*****
For nearly two years our Tool of the Week has been running around like some demented loon in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there.
Now he's finally handed down what is supposed to be a report, although what it is a report into is hard to say.
With a budget of nearly ten million and a staff of 47 you'd think they'd be able to come up with one single shred of evidence for the public record, but no. This farce of a report, which could have been written in half an hour by a staff of one, appears to be the work of a rather fevered imagination.
Maybe Hadgkiss is on the same medication as his boss, Kev the Rev. Whichever way, his report is an embarrassment for all concerned.
"Too many Australians trying to earn an honest living have become victims of the industries blatant disregard for the law," says a breathless Nigel.
Yes they are mate, they're called workers, subcontractors, the thousands of members of the industry that are ripped off, underpaid, injured, stood over by screaming bosses, humiliated, forced to work in shit and worse and more.
But it'll be a cold day in hell before you manage to get Nigel no-friends to give a fat rat's clacker about working people. After all, in his world workers are expendable. For Nigel safety is not an issue.
Neither is workers money being stolen by employers.
There are some glaring omissions in Hadgkiss's report. He doesn't mention how the Task Force uses secret tape recordings and operates a slush fund in order to gather this spurious evidence against building unions.
Hadgkiss makes some amazing remarks about "criminal" behaviour in the industry, but he's not referring to the murderers that sacrifice young lives in the workplace. In fact, it's hard to see who he is referring to at all, as most of his "information" comes from an anonymous 1800 number. You'd hate to see someone hang on Hadgkiss's brief.
Not one of the five areas of concern raised by Nigel through his "back door whisper" sources concerned safety.
His report claims that air-conditioning in worksheds Tasmania is a "minor OHS issue". Well, maybe we'll turn the air-con in the Tool Shed off and dump him in the middle of a Taswegian winter and see how he enjoys sitting in a fridge.
It's typical that mercenaries like Hadgkiss see safety only as something to squeal about when it costs the boss money. When workers lose their money Hadgkiss conveniently handballs it off to another department or a state agency, which shows how fair dinkum Nigel is about enforcing a "rule of law". It's one rule for the boss and another rule for the workers. The whole issue of underpaid entitlements was worth only half a page in a 22-page report.
Hadgkiss's "report" is full of glossy unattributed quotes. Despite $9 million spent he can't name names about any of these allegations, apart from a few pathetic indirect references to John Sutton.
Well, Nigel, here's some names for you to consider:
Joel Exner
Dean McGoldrick
R. Ramakrishna
Kow Chey
They are all workers who have died this year on NSW building sites. The first three are all teenagers. The last two were working illegally.
Nigel Hadgkiss can make-believe all he wants in the Tool Shed this week while he protects the murderers in the industry, all he's done so far is make Inspector Clouseau look like Perry Mason.
AMWU members at electronics giant, HPM, are calling on community supporters to help them extract living wages from Peter Simon, estimated by BRW to be worth $170 million.
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They have asked Australians to write to HPM backing their "social justice" agenda after the company rejected every claim advanced on behalf of 400 process workers and tradesman in enterprise bargaining negotiations, last week.
The AMWU says Simon's company has put China on the bargaining table in a bid to frighten the predominantly female workforce off fighting for a better deal.
Secretary, Paul Bastian, says the federal government laid the groundwork for HPM's resistance by ignoring basic labour standards in its push for free trade agreements.
"This company says it will source product from China. It has held meetings and sent out circulars canvassing that option if these people improve their wages and conditions," Bastian said.
"It's an insult to low paid workers who are proud of HPM's success and committed to retaining manufacturing jobs in Australia. But it is the natural result of government policies that pay no attention to core labour standards."
Thus far, HPM has ducked union requests for commitments to continue production in Australia.
The hourly rate for most process workers at HPM's Waterloo, Alexandria and Roseberry plants is $13.18 an hour and organiser Martin Cartwright says that is well below the industry standard.
"I can name two other companies in the same area and the same industry where the base rate is at least $2 higher," Cartwright says. "Eighty three percent of the HPM workforce is female yet there isn't a single provision in the current agreement that provides for the special needs of women workers.
"This isn't just a wage issue, it is a social justice issue."
Cartwright said the majority of the workforce had English as a second language but its commitment to the company was evidenced by its nine-strong bargaining committee, the shortest serving of whom has been with HPM for 15 years.
The AMWU is preparing information packs, as well as postcards and letters that supporters will be urged to send to workers and/or the company.
