside according to CPSU national organiser Trevor Veenendaal.
As recently as the 18th of November Telstra had assured the union that the risk of Acoustic shock was under control following several incidents last year.
The CPSU has demanded a complete, independent inquiry into Telstra's safety standards throughout its entire call centre network.
"Staff have a right to expect a safe working environment," says Marklew. "They also have a right to expect that Telstra will take swift action on this matter. They want to know how a serious incident like this could have happened when the problem has been known about for a year."
"While we welcome Telstra's decision to investigate yesterday's incident, we want their assurance that the inquiry will be independent and that the staff's health and safety will not be further compromised by delays."
The threat came from Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Pru Goward after the results of a national phone survey revealed that one in four Australians, the vast majority of them women, has been sexually harassed at work.
The survey conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission also showed that very few people who experience sexual harassment lodge a complaint.
Pru Goward admitted she was surprised by the results, so surprised it seems that she's at a loss to do anything about it, apart from "give employers a chance to change."
With twenty years of anti sexual harassment laws in Australia, it would be fair to conclude that bosses have been given plenty of chances to change and lessen the incidence of sexual harassment.
ACTU Industrial Officer Cath Bowtell thinks that it's time for some action.
"We've had two decades of encouraging best practice and there's been no behavioral change. There's only so much encouraging you can do." Bowtell says the problem with sexual harassment legislation is that it's complaints driven.
"If you're sexually harassed, you can complain about it, go to court and have it dealt with. But this is obviously not acting as a deterrent. What we need is more emphasis on prevention."
Pru Goward also thinks that something needs to be done in the area of prevention, but wants to leave it to the bosses to do something about it.
Fat chance Pru! Sexual harassment is hardly a new phenomenon and employers have known for a long time that it's unacceptable and illegal and there seems to be very little change.
"It's extremely na�ve to think that the vast majority of employers are going to address this problem if we leave it up to them. That's not the way the world works. If she's really serious about this Pru Goward and the Federal government need to introduce measures that center on prevention. We owe it to the countless number of women who suffer sexual harassment at their work on a daily basis."
CFMEU national secretary John Sutton says the move reflects how badly the Senate Inquiry into the Building Industry Legislation has gone for the Howard Government.
"This is a Government on the run, trying to breathe some life into the union bashing strategies they always reach for when they're in electoral difficulty," Sutton says.
The only substantial announcement was to remove the word 'Interim' from the Taskforce's name.
"This measure will be as permanent as this Howard Government," Sutton says. "They know their strategy for the construction industry is looking sick.
"By making the Building Taskforce permanent, they're simply showing they're prepared to use millions of taxpayers' dollars to enforce a Code and anti-worker industrial relations practice they can't get through Parliament."
"The Australian construction industry is booming at present but the only ingredient the Howard Government can add is to fund a union bashing outfit that has been criticized by the courts for the manner in which it conducts its investigations!"
The award, brokered by Labor Council of NSW, Newcastle Trades Hall Council, affiliated Unions and Contractors at the smelter, is the culmination of 12 months hard work.
Some of the benefits include the following:
(i) Wages: Grade A (base trades) rate set at $930 from 15th March 2004 followed by escalation of 2.5% on 15th September 2004, 15th March 2005 and 15th September 2005. Relativities above and below Grade A to be maintained.
- Superannuation: $80 per week from 15th March 2004, $85 from 15th March 2005, $90 from 15th March 2006 or, the SGL, which ever is the higher.
- Redundancy: $75 per week from 15th March 2004, $80 from 15th March 2005 and $85 from 15th March 2006.
- Income Protection: Contractors to provide Income Protection cover of up to $1200/21 day waiting period.
- Back Pay: All employees who have worked on the Project since 1st June 2003 shall be entitled to back pay calculated on the basis of $100 for each completed full week (Monday to Friday) worked on the Project. Pro-rata payments shall apply where less than a full week (Monday to Friday) has been worked on the basis of $20 per day.
- Hours: A 36-hour week to apply on and from 15 March 2006. This reduction in standard hours is partially offset by a 2.5% wage increase that would have been payable on 15th March 2006.
