*****
One of the defining moments of political journalism in this country was when Richard Carleton turned to the then opposition leader and asked "blood on your hands Mr Hawke?"
It was a question that reverberated around the nation that had eerie parallels this week when another opponent of Malcolm Fraser made headlines.
Even as the headlines made headlines, a shining new Tool emerged on the Australian political landscape as the hitherto unknown Alex Hawke stood up and made a right goose of himself by taking out a political leader, which was unfortunately, or fortunately if you're a public servant, his own.
While many residents in the Tool Shed over the years have given sometimes decades of effort and purpose towards becoming a Tool, our Tool Of The Week has emerged like a rising star, almost as forgettable as the latest Australian idol, but with bad hair and sans the teeth.
This gormless youth has taken it upon himself to correct the error of everyone else's ways but his own; demonstrating a style and a diligence that can only be compared to the Simpsons' Smithers.
(The NSW Liberal party is getting more and more like the Simpsons; they even have a Ned Flanders)
Our staunch Monarchist certainly likes his Queens by all accounts, so it comes a surprise that he would let the idle brashness of youth lead him to think that disseminating information about certain persons that other people may or may not find useful and/or interesting - or evenm palatable.
Being a boy who likes to sing along at Hillsong, you'd think he'd know that bit of the Gospel of saint Matthew that refers to living by the sword.
Alas, like reality, this information appears to have flown blissfully over his head.
No, the tragic John Brogden said that Alex Hawke needed to have a good hard look at himself, which is not a pretty thought, but the chances of that are about three fifths of Bronwyn Bishops IQ, which is to say, nada.
No, oblique little Alex will go on in life blissfully unaware of his own inadequacies, or even the pathos he engenders, which is to be expected given that one of his hobbies is learning how to kill people.
Brogden was right to refer to him as the "Clown of the Liberal party", only no one's laughing at Alex's joke anymore.
Brogden was a sexist, racist fool who showed why good governance and a professional political class go together like fish heads and ice cream.
But even his effort paled into pathos earlier in the week, while Alex continues on his dream of privatising the ABC, hanging out at handgun toting branch meetings up in the hills, expelling Malcolm Fraser from the Liberal Party and generally being the ideological equivalent of a dull witted, self obsessed dork.
In the wake of Brogden's behaviour it comes as little surprise that the heir apparent for the "Rabid Rottweiler Right", as they are affectionately known, is no more a fan of mail order brides than the last klutz who led the incredible shrinking party.
So we are left with this moral pygmy as the rising star of the lunar right and their dream of a scorched earth Australia, and the best defence of their position is not to be found in the works of John Stuart Mill or Edmund Burke, but rather in oscar wilde and the love of a good titillating gossip.
This little merkin should scurry back to the school playground where he belongs before he does himself a damage, but for his own safety little Alex Hawke can spend a week in the Tool Shed writing out a thoiusand times "I will not be a self obsessed little prat who thinks he can tell everyone else what is good for them while being a screaming hypocrite myself".
Auto component manufacturer National Parts has been slammed for its heavy-handed tactics on the lawful and peaceful picket line.
The workers at the Smithfield plant are on as low as $14 an hour $17.50 surprised at the tactics of their employer as they stand up for wage justice.
"It is a peaceful picket, a legal picket, and the workers at National Parts have a right to strive for a better outcome from their employer,' says Derrick Belan, NSW State Secretary of the NUW. "With the Industrial Relations changes around the corner many employers are champing at the bit to attack their workers."
There is concern for the safety of workers after the reckless actions of the company.
"Last night a group of female workers had to dive for cover after a truck reversed at the picket line," says National Union Of Workers NSW Branch Organiser Justin Cody. "Additionally, we are aware that warehouse equipment has been dangerously modified to speed up productivity."
Workers are also puzzled as to why the company has deployed local police to disrupt a peaceful picket line.
