*****
Since the days of Macarthur there has been a bunyip aristocracy in Australia that has been offended by the idea of having to pay to acquire labour. Democracy has never sat comfortably with them.
One of the best exponents of the right to pay workers in salt is the New Right's very own nutty professor Des Moore.
Moore likes to pontificate on how all this nonsense about the power of bosses is overrated, and that workers and employers actually negotiate on equal terms.
Yes, I think it's obvious that when Solomon Lew and a sixteen-year-old trolley collector sit down to negotiate they are both on equal standing.
No one with a $400 000 mortgage is bothered at all by the threat of the sack.
They all come to the bargaining table as equals.
And pigs fly over head.
Maybe because Moore spends his days kissing the posteriors of people he obviously feels are his superiors he is missing what is going on in the real world.
Certainly Moore thinks he is in the real world, but that's probably just the average sort of delusion we can expect from this bomb thrower for the New Right.
Our Tool Of the Week believes that managers should be allowed to manage - even when Blind Freddy can see that there are managers in Australia that can barely manage to get their pants on the right way around, let alone provide an intelligent solution to the day to day problems we all face at work.
Problems that are created by geniuses like Moore who wouldn't know what a days work was if it fell on them.
Moore, with a straight face, is worried by the "takeover by those who perceived social interventionism as a source of power and employment for themselves".
Well he might want to look into the mirror if he wants to get to the bottom of that problem.
He seems to find it difficult to grasp the idea that caring about your fellow human beings, especially the ones you work with, is an intrinsic Australian value. But why should we be surprised, after all Des Moore is a big picture man.
Apart from the fact that Moore has no mates - even Michael Egan reckons he's no mate of Dessie baby, which is saying something.
Des Moore is a mindless hypocrite who supports bosses rights to kill teenagers.
As one ex-PM put it: "When Des Moore retired his chief complaints were the size of the deficit and the politicisation of the public service. I can only be thankful that his views and actions during the term of my government were in no way political and now, in joining the Victorian Institute of Public Affairs, he has maintained a tradition of political neutrality."
In the four months he spent in Washington prior to his resignation from Treasury he spent $30 000 of taxpayers dosh to kiss butt with whacko US Wank Tank the Heritage Foundation
He returned with no-brainers such as: "If we had the same proportion of ourworking age population employed as the United States, we'd have another 900,000 employed."
Would Des like to have the same percentage of working age Australians in gaol as they have in the United states?
Probably, especially if they were union members.
For Des would like to have his fellow Australians on $2 an hour and living off tips.
Why doesn't he just advocate bringing back slavery and be done with it.
Des, who is also an expert on Middle Eastern politics - apparently bombing Arabs to the shitter is the best way to get them to adopt "sensible" economic policies - doubles as something of a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan.
To that end the Tool Shed Choir is providing Des with a Libretto for the week, to the tune of 'I am the very model of modern major-general'.
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
The information that I use is really quite incredible
For that which isn't twisted, is really inneffectual
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
I've never had a job that's ever been respectable
I'm an intellectual whore with ideas most hypocritical
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
Murdoch trots me out when the right get undependable
I can justify the completely unjustifiable
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
I've never had a thought that my boss found unpalatable
I haven't got a clue I haven't got a principle
I am the very model of a right wing intellectual
Patrick Corporation boss, Chris Corrigan, is one of 20 New Right activists urging the federal government to use its control of both houses to eliminate collective workplace organisation.
This week his company was fingered by ACCC chief, Graeme Samuel, for operating a "cosy duopoly" with P&O that delivered higher returns than those enjoyed by other Australian businesses.
"According to the stevedores' own figures they are enjoying returns on
assets of around 27.8 per cent EBIT. These are well above international
rates of return for comparable industries of seven to 17 per cent. These
rates of return are a direct result of low levels of investment in expanded
capacity," Samuels said.
"A figure such as 27.8 per cent is something about which most Australian
companies can only dream."
Meanwhile, the NSW IRC has reserved its decision on penalties against the company after it was found guilty on five separate OH&S charges.
Observers suggest evidence of the offending was so strong that the Commission could post million dollar sanctions over the use of single-operator straddle cranes.
A number of operators sustained long-term impairments after prolonged use of the equipment at the centre of the Federal Government's 1998 War on the Wharves.
In that dispute, the Howard Government sided with Corrigan and National Farmers Federation attempts to drive unionised labour off the Australian waterfront.
Mercenaries from the armed forces were secretly trained in Dubai to take over the jobs of MUA members.
