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Issue No. 226 | 25 June 2004 |
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US Forces
Interview: The New Democrat Bad Boss: The Ugly Australian Unions: Free Spirits and Slaves Industrial: National Focus History: A Class Act International: Across the Ditch Economics: Home Truths Review: No Time Like Tomorrow Poetry: Silent Note
The Soapbox The Soapbox The Locker Room Politics
 Lest We Forget
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News Lobbyists Look for ALP Spine
Jim O'Neill, AMWU delegate from One Steel Pipe and Tube, Newcastle, saw six politicians in three days and said their lack of free trade nous "was a bit of a bloody eye-opener". "One politician asked me, what does NAFTA stand for?" he reported. "Another, a front bencher, said he had his own portfolios and hadn't had the chance to study the details of AUSFATA. "I reckon we can win some of these people over by telling them the truth and, from what we've been told, we've got a month, maybe six weeks to do it." O'Neill, one of 30 AMWU members who spent three days prowling the capital, came away convinced the ALP will make or break Australian manufacturing. He said the Liberals were a "lost cause", while both the Greens and Democrats had adopted positive positions. Smith based that analysis on six face-to-face interviews and final-day reports from colleagues who had confronted other legislators. He said members of the delegation would return to their workplaces and towns to turn up the heat on local ALP members and politicians. "Labor is the key to this," he said. "We have to win over politicians in Canberra and put some pressure on premiers in the eastern states who seem to be all for it." Economic modelling presented to a Senate Inquiry into the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement warned Australia would lose $47 billion and up to 195,000 jobs over 25 years. The modelling, carried out by the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR), said the deal in its present form would cede political control and kill off hopes of Australia becoming a knowledge economy. MEAA members, including actors Toni Collette and David Wenham, were launching a lobbying blitz in Canberra as manufacturing workers flew out. They, too, were concentrating on ALP MPs and senators. O'Neill said jobs were his primary motivation for taking a stand against the free trade arrangement but he, and other AMWU members, were also concerned about its likely affects on sovereignty, pharmaceutical costs and Australian culture.
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