Cody said that National Parts is basically using local police as private security. "This picket is a protected action under the Workplace Relations Act. Workers are doing nothing illegal. They are acting within their rights as workers and as citizens."
Local police have been given a delivery schedule by National Parts so they can escort each delivery with two police vehicles into the company's premises
The NUW members on the picket line are refusing to disband until the management of National Parts agrees to negotiate a fair outcome.
National Parts is an automotive parts distribution company, which also has its own franchise network of automotive retail stores under the name Autopro.
The incidents at Hartley - just west of the Blue Mountains � is a sign that the coming changes to federal industrial relations are emboldening employers to take on their unionised workforce.
Warren Baker, from the Australian Workers Union (AWU), says he visited the site, to speak to mineworkers earlier this week about plans to put them on to AWAs.
After workers quizzed Baker about their right to have an EBA, the mine manager called the AWU official a "dog", told him that anyone who joined the union would lose over award payments, shirt fronted him and tried to kick him off the site.
Acting on an anonymous tip-off, Baker returned the following Monday accompanied by fellow organiser Wally Dedula to do a safety inspection only to run into the manager again in an office on the site.
"He entered and yelled at me 'what are you doing on site!' grabbed my arm, pulling me around,' says Baker, who described the mine manager as a "big bloke". He started ranting and raving and said to Wally Dedula 'you can piss off too'!"
Baker says that the manager then shirt fronted Dedula as well, raising his fist as if to punch him, claiming he had been spat on, before turning on Baker and slapping his face.
The incidents have now been reported to police.
Union NSW secretary John Robertson says these types of incidents are being tacitly endorsed by the Howard Government. "The time has come to make the Prime Minister responsible for the worst actions of the worst employer," Robertson says.
Mushroom mum Carmen Walacz Vel Walewska and Imperial Mushrooms boss, Kevin Tolson, are before the industrial umpire as it emerged the lengths to which he will go to bury the issue.
Walacz Vel Walewska has been warmly received in her local community, with hugs from co-workers coming up to her in the street to thank her for taking her stand.
Carmen came to national prominence when she bucked up after being sacked for questioning why her AWA was leaving her worse off than she would be under her award.
"The message here is that bosses should not treat their workers as if they don't know their rights," says Walacz Vel Walewska. "We've all got our own minds."
Walacz Vel Walewska said she was looking forward to the benefits everyone at Imperial Mushrooms would be getting. She also said her co-workers should keep fighting for proper hourly rates and all their entitlements.
Paul Farrow from the Australian Workers Union (AWU) alleges that Tolson told him that a payment of at least $1,000 to workers at the mushroom factory was a "gift".
Farrow revealed that when Imperial mushrooms had been approached to provide wages records the company provided payslips that provided no breakdown of hours per day or overtime.
"People were working from 5 to 50 hours a week,' says Farrow of the incomplete information they were able to glean from the pay packets. "We're going to give them one last chance to do the right thing with the wages records,"
Farrow also said that the AWU would be pursuing other firms in the mushroom industry to ensure they were doing the right thing.
A conciliation before Deputy President Grayson in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission will continue on Wednesday.
They took the drastic action after the Tamworth Women�s Refuge was closed due to a service �restructure�, leaving the more than 2000 families a year who use the service without adequate care.
The closure also saw the six staff that worked at the refuge without a job. Workers were called to a meeting where they were sacked on the spot and told to return their keys.
"I was absolutely devastated," said Chris Solberg, a crisis worker at the refuge for 13 years. "There was no indication to any of us [that the refuge was going to close]."
Three women who were staying at the refuge at the time it closed were relocated to an Aboriginal hostel in Tamworth.
Support services for the women have been reduced from 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the refuge to 9am to 5am, Monday to Friday with a social worker.
"Apparently nothing goes wrong outside those times," Solberg said. The sacked staff will set up their own service to provide support overnight.