Rank and file workers linked arms with Aboriginal leaders and community members to protest the newly-elected Taree City Council's decision to lower the Indigenous flag.
Members of the Independent Education Union took to the street with more than 150 students from St Clare's High School and St Joseph's Primary School.
St Clare's High School IEU member Phil Chalmers said despite the Council's refusal to reinstate the flag, the event was a win for reconciliation.
It culminated with Biripi-Worimi elder Patricia David-Hurst (AKA Aunty Pat) releasing 10 doves of peace outside the chambers before the marchers attended a sausage sizzle hosted by the Biripi-Worimi people.
"The whole event was really a push for reconciliation and it is not over yet," Chalmers said. "Our peaceful protest had a lot of support which is ongoing."
The Newcastle Branch of the Maritime Workers Union also sent a message to the protesters throwing their support behind the action.
Race relations have a vexed history in Taree which was the site for one of the 1960's freedom rides that sought to end racial discrimination in rural NSW.
The Task Force chose last Wednesday, just six days before a Senate Committee is due to release its report on the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill, to advertise a service to workers and CFMEU spokesman, Dave Noonan, smelled a rat.
"These advertisements are run under the banner of the task force but merely divert people with a complaint to Wage Line - a service already offered by the Department of Workplace Relations," Noonan said.
"It's an admission by the task force's own marketing department that it refuses to prosecute employers who rip off workers.
"The task force claims to have zero tolerance for breaches of the law, but will not prosecute bosses who steal workers' money."
Noonan said in the year and a half the task force had operated, under Hadgkiss, it had not prosecuted a single employer, anywhere in Australia, for short changing a building worker.
He contrasted that with evidence placed before the Building Industry Royal Commission that showed the CFMEU, alone, had won more than $30 million for underpaid members over a six-year period.
Noonan said the timing of task force ads, run in metropolitan newspapers, was "no coincidence".
"The task force has been embarrassed by revelations in the Senate Committee," Noonan said. "The ads are a bit of political spin just days before the committee report becomes public."
Hadgkiss told the Senate Inquiry he wanted greater powers which would flow from the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill.
However, the inquiry heard allegations that task force members were already paying apprentices for information, and covertly recording conversations on building sites.
Hadgkiss told the inquiry it was legal for "anybody" to secretly record conversations in WA.
The issue of covert recordings comes a year after former undercover policeman, Michael Kennedy, told a lower house inquiry that when Hadgkiss had been senior investigator for the Wood Royal Commission, it had routinely engaged in illegal communications intercepts.
Kennedy told the Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs he had been fitted up with the help of covert recordings for falsely accusing police officers of corruption.
"I was convicted because I pleaded guilty. I was absolutely done over," Kennedy said.
"Those people from the Joint Drug Task Force were all exposed in the Wood royal Commission as being corrupt. The man who charged me was Nigel Hadgkiss. The man who revealed them years later was Nigel Hadgkiss."
Kennedy said he had lodged formal complaints about the "criminal and Illegal activiities of Hadgkiss" and others, at the time. Hadgkiss was subsequently exhonerated of wrong doing but Kennedy alleged evidence and witnesses he put forward were never tested or interviewed.
Freemantle Ports chief executive, Kerry Sanderson, was given the OAU as Perth workers lined up a meeting with the state government to discuss her latest decision � to send skilled fabrication work for a ship unloader to Poland.
"We can only assume she has been recognised for her services to Polish industry," AMWU state secretary, Jock Ferguson said.
"During her 13 year reign, manufacturing work at the Port Authority has dwindled to a bare minimum. She is a jobs vandal whose tenure has brought disaster to local workers and their families."
Sanderson has resisted union pressure and state government intervention to allocate more than 51 percent of Port Authority work to WA companies. Currently, the manufacturing figure stands at 32 percent with Polish competitors getting twice that amount.
The ship unloader argument has been swirling since Sanderson took the Polish option 12 months ago.
Ferguson says it is both a threat to livelihoods and the manufacturing skill base on which WA hopes to thrive.
"It is a multi-million dollar contract that should have gone to a WA operation. We have the capacity, expertise and infrastructure to do the work and want to make sure that remains the situation," Ferguson said.
"Our people are scratching their heads about how this sort of attitude qualifies someone for an Order of Australia medal."
Thousands signed off on their four-year workload work value campaign by voting up the deal struck between the PSA and state government at a video conference linking 170 venues around the state, last week.