Attempts to prove a conspiracy between Patrick and the Howard Government, in court, have been repeatedly thwarted by Government's refusal to produce sought documents.
On the very day that Corrigan and his 19 associates delivered their demands to the Prime Minister, his company backed off moves to strip conditions from low paid vehicle workers at its Autocare division.
Patrick dropped its insistence on being ring-fenced from award variations after 30 Ingleburn employees marched on a board meeting in Sydney.
Corrigan and his associates are urging the government to go beyond the seven IR bills defeated by the last Senate, including legitimising unfair sackings.
They want an inquiry to consider proposals to make it easier for collective contracts to be replaced by individual contracts; unions to be stripped of remaining legal rights; welfare payments eliminated as a "deterrent to job seeking"; the possibility of repudiating international labour standards signed by Australia.
Corrigan has been joined in promoting the wish-list by high profile anti-worker activists, many with connections to the extreme right wing HR Nicholls Society.
Other signatories include, WA building products magnate, Len Buckeridge, who was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond after assaulting a union member.
Buckeridge was last year's winner of the Charles Copeman medal, presented by the HR Nicholls Society. During his acceptance speech he admitted having drawn up a hit list of union activists.
Charles Copeman, himself, architect of the notorious Robe River lockout, was another signatory to last week's plea.
As were Perth businessman, Harold Clough, who outed himself as the "mystery backer" of Tony Abbott's campaign to have Pauline Hanson gaoled; and Steve Knott, head of the Australian Mines and Metals Association.
On the eve of the state government�s capitulation to people power, Carlingford legal secretary, Rebecca Turner, "thanked God" for the trade union movement.
"Unions are there to protect workers and if management and the government are not going to stick up for us then thank God the union movement is," Turner said.
She was speaking after winning enthusiastic support from 500 building workers for her civil disobedience campaign that would have seen commuters refuse to pay fares on Monday, November 22.
Turner's comments pulled the final plank from the state government's strategy of trying to blame rail workers for the system's chronic unreliability.
The day after she spoke, Premier Bob Carr tried to trump her campaign, by announcing fares would be abolished for the day.
NSW rail workers had taken to platforms across Sydney, Wollongong and the Central Coast to hand out 50,000 fliers explaining they weren't to blame for the city's train woes.
Unions NSW said some commuters stopped to help the workers hand out the leaflets, which blamed RailCorp management for poor train services.
"If you think it's bad being a rail commuter, try being a rail worker - we are all in this together," the fliers read.
Transport Minister Micheal Costa had threatened to fine commuters who failed to buy tickets on the day of action.
Before the government's announcement over 20,000 unionists from the CFMEU and FSU had pledged their support for the Turner's action, with the offering legal advice to members if they were fined..
Turner, who meet with Unions NSW secretary John Robertson last week began her campaign on the 11th of November, and was dubbed "Captain Commuter" by Sydney media.
"What are they going to do if thousands of people turn up at Town Hall and demand to be let out? They can't fine everyone," she said.
"Imagine what we as commuters can do if we threaten to cost the Government millions of dollars in lost revenue."
Turner has set up an e-mail account - [email protected] - to gather support for the cause.
Other angry commuters have begun a protest website at www.shityrail.info
The company has invoked the full armoury of weapons supplied by the federal government � IRC orders, Supreme Court and Federal Court writs - in its effort to evade double time payments on the Perth Tunnel project.
Last Thursday night, it sent representatives on late night visits to the homes of employees to warn of legal action against individuals who didn't turn up to work on Friday morning.
Workers Online understands none of the 300-strong workforce caved in to the threats.
Workers struck after Leightons announced, last week, it would only pay 25 percent loadings for 12-hour night shifts on the project.
Industry sources say double time has been the construction industry standard in Perth for more than 20 years. Leightons pays double time to employees on its nearby rail project, as well as for night shifts at the Spencer St redevelopment in Melbourne.
They claim Leightons under-priced the tunnel job, fell behind schedule, and faces penalty payments as high as $54,000 a day.
Workers Online understands that in negotiating rates for the job, the joint venture assured CFMEU representatives there would be no night shift work on the construction phase.
Leightons has obtained Section 127 orders in the Industrial Relations Commission, return to work orders in the WA Supreme Court, and a Federal Court writ against CFMEU officials aiding or inciting the strikers.
Union officials met members, last week, to explain the legal judgements and warn of their responsibilities. Apparently, they were told there would no return to work while Leightons demanded night work on the cheap.
CFMEU state secretary, Kevin Reynolds, refused to discuss the dispute.