Labour Rights and Border Protection
The Evatt Foundation is pleased to announce its new location at the Industrial Relations Research Centre at the University of New South Wales
The Industrial Relations Research Centre and The Evatt Foundation Invite you to attend the launch of
Attempts at a Viable Life on the Temporary Protection Visa
by Nigel Hoffmann
on Thursday, April 1st, 2004 at 5pm in the Jubilee Room, Parliament House, Macquarie Street
Hosted by
The Hon. Dr Meredith Burgmann, MLC
President of the Legislative Council
Launch of Monograph by
John Valder, AO
Patron, Bridge for Asylum Seekers Foundation
Welcome by Associate Professor Lucy Taksa, Director,
Industrial Relations Research Centre
Nigel Hoffmann introduced by Associate Professor Michael Humphrey drinks and nibbles will be served
RSVP by Monday, 29 March 2004
Marie Kwok on (02) 9385 7156
Email: [email protected]
Palm Sunday 2004 - march and rally
4 April, 2004
Assemble Belmore Park, 1pm for march to Hyde Park North
Adelaide International Workplace Conflict Conference - 21-23 April 2004
Holiday Inn on Hindley (formerly the Novotel Adelaide), Hindley Street.
The workplace mirrors the world - dealing with conflict at work
Conflict is a characteristic feature of most workplaces and has many manifestations. Its impacts can be positive or negative. The conference will look at the sources of workplace conflict and its management. It will be of interest to human resource practitioners, advocates, legal practitioners, health professionals, conflict resolution professionals, educators, OHS&W practitioners and representatives, workplace change consultants, unions, employers, government agencies, academics and policy makers.
Keynote Speakers
Dale Bagshaw, University of South Australia, Australia.
Richard Bonneau, Los Angeles Police Department, US.
Pat Ferris, Organisational Consultant, Canada.
Eric Lee, LabourStart, UK.
Patricia Mannix McNamara, University of Limerick, Ireland
Mark Thomson, Author, Australia.
Dieter Zapf, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany.
Conference Themes
Privacy & Confidentiality - "Email is Forever"
Workplace Cultures & Managerial Fundamentalism
Workplace Grievance & Dispute Procedures
Training for Managing Conflict
Conference Registration Information:
Registration fee: $545
More information, including registration forms, can be found at the conference web site:
www.eventstrategies.com.au
E v e n t S t r a t e g i e s P t y , P O B o x 4 8 6 , U N L E Y , S O U T H A U S T R A L I A 5 0 6 1
T e l : 6 1 8 8 3 7 3 4 5 8 0 E m a i l : c o n f l i c t c o n f @ e v e n t s t r a t e g i e s . c om. a u
WHEN WORKERS UNITE - FOUNDATIONS OF TOMORROW
An exhibition of banners, badges and posters produced by trade unions, and original artworks by Jeff Rigby highlighting the strong historical role unions have played in the creation and conservation of our built environment, whilst May Day materials emphasise the workers' achievements in gaining and maintaining the rights and conditions of those who built it.
From: 1st May to 16th May 2003 at Braemar Gallery, 104 Macquarie Rd, Springwood
Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10.00am to 4.00pm
The Battle for Kellys Bush by Neale Towart
Neale Towart has written a fine account of the battle to save Kellys Bush especially given the limits of space. I write not to contest his factual presentation. My concern is the absence from the story of the more general credit owed the Labor Movement for their efforts to save the Bush. Extending the credit more widely does not discount the perceived wisdom of the centrality of the Builders' Labourers Federation in the wider struggle for a better Sydney, it does challenge their relative importance to the saving of the Bush.
In early 1971, following the re-election of the Askin Government, the bulldozers were fair poised to knock over a bushland that predated European settlement. The Battlers, the housewives of Hunters Hill and Woolwich depicted by Mr Towart, had learned no end of a lesson about the perfidy of their elected leaders. Most of them would not have questioned voting Liberal before the struggle for Kellys Busg. Bob Askin had played them off the breaks before the election with a succession of sweet-nothings, wanting them neutralised in the marginal seat of Fuller. The election over, his Government made it clear the Bush was going to be developed.