PSA assistant secretary, Steve Turner, said the key to the agreement was government's acknowledgment the extra money would be "fully funded", rather than being carved out of the existing education spend.
School assistants and senior school assistants had been involved in a four-year campaign of rolling bans to highlight their work value argument. Last week's agreement is seen as the first step in implementing the findings of a joint union-departmental review on workloads and remuneration.
The Department of Education and Training has agreed to special increases of between 5.7 and 7.4 percent for assistants employed in administration, science labs, libraries and home economics, technology and applied science classrooms.
The new rates will be effective from July 1and workers will still qualify for increases won in the Crown Employees Salaries Award which expires on June 30.
Turner congratulated NSW deputy premier, Andrew Refshauge, and Treasury for "recognising workload issues, and severe underpayment and being prepared to something about them".
Workers at one of the country�s biggest private bus operators stopped work last week over its refusal to guarantee their money.
Individual drivers, with 20-30 years service, have up to $300 000 dollars worth of entitlements each on the line, and have flagged the likelihood of further action.
"The industry has a history of our members getting screwed over their entitlements," says Scott Connolly of the Transport Workers Union (TWU), who pointed to the collapse of North Coast-based King Brothers, earlier this year.
The TWU has given Westbus a number of options, including taking out a bank guarantee, insurance, or setting the money aside in trust.
Connolly said TWU members at Westbus were considering all options to protect their entitlements.
Westbus, which operates in Sydney's west, is moving to a new corporate structure in the wake of the NSW Government's decision to shake up the industry by rationalising 82 contracts down to 13, 10 of which will be in metropolitan Sydney.
Westbus is in line to pick up one of the lead contracts, providing subsidies for private bus companies servicing western Sydney.
Drivers are calling on the government to incorporate entitlement protection in the new contracts.
Safety Scare On Retreads
Westbus has also come under fire for using retread tyres, something drivers say is placing them and passengers at risk. The issue was highlighted as late as last week when a bus from the Penrith Depot suffered a blowout.
"Every Westbus uses retreads,' says Connolly. "Western Sydney commuters shouldn't have to put up with second rate equipment."
"Westbus says that [the retreads] meet requirements as a minimum, but when you have 40-50 schoolkids on a bus, and our members, they don't deserve the bare minimum."
"When it comes to safety, second best is not an option."
Renowned campaigner for children's rights, Kailash Satyarthi, is recovering from head injuries and a broken leg in a Lucknow hospital after being set on by owners of the Great Roman Circus.
The Brussels-based union international has lodged a formal complaint with the new Indian Government over the attack which occurred when Satyarthi went to the circus in Colonelganj, Uttar Pradesh, to investigate complaints lodged by 11 parents.
He was accompanied by his son, a photo journalist and four of the parents.
Indian reports claim that district authorities "connived with the circus owner" who threatened to "eliminate" Satyarthi who heads-up the Global March Against Child Labour.
The attack came one month after the Global March-organised Children's World Congress on Child Labour won support from government and non-government organisations in Florence, Italy.
ICFTU general secretary, Guy Ryder, pointed out in a letter that India, as a member of the ILO, had an "obligation to uphold fundamental principles, including the abolition of forced labour and elimination of child labour.'
Hospital authorities reported Satyarthi's condition as "stable".
The United Fire Fighters Union of South Australia says venues in Hindley St and the East End District, popular with young revellers, have fallen victim to a lack of resources that is also preventing the Metropolitan Fire Service move with the city's urban sprawl.
"A modern fire service takes a preventative approach as well as a responsive approach," says Phil Harrison from the UFFUSA. "It's always too late when you need to take these issues to the coroner."
The union says inspections need to be increased to ensure premises comply with licensing laws and the state's Fire Services Act.
South Australia's opposition emergency services spokesperson backed the union's call, telling Budget Estimates hearings last week that just over half the 750 inspections planned for 2003-04 were actually carried out because of a lack of resources.
The UFFUSA says there was no increase in resources for firefighters in South Australia's recent budget.
Harrison says that the Metropolitan Fire Service is also struggling to keep up with Adelaide's urban sprawl, affecting response times in new outlying suburbs.
Some new areas are covered by the SA Country Fire Authority, meaning response times can vary from four minutes in one area to 14 minutes a few streets away.
A campaign to bombard a job slashing corporation with protest emails has been launched in Orange.
Unions want to stop Electrolux cutting over 200 jobs at its Orange Fridge and Freezer plant and another 100 from its Adelaide site.