"Due to legal restrictions on our union and its officials we have no comment at the moment," he said.
The move, which would put competency skills into the hands of big business, has been labelled a "thinly veiled attempt to privatise training".
Unions have revealed that the plan to establish the "Australian Technical Colleges" would involve schools being set up by tender; workers employed an AWAs and no union involvement on the campuses.
The colleges would exist alongside the existing TAFE system, duplicating scarce resources, according to Phil Bradley from the NSW TAFE Teachers Federation.
"TAFE could provide this training if it was not starved of billions since the Howard Government came to power," says Bradley. "There has been a 25% cut per student in real terms over the last five years."
Government figures show that over 50,000 people were turned away from TAFE last year because of funding shortages. This does not take into account others that did not even apply because of fee rises.
Bradley also slammed a plan by the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Farmers Federation to set up the "Institute of Trade Skills Excellence".
The Institute is seen as a move by big business to provide accreditation, especially since the current body overseeing trade accreditation, the Australian National Training Authority is being abolished from July 1 2005.
Even small business and private providers are up in arms over the Federal government move, with the Australian Council of Private Education and Training slamming the Institute proposal.
"This will create a narrow competency base for the short term needs of big business," says Bradley.
Unions are currently preparing a response to the Federal government's Australian Technical Colleges proposal.
"We have reason to be concerned given the track record of the Federal government," says Unions NSW assistant secretary Mark Lennon. "Given that with their efforts we have ended up with the current skills shortage."
The AMWU is seeking regulatory control over standards in central Queensland mining camps after the IRC ordered protesting maintenance staff back to work at Maronbah and Biloela.
State assistant secretary, Peter Lees, said McKay-based workers had been accommodated in drop-in dongas at a Maronbah camp over-run by feral cats and fleas. They are there for a 12-week shutdown at the nearby BHP pit.
Another 180 workers had been put up in similar dongas at Biloela for an Anglo Coal dragline shutdown. They complained about the standard of accommodation and food.
Both groups walked out in a bid to have facilities upgraded but the coal companies won Section 127 orders against them.
Lees exonerates the sub-contractors who employ maintenance staff, laying the blame at the feet of the minerals giants.
"These companies have got rid of their facilities and expect sub-contractors and workers, alike, to live for periods of up to 12 weeks in unsatisfactory conditions," Lees said.
"Unfortunately, the industrial relations system doesn't allow workers to pressure companies over living standards so tightening the regulations appears to be the only way ahead."
Lees says accommodation problems are standard through central Queensland.
The AMWU has launched an Acceptable Coal Contractors Campsites campaign by writing to Premier Peter Beattie, demanding legislative action.
The AMWU stance won support from state and local authority figures, last week.
Speaking in Belyando, Beattie vowed to address the issue, describing infrastructure in booming mining towns as a "problem".
Belyando mayor, Peter Freeleagues, pledged the Moranbah camp would be moved from its present location by March, next year.
He said the onus for improved living conditions should be on the mining companies.
James Hardie Community Protest
Support shafted dying victims of Hardie's toxic legacy at the community protest outside the Australian HQ of the disgraced building products maker. We protest 'til they pay!
Where: James Hardie gates, 10 Colquhoun Street Rosehill
When: Everday, Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm
This protest is supported by ADFA, CFMEU, AMWU and the MUA.
Australia's "Attitude Problem" towards East Timor
Playing Hard Ball on the Timor Gap Treaty
* Wednesday, 24 November, 5:45pm
Australian Institute of International Affairs - lecture presentation
Dr Michael Sullivan (Lecturer, School of Political & International Studies, Flinders University & Patron: Australia East Timor Friendship Association SA)
Wednesday 24 November
5:45pm
Lecture Theatre G04
foyer of Napier Building
University of Adelaide
Institute for Sustainable Futures Lecture
The Institute for Sustainable Futures is inviting you to a free public lecture that will challenge us to contrast our present consumption with a future using fewer resources and sharing those we have more equitably - a real sustainable future?
Starting with you, then Sydney and then the world
Tuesday 23 November 2004
6.00pm drinks for 6.30pm start
Guthrie Theatre, Level 3 Peter Johnson Building, 702-730 Harris St Ultimo Five minutes from Central & Railway Square. Venue parking in basement.
RSVP (for catering) by 22 November 2004 to Robert Button on 02 9514 1734 or [email protected]
For further details, please see below, or go to http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/whatsnew/whatsnewevents.html
How do we live in a city like Sydney without pushing social and ecological systems to the point of collapse? Can we move beyond self-interest and build a city we really want to live in - one where precious resources such as water and fuel are used moderately - one that is safe and healthy? And how do the lifestyle decisions we make here impact on the rest of the world?