Only then did the Hunters Hill Branch of the ALP enter the picture. We had a change of leadership immediately after the NSW Election. Working with community groups was what we hoped we stood for. I contacted Betty James and soon after met with her and Kath Lehany. These details have been recorded many times. Short of a black ban by the unions, I explained, you're gone for all money. I offered to make that contact. At or about the same time Bob Pringle, President of the BLF, was making his own important contacts directly with the Battlers.
At this time the BLF was expelled from the Labor Council of NSW. They could not send a delegation to its meetings. To me the immediate, practical problem was stopping bulldozers from clearing the bush, stopping houses being built on a cleared site was a qualitatively different debate to one about preserving a pristine stand of trees and scrub. Here is where the credit deserves to be shared more widely.
The union which represented bulldozer drivers (and all the other heavy equipment employed in clearing a site) was the FEDFA (Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemens' Association). Its Secretary was Jack Cambourn. Jack Cambourn listened to the case I presented, he took his time, he offered the support of the Union. At the time Australian benefited from not one Communist Party, not two, but three - and many of the finest trade union officials, proud to call themselves communists, belonged to none of them. Jack Cambourn was such an independent.
Keith Blackwell, State Secretary of the Miscellaneous Workers' Union, wrote the letter to Labor Council which placed the matter of a black ban formally on the Council agenda. Jack Cambourn spoke to the members of the Building Trades Group which was, at the time, minus the expelled BLF. He enlisted their support.
When the letter formally came before the Labor Council at its Thursday night meeting, John Ducker moved endorsement of a black ban and spoke to the motion. He was the only speaker in a motion which passed unanimously.
At or about the same time Ralph Marsh led a Labor Council deputation to the Minister for Planning, Harry Jago. The others in the delegation were Keith Blackwell and myself. "You're going to have to do the talking at this thing," Mr Marsh told me before we went in. "You got us into this." To say I was terrified does not begin to touch my feelings. After the pleasantries, I did all the talking.
Beyond the formality of meetings, in the way of politics, the leadership of Ralph Marsh and John Ducker made it clear by back-channels to the Government this ban was the real thing and the union movement expected it to be respected. Jack Cambourn made it clear to A.V.Jennings, the development company which owned the freehold of Kellys Bush, that all worksite relations depended on respecting the ban on Kellys Bush.
The communications one suspected were every bit as important as the formal resolutions and the correspondence. They certainly were as important as the pyrotechnics which were written up in the newspapers of the time and are now the accepted version for History.
In any fair assessment of the credit for saving Kellys Bush, every possible due is owed Ralph Marsh, John Ducker and Jack Cambourn - especially Jack Cambourn. Without Jack and the FEDFA the BLF would have been fighting to stop houses on acres of red earth.
The phrase "green ban" came into the language at this time. Its etymology was a spontaneous evolution from the stock speech of one at the time who was always stating that "in order to keep the bush green we had to declare it black".
RODNEY CAVALIER
Dear Sir,
I note with cynical interest, the proposed amendments Local Government Legislation in relation to Employee Security, some of the promised amendments are nothing more that entrenched conditions which along with thousands of jobs, were given away over the past decade.
I personally have no faith in the promises of the arrogant Carr Government, a government which appears to have plagiarized as its template Mussolini�s Italy of the 1920s�.
Back to the amendments, some of those proposed are:
- Terms & conditions of employment are protected for staff at all affected councils for three years.
- No forced redundancies at all affected councils for three years.
- Lateral transfers and internal advertising extended from one to three years after an amalgamation or boundary change.
- Relocations may not occur where they cause unreasonable hardship because of the distance required to be traveled.
- Where practicable, councils in rural centers required to maintain core staff numbers indefinitely.
- Core numbers to include permanent casual positions.
- Employment protection extended to all non-senior staff - including staff on fixed term contracts, who now gain access to protection for the full three years.