Since 1998 the global whitegoods manufacturer has slashed 24,000 jobs worldwide and moved many of its operations from first to third world countries to save labour costs.
The Chef Ovens factory in Brunswick, Melbourne was shut in 2000 leaving 520 workers without jobs.
Last year Electrolux had an overall revenue of $15.2 billion.
AWU State Secretary Russ Collison called on the federal government to step in and deliver a rescue package similar to the one granted to Adelaide following the Mitsubishi decision.
The AWU campaign urges people to send protests to Swedish and Australian Electrolux managements.
Visit the Electrolux campaign at:
http://www.awu.net.au/national/campaigns/electrolux/protest_form.html
Short staffing came to a head on June 9 when a passenger on the Illawarra line suffered a heart attack, forcing the train to stop at Austinmer. An untrained RailCorp Customer Service Assistant was the only staff member on duty to deal with hundreds of passengers as well as the heart attack victim.
The CSA was filling in as RailCorp had refused overtime so a qualified station manager could be on duty at Austinmer.
"This is not the CSA's fault," says Phil Kessey from the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU).
Railcorp has placed a restriction on overtime and, according to the RTBU, is not recruiting at a correct level, with more people leaving the rail service than coming in.
"The Minister and the Premier have been running around for four years saying that the system relied on overtime, now they're saying it's a problem," says Kessey.
The RTBU has slammed RailCorp's excuse that fatigue is behind the decision not to award overtime.
The RTBU claims that it is all about cost cutting and running down services.
"We want people to understand that they are being made accustomed to having less staff on stations," says Kessey.
Rail workers have given the Carr government two weeks to address the issue or face stop work meetings that will discuss 24-hour stoppages.
Train station staff are also writing to parents expressing concern over the safety of schoolchildren on unstaffed stations, as well as circulating petitions calling on the government to act over the issue.
Drivers Idle After "Questionable" Test
Meanwhile train drivers who have undergone testing that has been labelled as "questionable" by experts are sitting idle despite government and RailCorp claims of a driver "shortage".
"The regime of psychometric testing is not an accepted method of testing," says the RTBU's Kessey. "We have drivers that are qualified and re-certified that are sitting on the side because of this testing that has been questioned by psychometric experts."
Breadwinners around Australia will soon have the right to 10 days annual carers leave under a groundbreaking agreement being finalised by union and employer groups.
Existing 'sick leave' entitlements are set to be converted to a broader category of 'personal leave', to be used for family emergencies or caring for a sick spouse, child or parent.
The current minimum entitlement is five days.
ACTU President Sharon Burrows said the proposal recognises the community has to find better ways to balance the demands of work and family life.
Sydney's Daily Telegraph has tagged the likely agreement 'one of the biggest wins for workers in recent years.'
The agreement comes afer a recent Newspoll survey which found working parents wanted family flexible working hours more than extra money from Government.
NSW PSA assistant secretary, Steve Turner, calls Michael Egan's debt reduction campaign "loony economics" and warns workers will react if another round of jobs cuts is triggered by this week's budget.
"We know for a fact that some of the debt this government is paying off carries interest rates as low as one percent," Turner said. "To make a priority of retiring that sort of debt is loony economics.
"Why would anyone want to pay off debt they are only being charged one percent for? It is not an economic argument, it is a political one about this government's priorities.
"Debt is not bad as long as it is raised for productive purposes. Ask just about any family in NSW."
Turner said workers and their unions had to persuade Labor that public services - power, water, buses, trains, hospitals etc - were "essential" and that employees were more than just another cost to be factored into budget arithmetic.
Labor Council affiliates will gather in Sydney two days after the budget to plan a campaign against cuts to public sector services and jobs.
Treasurer Egan marked around 3000 jobs for the knife in a mini budget delivered earlier this year. His fiscal statements are framed by a timetable contained in his Debt Elimination Act.
Vikas Garg, employed at David Jones by a contractor, also told Workers Online he had been denied super payments and workmates had had to strike before being paid at all.
The Cleaning Industry Award provides for allowances between $2.01 and $2.68 a shift for cleaning toilets.
Garg's revelations came after cleaners at Woolworths Town Hall store reported they earned just $10 an hour - almost six dollars below the going rate.
The LHMU is targeting Woolworths Town Hall where "casual" cleaners, employed by a contractor, are denied annual holidays, sick pay and holiday pay.
The union also has Occupational Health and Safety concerns at the workplace.