Designing A Sustainable Future
Thursday 25 November
Powerhouse Museum
This month at d factory our speakers will discuss how new ideas, technology and innovative design solutions are helping create a more sustainable future. Whether designing products or built environments, designers are re-thinking materials and challenging traditional values and attitudes about design.
Join host Nell Schofield for a chat with Cameron Tonkinwise of the University of Technology, Michael Alvisse of Schamburg + Alvisse and Peter Stutchbury of Stutchbury and Pape.
This month�s d factory also features a special screening of student works from the UTS: design graduate exhibition 04.
Guest DJ is �Sleepy Robot� who will play a mix of downbeat hip hop, experimental electronic and soundscapes.
Drop in for a cocktail, chill out to DJ music or engage in a new design debate at d factory in the Powerhouse Museum�s courtyard caf� from 6pm to 9pm.
When: 25 November 2004, 6-9pm
Where: Powerhouse Museum, Courtyard Cafe, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo (enter via Macarthur Street)
d factory is a FREE MONTHLY EVENT
Politics In The Pub
Friday Nov 26th 6-8pm, Politics in the Pub, Gaelic Club, Surry Hills,
"Aceh & West Papua" with Dr Nurdin Rahman and John Martinkus.
150th Anniversary of Eureka Rebellion 2004
On Sunday 28th November Sydney will celebrate Eureka Stockade with a forum and concert at the NSW Writers' Centre in Rozelle.
The day will start with a morning forum on the significance of Eureka with two guest speakers. One will be Dr Anne Beggs Sunter, Ballarat authority on the history of the Victorian goldfields and the Eureka Stockade. The other is Sydney historian Bob Walshe. Bob was secretary of the 1954 Sydney centenary celebration of Eureka and has been promoting the importance of Eureka in Australian history since that time.
In the afternoon there will be a Eureka150 concert based on historical and contemporary themes of Eureka. It will feature well-known artists including Lyn Collingwood, Alex Hood, Carole Skinner and John Dengate They will be backed by New Theatre and the voices of the Sydney Trade Union Choir.
www.eureka150.net
The $10 charge for the day includes morning tea and a sausage sizzle lunch.
For further information contact
Bob Walshe - 9528 0444; fax 9528 4445
Paula Bloch - 9665 0559; Email [email protected]
In Victoria The VTHC are organising celebrations. They are as follows:
Saturday 27th November: State Government major event in Federation Square:
Afternoon Family Day
Monday 29th November: Union Commemoration Event Flag raising - Federation Square or Lygon Street at 2.00pm. Simultaneous flag raising at Bakery Hill Ballarat and Latrobe Valley. Win TV to broadcast. VTHC Choir
Thursday 2nd December: 6.00pm: Unions have a presence in Eureka Compound
7.30pm VTHC, NSW & QLD Trade Union Choirs 8.30pm 'A Night Under the Southern Cross'. Story Telling and songs with Richard Franklin, Shayne Howard, Dennis Court
Friday 3rd December (Eureka Day): Dawn Ceremony at Eureka Compound
(Community and unions), followed by Community Breakfast. 9.00am Union Train from Melbourne. 10.30am Ballarat Building Unions Picnic. 8.00pm Danny Spooner
- History of Eureka at Ballarat Trades Hall.
Saturday 4th December: 2.00pm Eureka Diggers March. It is proposed that a bus will leave Carlton at aprox 10.00am, and leaving Ballarat at 4.00pm.
Sunday 5th December: 12 noon: Eureka Memorial Committee Dinner at Ballarat.
For more information: http://www.eurekaballarat.com/index.php
Aceh
Sat Dec 4th, 9am-1pm, UTS Broadway,Achehnese Community of Australia (ACA) seminar on human rights abuses in Aceh. Speakers include Ed Aspinall,
Justice John Dowd, etc. Contact Vacy (02)9949-3553. .
Films, Politics and Learning Conference
Organization: OVAL Research, Faculty of Education, University of Technology 6 & 7 Dec These nights aim:
- To bring together radical film-makers, radical film buffs, and radical educators.
- To inspire educators about ways they can use film in their work.
- To inspire film-makers about ways they might facilitate learning about politics.
- To foster discussion and advocacy about this field of practice.
