E D I T O R I A L

Bully Busting
No one likes a bully � and if the response to Labor Council�s bullying conference is anything to go by, there are more of these irritating creatures in Australian workplaces than ever before.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: True Matilda
Former senior bureaucrat John Menadue coordinated the group of 43 calling for truth in government; and now he has bigger fish to fry.

Politics: State of Play
Are all political parties the same? Workers Online tries to cut through the jargon to compare the major parties' approaches to key policy areas.

Industrial: Capital Dilemmas
Public Private Partnerships amount to privatisation by stealth. Or do they? Jim Marr investigates.

Unions: Rhodes Scholars
Tim Brunero discovers how the Electrical Trades Union is doing its best to ease the national apprentice crisis.

National Focus: Rennovating the Lodge
Noel Hester previews how unions will be fighting the federal election - on the ground and online.

International: People Power
Over the next four years there is a real potential a major struggle will take place for workers� rights and the creation of truly democratic unions in China., writes Andrew Casey

Economics: A Bit Rich
Who Gets What? Why? And So What?, Frank Stilwell reviews the BRW's Rich List

History: Mine Shafts
It's 25 years since Nymboida passed the baton to United, writes Peter Murray

Safety: Sick Of Fighting
Former RAAF engineers could be sitting on a health time bomb, Tim Brunero reports.

Organising: Building a Wave
Community groups, unions and social movements all practice organising, wrties Tony Brown and Amanda Tattersall.

Poetry: Anger In The Bush(es)
How dare any Liberal suggest that the Prime Minister is a lying rodent! Resident bard David Peetz reports on the outrage that this slur has justifiably caused.

Review: The Battle Of Algiers
Tim Brunero writes The Battle of Algiers is a coldly objective, almost scientific anatomy of revolution.

Culture: The Word On The Street
Phil Doyle reports on how the Australian working class experience lives on through the words of the remarkable Geoff Goodfellow.

N E W S

Position Vacant for Bully

Reality Dawns on Delta

Stink Rises from Dunnies

Girl Power Slays Oil Giants

CFMEU on Highway to Hell

Super Deal for Mums

Millionaires Pay Peppercorn Wages

Hardie Fighters Go Dutch

Exporting Your Bank Details

Teachers In Crossfire

Strikers Unplug Western Power Play

Health Changes Shift Barrier

Meredith and Me

Activists What's On!

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Hail to the Metro-Sexual!
If the cultural shift required in the workplace to give greater security to working families was broadly accepted the ACTU would not be locked in an adversarial Work and Family test case argues Sharan Burrow.

Politics
The Westie Wing
In his latest missive from Macquarie Street our resident Parliamentary commentator, Ian West, walks us through issues around the PBS.

Postcard
How Bush Lost His Wings
Tracking the National Guard Career of the Fatuous Flyboy from New Haven, Jeffrey St Clair.

The Locker Room
The Name of the Game
Phil Doyle wonders whether we are barracking for the sponsor or the team.

Postcard
Women to Women
APHEDA-Union Aid Abroad is working to create opportunities for Palestinian women living in Lebanese refugee camps.

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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Greens Under The Bed

*****

The wild-eyed friend of the polo set, John Anderson, launched himself with a gusto into the Tool Shed after a remarkable week on the campaign trail.

They say that the last refuge of a scoundrel is patriotism, a fact that wasn't lost on Anderson who draped himself in the flag this week with dire warnings that the evil Bolsheviks from the ALP would replace the Australian flag with the Southern Cross made famous at Eureka.

This, of course, is why the National Party (which is neither) that Anderson leads so proudly defends the ideals that helped keep China British.

Speaking of China: in a nostalgic throwback to the fifties, the increasingly erratic Anderson accused the Greens of being little more than communists.

Green's leader Bob Brown's retorted, quite correctly, that earlier this year Anderson was queuing up to do business with the largest communist country on the planet, while the only people shut out of the show were those 'communistic' Greens.

Prior to that our Tool Of the week made a right goose of himself by taking on one of the most popular rural politicians in Australia, the very-independent Peter Andren, Member for the central-western seat of Calare.

Anderson showed his respect for rural voters by calling them 'ignorant' for supporting Andren, who he tried to portray as some kind of Labor stooge.

Of course ignorance is a subject near and dear to Anderson's heart. After all, he is the guy running around saying that the Free Trade Agreement is great for rural folk because it means that their jobs and services will disappear. It has a subtle logic.

The village idiot of the coalition enamoured himself with the bush by suggesting that country people love a two tiered health system. Well, it certainly saves them the trouble of having to have adequate medical or dental care, eh John?

This is the sort of thing that helps Anderson deflect people away from trivialities like petrol hitting $1.50 a litre in his electorate, why the telephone system in Coonamble is stuck in the 19th century, why he wouldn't give an export license to the Mudgee Abattoir leaving hundreds in his electorate facing unemployment, or why he wouldn't have a clue what road conditions are like for his constituents are because the fool flies everywhere.

No doubt Anderson's vision of egalitarianism is a Piper Cherokee in every garage.

His constituents will no doubt be looking forward to hearing why bombing the crap out of one of our largest customers has been so good for our wheat exporters.

Our Tool Of The Week is a shining example of why the National Party has dissolved into an irrelevant rabble.

Keep it up John, you're the best advertisement your opposition could ever hope for.

Show Us YOUR TOOL! The most inspiring interpretation of this week's tool get's a souvenir edition of Ship of Tools. Deface the Tool of the Week, click the button above to post your artwork, fill out the form and send your entry in and we'll post the winners next week in the Tool of the Week Gallery.

Ship of Tools - All the tools in one shed!

Nominate a Tool!

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005