Cleaners and their supporters rallied outside the store last week handing out mock 'dirty money' and chanting 'No Cash - No Way - Woolworths You've Got To Pay!'
The rally was held as part of International Cleaners Day.
The call comes as a new report reveals that almost half of all young workers in the fast food industry have suffered an injury or illness and that children as young as eight are known to work for families engaged as outworkers in Australia's clothing industry.
Research shows that a child is killed on an average of one every 13 days -- and 575 are injured and require treatment in a hospital. A significant proportion of these deaths and injuries occur while the child is working.
"The use of child labour on farms varies from offensive slavery to something trivial and simple, such as getting a child to bring in firewood," says Yossi Berger from the Australian Workers Union, who represent workers in the rural sector.
"On one end of the scale you get outright mongrels, who are a minority, to average people under pressure using whatever pairs of hands they can," says Berger.
Berger says that eight out of ten farms he conducts inspections of have life threatening risks, often associated with the mobile nature of the work and the use of chemicals, and that the use of child labour can increase those risks tenfold.
"While the exploitation of children is not as widespread here as overseas, more action is still needed to protect children and young people in Australian workplaces," says ACTU President Sharan Burrow
A recent Jobwatch survey of young people working in fast food outlets in Australia showed almost half had suffered an injury or illness at the workplace and nearly one third said they had inadequate health and safety supervision.
WorkCover NSW statistics show that, at least four children under 18 are killed, 377 suffer permanent injury, and more than 1300 suffer temporary disabilities each year from work in NSW alone.
Almost a quarter of a billion children are child labourers world-wide with around 22,000 children die in work-related incidents Every year.
The ACTU has accused the Australian Government of dragging its heels on ratifying important international conventions that ban the worst forms of child labour and require a minimum age for child labour.
Shattering Silences report & Avant Burma postcard
Saturday 19 June 2004
Women of Burma Day
&
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi�s birthday
12pm � 3.30pm
University of New South Wales
Bio Med lecture theatre D
Biological Sciences building (accessed via Gate 9, High St.)
(For further information see map on www.beijingplus10.org www.beijingplus10.org Map ref.E27)
Held in conjunction with Women Taking Action Locally and Globally (Beijing plus10) & the Centre for Refugee Research, UNSW; Union Aid Abroad � APHEDA; AIDWATCH.
Party Girls Chalk Up a Decade
Emily's List and ACTU Member Connect presents the 35% Celebration Show!
It has been 10 years since the ALP National Conference at which a rule change was introduced which required that by the year 2002 a minimum of 35% of ALP candidates for winnable seats would be women.
Emily's List invites you and your friends to this special show to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Affirmative Action rule and the success of our 152 women Labor MPs.
Saturday 19 June, 8.00pm
Merlyn Theatre
CUB Malthouse Theatre
112 Sturt Street, Southbank
Bar/Caf� facilities available
The evening will be hosted by MC Tracy Bartram and will feature:
Jenny Macklin, Federal Deputy Leader of the Opposition and MHR for Jaga Jaga
Julia Gillard, Federal Shadow Minister for Health and MHR for Lalor
Nicola Roxon, Federal Shadow Attorney General and Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on the Status of Women, MHR for Gellibrand
Joan Kirner, Co-Convenor of Emily's List Australia
Sharan Burrow, ACTU President
Linda Burney, MP first Aboriginal woman elected to NSW Parliament
Candy Broad, Victorian State Minister for Local Government and Housing; and
Catherine King, MHR for Ballarat
Plus! Be entertained by an all-star line up:
Comedians - Dave Grant and Jodie J Hill
Musicians - Rebecca Barnard, Shane O'Mara and Kelli Howell
Tickets: $45 ($35 concession) including complimentary glass of wine
To register please click on the link below:
http://actu.labor.net.au/memberservices/news/1086851387_5112.html
World Refugee Day
Sunday 20 June,
Rally commences 1pm, Hyde Park North, Sydney
In 2000, a special United Nations General Assembly Resolution was
unanimously adopted which designated 20 June every year as World Refugee
Day.
The purpose of World Refugee Day is to draw attention to the plight of
refugees, celebrate their courage and resilience, and provide an opportunity
to recognise the contribution which refugees make to the countries that host
them.
In Australia, World Refugee Day is a time for families, individuals and
organisations to gather at a number of events being held throughout the
country to acknowledge the difficulties faced and courage shown by refugees.
It is also a time to celebrate our cultural diversity.
