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Issue No. 275 05 August 2005  
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
 Back To The Past
 AFL-CIO Not The Only War
 Be Afraid
 Frame Up
 We Love Morris
 ANew Development
 A Readers Suggestion
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

CFMEU Bans Ferguson


Construction workers have placed a green ban to prevent the eviction of disabled residents from a Lidcombe community hostel.

Disabled residents from Ferguson Lodge are fearful of plans to force them into group homes with lower levels of medical care after they discovered that the owners, ParaQuad, wanted to sell to major developers.

The move would see the residents split up into group homes around Sydney with substantially fewer carers.

The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union took the decision to place an interim green ban on the demolition of their home after being contacted by representatives of the Ferguson Lodge Action Committee.

"The CFMEU does not take this Green Ban lightly," says CFMEU NSW President Peter McClelland. "We are committed to preventing a situation where these residents are forced to leave Ferguson Lodge against their will and contrary to previous undertakings, for the sake of selling this 7 hectare parcel of land for redevelopment.

"Many of the residents have lived at Ferguson Lodge for more than 20 years, they are active members of the local community, and they are reliant on the 24 hour care provided by the team of devoted and professional staff.

"Splitting them up, moving them out of the area, and restricting them to group homes which only have carers for 37 hours a week is a recipe for disaster, and in a worst case situation may result in the death of one of these residents unless the Government steps in."

The CFMEU said the green ban was designed to encourage ParaQuad to fully consult with the residents and to urge the Minister for Disability Service John Della Bosca to step in to guarantee none of the residents will be evicted.


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