We are seeking videos and films under 2 categories:
1. Agitprop: protest, guerrilla, activist, political, subversive short films /videos.
2. Participatory film-making: community films/videos as social intervention. The only format accepted is DVD.
Send copies with entry form to Celina McEwen, The Centre for Popular Education, UTS, PO Box 123, BROADWAY NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA. Deadline for entries is September 30, 2004. Entry forms can be downloaded from www.cpe.uts.edu.au/pdfs/FPLentry.pdf
For further information email Celina on (02) 9514 3847 or [email protected]
The Motorcycle Diaries
* Sunday, 12th December, 3:45pm
Film preview and fundraiser
Based on the books "The Motorcycle Diaries" by Ernesto Guevara and "Travelling with Che Guevara" by Alberto Grando. Thefilm follows aninspiring journey of self-discovery and traces theyouthful origins of arevolutionary heart.
AETFA will be presenting this film preview as a fundraiser for Education in East Timor at Palace Nova Cinemas Rundle Street City 3:45pm Sunday 12th December
Tickets $12/$9 concession
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL
Please phone...
Mark - 8277 7356 (after 6pm M-F, or on weekend) or email bookings - click here)
Management had tried to argue that their longest standing, most ticketed and experienced employee was their least competent in an attempt to remove electrician Paul Evans.
But the sparkie, who had worked on the Perisher Ski Tube since its inception, stood his ground and resisted the move despite management shifting him to lesser jobs, such as getting him to work in slush and on snowbound chair lifts.
Perisher Blue manager Bob Jack told Electrical Trade Union (ETU) organisers "I want that prick off my mountain".
To get rid of Evans they were going to give him minimum notice and the award minimum of 20 weeks pay.
"He was one of the few remaining permanent blokes with experience," says Matt McCann from the ETU. "Perisher Blue has let go one of the last accredited with overhead line work
As a result of the ETU's intervention Evans has now got a substantially improved package.
The ETU organisers were full of praise for the hard working sparkie.
"He always stood up for his apprentices and dealt with issues on the job," says Neville Betts. "In the end he got Kerry Packer justice."
Pollies By Candlelight
Meanwhile ETU Canberra organiser Neville Betts has asked for the public to send a candle to their local pollie.
The move comes after management at parliament house are trying to get "blood from a stone", according to Betts, pushing for nearly $8million in savings by Parliament House electricians before they get a pay rise that even keeps up with inflation.
"This is a bit rich when you look at the pollies gold plated superannuation."
The tree-lopper was handed the bill after a piece of machinery he was using broke down, sparking claims that employers are forcing youngsters into bodgey contracting situations to keep jobs.
In another incident a building company sacked its entire workforce and told them to come back with ABNs after three young workers pushed to become permanent, as they are entitled to under the Queensland award after six weeks on the job.
The builder was found to have been substantially underpaying his workers, including telling them that casuals had no rights to superannuation.
A shopping trolley collector was also robbed after the supermarket he was working at denied him access to a lunch room or any facility, telling him to dump his backpack at the front of the store. The backpack was subsequently stolen.
The incidents were brought to light by the Queensland Young Workers' Advisory Service, who point out that large supermarket chains, and other employers, seek to place the people that work for them at arms length.
The move has exposed trolley collectors to being sued for thousands of dollars for damage to cars and shops.
On top of this teenagers working as contractors are expected to provide their own insurance, worker's compensation and superannuation despite being paid as little as $15 an hour.
"A lot of young people are being put onto contracts and told to get their own ABN or their employment ceases," says Aaron Allegretto of the Queensland Young Workers' Advisory Service who hear of many scams involving teenage workers.
"Employers want the flexibility of a casual employee with the loyalty of a permanent employee," says Allegretto. "Employers are not willing to give reciprocal flexibility."
"They want them to be employees when it suits them and contractors when it suits them."
The situation has deteriorated to the point where Legal Aid Queensland is advising young people not to take up work as supermarket trolley collectors.
The Young Workers' Advisory Service has also heard of instances were trainees and apprentices have been "coerced' into cancelling their training after they have raised issues regarding sexual harrassment.
"Some training providers are quite good but the norm seems to be that because they complain young workers are taken out of the workforce,' says Allegretto. "With this trend we will get more and more young people complaining about how they are being treated."
The Queensland Young Workers' Advisory Service is funded by the state's Department of Industrial relations.
Four men were inside a transport vehicle when a steel cable snapped, sending them plunging down the mineshaft. Three of them jumped clear as it picked up speed and the fourth rode the run-away vehicle 150 metres to the bottom of the shaft, miraculously suffering only cuts and bruises.
Miners have described as "too little too late" a move by the NSW Department of Mineral Resources to prosecute former mine owner Powercoal over the incident that occurred at the Wyee mine on the NSW Central Coast in 1999.