There are still more than 1000 people in detention in Australia, Nauru and
Manus Island and over 100 are children. There are also about 8,500 Temporary
Protection Visa holders who live lives of great uncertainty.
A rally to mark World Refugee Day will be held at 1pm on Sunday 20th June in
Hyde Park. Organisers intend to use the rally to keep pressure on the
Federal Government to introduce a more compassionate and dignified approach to refugees. We hope to see a big presence of ALP members and trade unionists on Sunday!
Speakers include Tanya Plibersek, 3 ex-detainee high school students, Zachary Steel, Riz Wakil (Afghan refugee), Ann Coombs (RAR), Tony Kevin (SIEV-X whistleblower), Kerrie Nettle, Hai-Van Nguyen (Vietnamese refugee), Aden Ridgeway.
Fundraiser for the Cuban Children's Fund
Merdith Burgmann, President of the NSW Legislative Council will host a fundraising reception for the fund as follows:
Friday July 9th, 5.30 pm - 7 pm
At the President's Dining Room, Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney.
$30 donation, plus surprise raffles.
RSVP by 2nd July
To Claudine Lyons
Ph 9230 2548
The special guest will be: Anthony Albanese, MHR (Shadow Minister for Employment Services and Training). Anthony was a member of the recent parliamentary delegation to Cuba. During the visit he was able to visit the Wm Soler Hospital, the focus of the Cuban Children's fund's efforts. Anthony will talk about the progress of the hospital and his observations of Cuba generally.
We hope that you can support this event by coming along - whether or not you are a member of the Fund Association, you are very welcome.
In recent months the Fund Committee has been able to assist the further development of the Wm Soler Hospital with donations that have enabled the purchase of intensive care beds for small children and paediatric anaesthetic equipment.
This event is also important in the light of George Bush' recent escalation of pressure on the Cuban people and their economy.
If you would like to join the fund please return this email and I will send you the necessary information.
The fund is assisted and administrated through APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad, the ACTU's aid and solidarity organisation.
hoWARd the arseLIcKEr
-Written by D.B.Valentine - Directed by Mark Cleary
-The Edge Theatre - Cnr King & Bray Sts Newtown
-Advance previews Wed 4th & Thurs 5th August.
-Opening Friday 6th Aug to Sunday 29th Aug.
-Time: 7.30pm (tbc)
-Bookings 9645 1611 or www.mca-tix.com
-More info go to: www.newtowntheatre.com.au click on "The Edge"
Once again you have hit the nail fair and square on the head. When people take 'just a moment'of our time they steal our lives. Flexibility is a bosses term; workers need to be very wary of flexible working agreements. You'll be flexed until you break!
Noelene Milliken
What we know is that James Hardies, to divest itself of long-term liabilities incurred through knowingly selling a product that causes slow and painful death, removed itself from the jurisdiction those abuses occurred in.
With the support of lawyers and actuaries who put their own cash flow ahead of the public interest, Hardies shifted its liability to a trust holding inadequate and finite funds, while moving itself to Holland to start a fresh life with a fresh name.
It's left the thousands of Australians who will contract the deadly mesothelioma over the coming years with no safety net; because there is simply no one who is legally responsible.
And the sting in the tail - the current judicial inquiry which will lead to outrage but probably very little practical change in the situation - was predicted in the contingency plans.
It is the corporate equivalent of a hit and run accident - though it is unfair to single Hardies out alone. This is behaviour that occurs at every level of the economy.
We have building sub-contractors who go bust leaving their workers unpaid entitlements only to rise like a phoenix in a different corporate guise the following week.
We have the Patricks model, where a strong company is dissected by lawyers into a series of smaller units where assets are separated from liabilities - and the workers are housed with the liabilities.
And we have the global outrage of flag of convenience shipping, where vessels register themselves under the flags of companies by countries with minimal tax and labour lawyers, transforming them into floating little third worlds.
In an era of globalisation, where our leaders are prepared to hand over our sovereignty to the market in order to deliver us economic growth, is it asking to much to expect a little reciprocity.
In a global world, global business rules must apply - a company can not just change nationality and free itself of responsibilities.
Such ideas may be out of vogue in an era where multilateral solutions are being trumped by one on one deals like the US Free Trade Agreement; but the problem with bilateralism is the nations outside the agreement.
To fail to look at the globe that defines the new world economy is merely to invite a race to the bottom, where the James Hardies of this world can claim they were acting within the law and in the interests of their shareholders.
It's enough to make you reach for the oxygen.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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