E D I T O R I A L

Iemma�s Dilemmas
The past fortnight has seen the sort of upheaval in NSW that reminds us all that politics is a very tenuous game with few certainties and even fewer rules.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: On Holiday
Historian Richard White looks back on the Aussie vacation - and finds a way of life is under threat.,

Unions: One Day Longer
Nathan Brown travels to the Boeing picket line and find a group of workers with a steely determination to stick together.

Industrial: Never Mind the Bollocks
Jim Marr plays the Howard Government's industrial relations spin job on its merits.

Politics: Spun Out
Canberra�s latest campaign underlines the need for controls over government advertising, according to Graeme Orr and Joo-Cheong Tham

Economics: If the Grog Don't Get You ....
Evan Jones explains how the way we purchase alcolohol reflects the type of economy we live in.

History: Taking a Stand
Neale Towart looks at two books that chronicle how to build community support against social injustice.

International: The Split
Amanda Tattersal outsider's account of an insider's shake-out at the AFL-CIO Convention 2005

Legal: Pushing the Friendship
George Williams argues that the federal government�s constitutional powers are not sufficient to enact a comprehensive national industrial relations scheme

Poetry: Simple Subtractions
The latest blitz of taxpayer-funded advertising has revealed a crisis of arithmetic in government ranks has moved resident bard David Peetz to prose.

Review: Sydney Trashed
Sydney band SC Trash are on a mission to give new life to folk and country music � and the politics of common sense. Nathan Brown had a beer with them

N E W S

Carmen's Boss No Fun Guy

Discriminating Centrelink on Charges

Uproar Over Holiday Plans

Do The Bus Stop

Taxpayers to Fund Advertising Orgy

Get Up Stands Up

Andrews Provokes Showdown

Thousands in Super Rort

Constituents Don�t Trust Andrews

Skill Shortage Fabricated

Yanks Short Change Tradesmen

Howard Steamroller Hits Building Sites

CFMEU Bans Ferguson

Activists Whats On!

C O L U M N S

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Our favourite MP, Ian West, goes away for a couple of weeks and look what happens�

The Soapbox
The Last Weekend
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson's speech to the Last Weekend - how the Howard government laws will undermine the Ausrtalian way of life.

The Locker Room
A Concept Is Born
In which Phil Doyle helps the proponents of the vision thing across the road.

International
Workers Blood For Oil
A new book by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson lifts the lid on the bloody reality of US backed democracy for Iraq's trade unions

Postcard
London Post
During his recent stay in London IEU industrial officer John Shapiro was living only a few hundred metres from the site of one of the bomb blasts.

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

	About Workers Online
	Latest Issue
	Print Latest Issue
	Previous Issues
	Advanced Search

other LaborNET sites

Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation

Frame Up

Australians want certainty in the work place.

It is interesting to see how the Howard government is well aware of framing and how far behind our side in federal politics really is.

An example of this can be seen in Howard's gutting of our Industrial relations tribunal and replacing it with what they have called (not be accident) the "Australian Fair Pay Commission". The language is not neutral, it is framed, and loaded. It also doesnt help when the media and the opposition start using that language.

Peter Beattie on the other hand is a smart politician who knows how to frame. In an appearance on lateline a few weeks back, he talked about Howard's changes using the following frame:

"these changes will bring uncertainty to the workplace. Australians want certainty in their work place".

The term 'change' and 'uncertainty' are not put in the same sentence by accident. People naturally fear change, and so combining it with the term 'uncertainty' reinforces that. He repeated these terms several times. Unfortunately the federal party has been all over the place - not using a frame, and simply relying on one off attacks. The attacks should remain, but they should be talked about in terms of a larger frame - change and uncertainty.

Another frame the federal opposition would benefit from would involve reminding people what the Howard government has become - arrogant and out of touch.

Now that the federal government has the Senate, they have signalled their intentions to force through their extremist positions, regardless of what people want. Whether the issue be abolishing protection from unfair dismissal or Telstra privatision (which polls shows most people do not want), and many, many others, the federal opposition has the opportunity to frame these extreme changes as "arrogant and out of touch". The fact that they will eb acting in an arrogant way will reinforce the message in peoples minds.

Arrogance is something that Australians hate seeing. You can see it in Jeff Kennett being kicked out, you can see it Howard and Beattie being ultra-careful not to appear triumphant or overly triumphant. Premier Beattie almost looked dissapointed when he won his third landslide victory!

For more info on how our side can frame and get back in the game, visit http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/projects/strategic/simple_framing/view

lewis

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 275 contents

© 1999-2002 Workers Online
Workers Online is a resource for the Labour movement
provided by the Labor Council of NSW
URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/275/letters4_ltr.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005