"The Department of Mineral Resources record of prosecution is woeful," says CFMEU Mining Division president Tony Maher. "Their Queensland counterpart is the only one with a worse record.
"They've never prosecuted anyone.
"The NSW Department didn't even have a prosecution policy until 1998 when the union forced them to have one after the Gretley disaster.
"Mining has seen 2,500 deaths and only three successful company prosecutions and one instance where an individual was prosecuted."
"There's either an awful lot of acts of god or there's some significant breaches of mine safety."
Miners claim that the department generally only prosecutes when a death is involved, with many near misses and serious incidents going unpunished; a move that has been likened to "shutting the gate after the horse has bolted".
These incidents have left miners maimed with missing limbs and serious body injuries.
An investigation by the department into the Wyee incident found the faulty cable had been reported to management five months earlier, but it was not replaced as recommended.
The four miners involved were lucky not to have been killed in the incident.
Had the rope snapped on the return trip the transporter would have been carrying a large number of miners ending their shift.
The department's move to prosecute Powercor in the Industrial Relations Commission comes as a sentencing decision is expected soon over the Gretley disaster.
Australian Federal Police agents executed a search warrant on National Indigenous Times' offices in Canberra in search of two cabinet-in-confidence documents, the details of which had already been reported by the Financial Review and The Australian newspapers.
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) condemned the police raid.
"Authorities cannot use criminal procedure to attain the identities of journalists' sources - which is clearly what they attempted to do," says MEAA federal secretary Christopher Warren. "The foundation of our democracy relies on journalists' ability to report matters of public interest. To do this they rely on the good faith of their sources."
Police carried a warrant to seize two documents but left with six.
The documents reveal a number of tougher government initiatives to promote 'good behaviour' in indigenous communities. The Australian Financial Review picked up the story yesterday and attributed NIT with possession of the leaked documents.
"The Government's attempt to intimidate this small publication is an absolute disgrace," says Warren. "In matters of social responsibility and welfare those in authority need to be held accountable. This can't happen if media outlets, big and small, continue to be suffocated."
Reporters Without Borders said in a letter to John Howard that the police had "violated the principle of the protection of sources, which is fundamental to guaranteeing independent investigative journalism."
"If those responsible for this police raid on a editorial office are not sanctioned, it will be the protection of sources, the cornerstone of press freedom, that is under threat in Australia," said Robert M�nard, Reporters Without Borders secretary general.
The National Indigenous Times has received confirmation from other media outlets that the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet ordered the search warrant.
Cabinet Secretary Peter Shergold warned that police raids on newspapers that publish leaked cabinet documents would become routine.
Dr Shergold was the federal official who reported the matter to police.
"Labor will watch with interest to see if Andrew Bolt is raided over leaked national security documents, or indeed if those that provided the leaked documents are charged with breaches of the Crimes Act," said ALP Indigenous affairs spokesperson Kim Carr. "Why is the Howard Government so concerned about the Indigenous Times documents, when so many other leaks have not been referred to police?"
The National Indigenous Times had more embarrassing papers ready to publish, editor Chris Graham said.
Graham said the Prime Minister's Department ordered the raid because the documents, which the newspaper published, were embarrassing to the government.
"This government has been dishonest in the way it's dealt with Aboriginal people and Aboriginal affairs generally and I can understand them not wanting it to get out, but I can't for the life of me understand how they thought raiding our offices would have assisted their cause."
Among the documents was a letter from former Indigenous affairs minister Philip Ruddock to Prime Minister John Howard in April 2003, saying that nearly all government ministers had failed to undertake a major review of how their departments could better serve the aboriginal community.
Federal Police investigations are continuing.
More than 30 workers at Silverlea Community Care in Broken Hill have been told they have 7 days to sign an AWA or on December 20 they will lose their jobs.
ASU executive president Sally McManus said the workers had been given the ultimatum yesterday, with the employer blaming reduced funds from the Department of Age, Disabilities and Home Care for needing to cut labour costs.
"Under these contracts, the workers will be the lowest paid disability workers in the state," Ms McManus said.
"These agreements take away all penalty rates, weekend rates, slashing and burning their conditions and being presented with no real choice.
Ms McManus said the ultimatum was placing unfair pressure on workers in the lead-up to Christmas, but they were determined to fight the contracts, with the backing of other unionists in Broken Hill.
"The Barrier Industrial Council has kept AWAs out of the Broken Hill, the ASU has kept AWAs out of the welfare industry - together we will fight to beat this latest attack on collective bargaining and low paid workers."
