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Last Year’s Model
Economists keep telling us things have never been better, all the economic indicators say so. Which sparks the obvious question: why are so many of us feeling so low?
Interview: The New Democrat
Canadian activist Judy Rebick explains how she's using lessons from Brazil to rebuild the labour movement.
Bad Boss: The Ugly Australian
Prime Minister John Howard is in California spruiking the "merits" of this month’s Bad Boss nomination …
Unions: Free Spirits and Slaves
International capital demands guest labour – legal or illegal – as a way of beating down wages and conditions and, as Jim Marr discovers, the Australian Government seems happy to oblige.
Industrial: National Focus
Noel Hester reports on another workplace death (we-will-not-RIP NOHSC), heartburn for the Canberra consensus and all the action from around the states in our national wrap.
History: A Class Act
The problem of forgetting the primacy of class in favour of other ideas of community is highlighted in a new book, writes Neale Towart
International: Across the Ditch
NZ Nurses Union leader, Laila Harré, is in Sydney this week, comparing notes with the Australian Nurses Federation and seeking transTasman support for New Zealand’s highest profile industrial campaign.
Economics: Home Truths
Sydney University's Frank Stilwell argues that tax policy is driving the housing boom.
Review: No Time Like Tomorrow
The Day After Tomorrow is one part Grim Reaper of the environmental movement and two parts fictitious fable dramatically window dressed with extreme special effects, writes Tara de Boehmler.
Poetry: Silent Note
Resident Bard David Peetz uncovers the current public service motto – "Don't tell the Minister!".
 Trade Deal a $47 Billion Dud
Ground Staff Spread Fashion Wings
Ghan Raises Trans-Continental Stink
Union Busters Bank on Labor
Witnesses Face Casual Duress
Rail Workers Cop ‘Beer Nannies’
Sun Shines on Green Bans
Big Business Plan to Cripple Compo
Money Can’t Buy Me Love
Federal Election in Doubt
Safety Defects Plague Adelaide
Police Investigate Assault Claim
Activists What’s On!
The Soapbox
The Pursuit of Happiness Part I
The Australia Institute's Clive Hamilton questions the assumptions underlying a society that defines happiness in dollar terms. The Soapbox
The Pursuit of Happiness Part II
Clive Hamilton concludes his analysis, looking at how more and more Australians are pulling back from a marketplace that is no longer providing the goods. The Locker Room
Sack ‘Em All!
Phil Doyle puts his job on the line, but doesn’t everyone these days? Politics
The Westie Wing
The NSW Government has an agenda on the table but the test is finding innovative ways to finance it, writes Ian West
Liberal Laugh
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Evatt Foundation
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News
Safety Defects Plague Adelaide
Fifty nine prohibition notices have been slapped on Adelaide building sites while Tony Abbott’s multi-million dollar Taskforce "sat on its hands".
The rectification orders were handed out in the space of four weeks by Workplace Services Inspectors carrying out a blitz on construction safety.
CFMEU secretary, Martin O'Malley, said Workplace Services attention to the issue was "not before time" but still contrasted with the Taskforce which "sat on its hands" when it came to worker safety.
He said the latest Taskforce safety intervention in Adelaide had seen three officers dispatched to the premises of a company working on the federal law courts building.
They had gone there, O'Malley said, to make certain workers hadn't been paid for sitting in the sheds for half an hour while a safety concern was addressed.
"The Taskforce hasn't done one thing to make Adelaide a safer place for building workers," O'Malley said.
"All they are is a nuisance. They don't contribute to the wellbeing of the industry or anyone in it.
"Frankly, our people now treat them with the disrespect they deserve. They are either failed policemen or rejected parking wardens who want to cling onto a bit of power."
O'Malley made his assessment as controversial Taskforce boss, Nigel Hadgkiss, was fending off allegations of corruption and improper use of bugging devices, levelled against his officers at Senate hearings in Canberra.
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Issue 223 contents
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