E D I T O R I A L

A Secret Country
Beyond the obvious shift in the Australian political landscape, we are currently witnessing major changes in our political culture � personified in the two Herald Sun journalists currently facing jail.

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

Busted: Howard's 14 Percent Fudge

Emperor Stripped on Wages

Witch Hunt Targets Priest

No Malice in Pregnancy Termination, Court

Building Boss Risks Lives

Cleric Preaches Murder

Bus Rams Home IR Message

Contractors Get Run Of �The Mill�

BHP Mining Cheap Labour

Toll Bells For Corrigan

Lorikeet Folds Wings

Safety Is Apples In Orange

IR Ads Dubious

Striking Tongans Serenade Princess

Activist's What's 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

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Golden Gloves

*****

In every bully beats the heart of a coward.

The man who green lighted employers using dogs and thugs against their own employees found the kitchen a little too warm this week.

He had an appointment with some fellow Australians curious to know why he could cruise through university getting subsidised boxing lessons to deal with his inferiority complex, while the current generation of students are denied anything that could be misconstrued as developing them as social beings.

This presented Tony with a conundrum. Should he defend his own hypocrisy before a body of students? Or should he cower, shivering, in a foetal position under the desk?

Happily Brother Abbott chose the latter.

Then came the problem of justifying a policy position which is surely the bravest Sydney has seen since Governor Bligh hid under the bed from Captain Johnston of the NSW Corps in 1808.

Luckily, Tony "The Warringah Warrior" Abbott found someone to blame. That was the NSW Police. He got them to write a note saying Tony couldn't attend as he had a bone in his leg, and this was dutifully delivered up to the sceptical teacher.

Unfortunately for Tony "Guts Or Glory" Abbott it emerged that he had written the note himself, with a little help from some kind people in the NSW Police Force, who were lent on by Tony "Basher" Abbott to say it was unsafe for him to come out from under his desk.

Tony spoke the truth when he claimed that it was a sad day for democracy, but not as sad as the day he was born, but that's another ugly story.

None of this pathetic display should be surprising for a man who claims that people in detention centres are better off because they are safe from violence. No doubt from the being attacked by Tony "The Toecutter" Abbott.

As for the students who missed out on the entertainment of watching Tony "Pile Driver" Abbott display his debating skills, well, life isn't about enjoying yourself. If it was then Tony would have had more than one illegitimate child.

Of course, given that father Tony alternated between sending himself blind and prostrating himself before the altar, this psychotic behaviour should come as no surprise.

Lets just hope Tony's policy of do as I say, not as I do, is replicated across the entire Howard Government.

With brave pillows of society like Tony leading from the rear is it any wonder that General Howard and Lord Downer of Baghdad have bequeathed their successful foreign affairs policy, or that the minister for workers refuses to meet workers, or that our lawyer of a treasurer can't count.

Meanwhile, in the blue trunks, weighing in at 42 kilos, is ideologically based policy, while in the red trunks, weighing 198 kilos, is reality.

"ding ding"

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005