The CFMEU's Dick Whitehead confirmed 25 administrative employees were exposed to the deadly dust after a WorkCover approved contractor had disturbed roof tiling.
Whitehead said security should have been informed of any broken tiling and the workspace should have been thoroughly vacuumed and cleaned.
"The workers came in on Monday morning and there is dust on their computers," said Whitehead "WorkCover has advised me it was definitely asbestos."
I'm very disappointed it was a licenced asbestos contractor who was responsible for this."
Howard's Hardy Mate
Former chief of staff to John Howard, Graheme Morris, has got a new job doing spin for James Hardie on asbestos.
The close fried of Howard is a political lobbyist and spindoctor, and owns PR firm Jackson Wells Morris.
The company said Morris was helping to keep "Canberra and Macquarie Street in the loop".
Asbestos Awareness Week
A week of activities is planned for the week beginning Monday November 22 to
raise awareness about asbestos and the plight of victims.
On Friday at the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour from 9.30am a public
awareness day will be held.
Maree Bashir, patron of the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia, will
launch a day of entertainment and opportunities to meet and speak with
victims and their families.
"It's an opportunity for people to give that lift that helps go the ectra
yards in out fight against hardies,' says Barry Robson from ADFA.
Nick Willey is arriving in Sydney next week after riding from Canberra
wearing an asbestos suit and mask in an attempt to raise $500,000 for
asbestos victims.
Willey's father succumbed to Mesothelioma, a respiratory disease that occurs
after exposure to asbestos fibres.
The casual teachers first lodged a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Board in 1996, claiming they were denied maximum salary simply because they were casual.
The teachers do the same work as permanent staff but their 'casual' classification meant they earned up to $10,000 less per annum than permanent colleagues.
The women argued that this situation was indirect discrimination under the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act because it is harder for women to achieve permanency in the NSW Department than for men.
The State Government fought the case at every turn despite its own policy that workers should be paid equal pay for work of similar value.
The State Government has 28 days to seek leave to appeal to the High Court.
Can Bob Carr please get some backbone and give us a city transport plan?
Can he please build parking and bike racks at suburban railway stations and chuck money into the railways?
And what about a light rail system for the CBD and bringing in the concept of catching an afternoon bus and not standing shoulder to shoulder with over 200 armpits like it's the third world?
Maybe if he stopped publicly stroking himself like a bespectabled peacock he would realise a budget surplus is not a legacy, and does not make him a statesmen?
It just means the big end of town laugh behind their sleeves at the 'Labor' leader.
Carr, come up with some plans, have the backbone to take the public with you and build this state the way it has to go.
Timothy Rennie
Can Jeff Shaw's gaunt face please stop greeting me in the morning as I browse the newspaper while munching on peanut butter and banana on toast?
Have we not heard enough?
He got pissed, crashed his car, panicked and has now paid for it with his job and reputation. End of story.
Maybe instead of sending their reporters on such easy assignments as the Shaw 'story' massive newspapers like the Herald should devote resources to in depth investigative reporting.
Maybe have a look into inequity in our society in any one of its plethora of guises.
Maybe write stories about the issues that actually effect people's lives.
Maybe look at big picture solutions to future problems.
Maybe even cover a story west of Stanmore.
Timothy Rennie
After an exchange of emails with my nephew, who is a student of ancient Roman history, I have drawn the following parallels between the fall of The Roman Empire and the current situation in America.
Marcus Aurelius was a good leader. He wanted his stepson to succeed him.
But it is widely agreed that his natural son Commodus murdered both his father and step brother. Commodus was an inept ruler, and the decline of the Roman
Empire can clearly be seen to begin under the Caesarship of Commodus.
So Commodus took the throne falsely and through his incompetence the RomanEmpire started to disintegrate.
The parallel:
Everybody except a few ignorant Republicans are quite sure that the voting in Florida was rigged (I have various email friends in the US of all political persuasions who give me their opinions.)
Hence, like Commodus, Bush most likely became leader illicitly.
Bush is the most incompetent leader in US history. Already he has ensured that no country in the world (with the exception of Australia for as long as
John Howard remains Prime Minister, and Britain as long as Tony Blair remains Prime Minister) will ever again trust or respect the USA.
Additionally the US is about to be tumbled from its current position as the most economically powerful country in the world, partly because of Bush's
incompetence, but also because China, because of its sheer numbers, is rapidly heading to the top. A trade alliance between China, India and a few
other countries would certainly topple America from its current position. China has the numbers, India has the skills.