- Employment protection provisions to be retrospective to 1 January 2004.
Of course these amendments are yet to be debated and passed by both houses of parliament and the question arises - "Will the Parliament, and the Minister for local government The Hon Tony Kelly roll over or will they stick to the Carr Radical Reform Agenda, or will they , like 'Il Duce', the now pathetic ex Lord Mayor of Sydney Frank Sartor, go to water?"
As for the retirement of Eric Roozendaal to the upper house, at least there still is glimmer of sanity within the corridors of power, on this issue there appears to be a chorus of "good riddance to bad rubbish".
Tom Collins
Emu Plains NSW
"Anti-war demonstrators protest in Hollywood on the first anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites), March 20, 2004. More than a million antiwar protesters poured into the streets of cities around the globe on Saturday's anniversary of the invasion of Iraq to demand the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops.
REUTERS/Jim Ruymen "
This report from Reuters shows that need for the union movement as represented by the Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition to rejoin the maintream anti-war movement in Sydney. They are cutting themselves off from connecting with the global anit-war movement.
The 5000 people who rallied in Sydney on Sat 20th March to to end the occupation of Iraq would prefer not to be cut off from their union movement.
John Morris, NSWTF Councilor
I've helped you out with articles in the past and was wondering whether you might place a link to my latest study on your website or in your newsletter. The survey is on cyberstalking and more details can be seen on the webpage
http://qnetdev.qub.ac.uk/survey/
Kind Regards,
Dr. Monica Whitty
Where once it seemed all a conservative leader had to do was elevate the threat of terror to bump themselves up a few points in polls, the time has finally come when the public wants to stop being scared.
Fast realising that it is impossible to bomb a faceless enemy into submission, our so-called statesmen are slowly beginning to be held accountable by a public unpacking the assertions of their leaders.
George W Bush has this week been battling testimony from his own counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke that he ignored the threat of Al-Quaeda as president and then swiftly contrived to make Iraq the enemy in the days following the September 11 attacks.
The feverish push to discredit Clarke shows an Administration beginning to look just a little vulnerable, not helped by the on-going Iraqi quagmire that former US weapons inspector David Kay has denounced as a 'mistake'.
A similar exercise in shooting the messenger has been occurring in Australia, where the Prime Minister has been sprung heavying his chief of police for stating the bleeding obvious - our blind following of US military adventurism has made us a greater target of terrorists.
Like Bush, Howard can read the shift in the air - for all their show of military might their citizens are not feeling safer and - like the shell-shocked Spaniards - they are starting to look for a more sophisticated response from their leaders.
But this is only part of the story. More people are beginning to look behind the rhetoric and question how government decisions are really impacting on national security.
A case in point was the Deputy Prime Minister's hairy-chested announcement last weekend of how he had discovered that Australia's ports were a potential entrance point for terrorists.
To those in the Maritime Union who have been fighting against Flag of Convenience shipping for years this came as less than a revelation.
They've been the one's trying to warn the public that stacking our coastlines with Liberian flagged ships, crewed by workers on third world wages at a time of international turmoil may not be the most prudent sort of public policy.
Unfortunately, these warnings have fallen on deaf ears - indeed the government has extended the policy so that even our domestic shipping routes are now serviced by ships and crews that we know absolutely nothing about.
So it must have come as quite a relief to the MUA that the government will review maritime security in our ships and ports.
As with so much of this ill-defined war, the stated intentions seem to be undermined by the policy of deregulation that this government has been ideologically duty-bound to pursue.
This is where conservative governments ultimately hit a brick wall on security - they spend their time breaking down global rules - on currency exchanges, trade, the environment, shipping and even global security - and then wonder why they lack the capacity to impose order.
The Social Democrats like Kerry and Latham know the only way we can move forward is to accept that unilateralism and bilateralism are flawed doctrines - that until we rebuild our global institutions we have no hope at all.
That's their appeal to an electorate that still rates terror as a key issue. And that's the security doctrine that has the neo-cons like Bush and Howard running scared.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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