Additionally the European countries are working towards becoming a much more unified and powerful economic bloc.
Bush achieved his post illicitly, and because of the factors mentioned above, I think the US has passed it peak and it will be downhill from here
on.
Whilst America accounts for 50 per cent of the world�s entire spending on the military and armaments, it has lost the trust and respect of the rest of the world, and in the not too distant future will also most likely be toppled from its position as the most economically powerful country in the
world.
And responsibility for this lies fairly and squarely with George W. Bush.
God knows what further havoc he will create now that he has been re-elected.
So it will be a case of goodbye America, thanks for helping to save us from Hitler and Japan, but we don't trust your motives any more.
America, under the bumbling Bush, who of course is merely a puppet manipulated by the likes of Rumsfeld and Cheney, has lost probably irretrievably the status it enjoyed (or at least claimed) as leader of the
free world.
Julian Hancock
With media coverage moving from the salacious to the downright malicious as a conspiracy is conjured from a stuff-up, Jeff's reputation seems to have become collateral damage in a ritualised scandal story.
The tragedy is that few of those indulging in this orgy of denigration have made any attempt to understand the man they toying with, as if his years of public service count for naught.
There is a context to the Jeff Shaw story - and it lies in his decade in politics - where he achieved more for working people than most of his colleagues achieve in a lifetime.
It is these achievements I want to record, not to minimise his current problems, but to at least place them in some sort of context.
Jeff Shaw became NSW Industrial Relations Minister at a time when conservatives had won power federally and held office in every other state and territory, inheriting the first attempt to deregulate industrial relations, an unworkable system that had lost the confidence of unions and employers.
Patiently and systematically, consulting with all the stakeholders over 18 months and drawing on his own extensive industrial expertise, he drafted the first re-regulated industrial relations system.
Unlike the perversion of industrial relations which is the federal system; the NSW system was based on the principles of fairness and equity alongside productivity, making the Commission a meaningful umpire with the power to settle disputes, deliver wage decisions and improve the social wage through test cases and Ministerial references.
Despite the bleatings of some employers, the sky never fell in and the Act has delivered a thriving economy and profitable businesses hand in hand with basic union rights.
Alongside the IR laws, Jeff rewrote occupational health and safety laws, creating significant powers for workplace safety representatives and a duty for employers to consult, opportunities unions are still grappling to realise.
Having established this legal framework, Jeff went about dealing with emerging issues - tackling gender pay equity and video surveillance at work, delivering ground-breaking laws through a consensus process,
And then there was asbestos; a little reported prequel to the James Hardie scandal was Jeff's commitment to ending the inhumane practice of limiting liability by dragging out mesothelioma claims until victims were dead.
Jeff pushed through laws that allowed the claim to survive the death, taking away one of the main weapons immoral insurers had employed to minimise their exposure.
None of this was simply a matter of coming up with a bright idea and bowling it up to Parliament; each was navigated painstakingly through the layers of bureaucracy that Premier Carr has always wrapped himself.
And when a piece of legislations was open to challenge, Jeff would actually put on the QC wig and front the court, giving a first hand run down of the legislative intent.
Jeff not only managed to formulate a positive agenda, in his other role as Attorney General, he did much to soften the knee-jerk populist law and order posturing of the first term, razor thin majority Carr Administration.
Jeff wouldn't put up the barricades, he would analyse proposals, take expert advice and fashion legislation that actually was useful, workable and consistent with legal principles.
Along the way he reformed administrative law, updated the evidence laws and introduced youth conferencing; he also gave gay law reform and defamation law a red hot shot, before being scotched by the nervous nellies in Cabinet Office.
And he did it all with a quiet under-statement and almost absence of ego; confident in his command of his brief yet never prepared to put political point-scoring ahead of achieving a good legislative outcome.
When Jeff left Parliament, Bob Carr lost one of his best assets; his brief return to the Bar and then the Bench was welcomed by both sides of politics where he continued his productive working life.
None of which seems to count for much as the media has a field day with the knock on effects of a night on the turps and a health problem that was probably graver than even Jeff realised.
So what am I trying to say here? Good people can make mistakes; and the mistake does not stop them being good people.
While Jeff, of all people, is accepting that justice will now take its course, there seems something unjust that this most private of public figures is being subjected to such an ordeal.
Then again, as one colleague noted: "This is Sydney, everyone is forgiven - look at Harry M Miller!"
The circus will move on, Jeff will get better and get on with his life; the only things that will endure are his substantial achievements as a lawyer, judge and, above all, a legislator.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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