The Australian Services Union is providing family support services for the former residents and plans to set up a temporary refuge until a more adequate solution can be reached. They are also fighting to have the workers reinstated.
ASU branch secretary Sally McManus said the union was seeking the intervention of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission and called on the NSW Minister for Community Services to resolve the issue.
"The workers have been unfairly dismissed and the NSW Women's Refuge Movement Working Party should be held to account for its actions," she said.
Unions NSW Secretary John Robertson said this and other cases of employee mistreatment was "setting tone for workplace relations in this country".
"People think they can get away with whatever they want, whenever they want," he said.
Robertson pledged to stop the Your Rights at Work bus outside the refuge when it tours the North Coast if the matter had not been resolved before then to highlight the situation.
Miguel Reyes, who had worked at the Villawood Warehouse for four years, was hurriedly sent packing soon after joining the National Union Of Workers.
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) found Bing Lee acted "harshly, unreasonably and unjustly" in dismissing Reyes.
The company issued Reyes with three warnings over a six-week period, including one for not supervising the loading of a truck, even though that wasn't part of his job.
Bing Lee finally sacked Mr. Reyes, branding him "untrustworthy".
"Without the Union I would not have gotten justice or my job back,' said a delighted Reyes after the decision. "Thank God for the union!"
National Union of Workers spokesperson Mark Ptolemy slammed Bing lee's actions as a "disgraceful" way to treat a loyal employee.
"Mr. Reyes worked hard and loyally for Bing Lee and soon after joining the union they turned on him," says Ptolemy. "Company boss Ken Lee talks a lot about his team on his radio ads yet the reality is much different."
IRC Commission McKenna found that the union had a valid case in claiming Mr. Reyes was unjustly sacked. The Commission ordered Mr. Reyes be reinstated with back pay.
"This is a great victory for a working man and for all workers", says NUW State Secretary Derrick Belan. "Miguel was treated appallingly by this company. This case illustrates the effectiveness of the NSW IR system. A worker treated unjustly found justice and got his job back. With the Howard proposed IR changes this system will disappear and workers like Miguel will be left vulnerable".
Father Adrian Horgan has endorsed the tour and will be on hand to welcome the bus when it hits Bathurst, along with workers who can no longer access sick leave without permission from managers under a new AWA.
The workers, members of the CPSU, have a litany of examples of where the discretionary sick leave policy has been misused, including one female employee who turned up for work after being denied sick leave, only to collapse on the job.
In his advertisement, which will play on Bathurst radio next week, Father Adrian says the Telstra policy "just isn't right". "We need to protect the quality of jobs in Bathurst- for our families and our children," he says..
The Rights at Work bus is touring the state to raise awareness about the changes to federal industrial relations and hear the concerns of rural communities.
The full western itinerary is:
Wagga Wagga - Public Meeting - Wagga Commercial Club, Monday September 5 at 12.30pm
Albury - Public Meeting - Albury Sailors, Soldiers and Airmens Club, Monday September 5 at 7.00pm
Leeton - Visiting Sunrise Rice Mill workers at Leeton, Tuesday September 6 at 12.30pm
Griffith - Public Meeting - Griffith Ex-Servicemen's Club Tuesday September 6 at 7.00pm
West Wyalong - Workplace Visit - Wednesday September 7, Time and location to be advised
Parkes - Public Meeting - Parkes Leagues Club Wednesday September 7 at 7.00pm
Dubbo - Workplace Visit - Western Plains Zoo, Thursday September 8 at 12.30pm
Orange - Public Meeting - Kenna Hall, Hill Street Orange Thursday September 8 at 6.30pm
Bathurst - Public Meeting - Charles Sturt University Friday September 9 at 12.30pm
One senior judge suggested the advertisements were like something out of the worst era of Soviet Communist propaganda pushed by the Kremlin.
Justice Michael Kirby said the Government's advertisements were like "the press in Bulgaria and Romania used to be, full of the merits of the great party leaders".
Justice Michael McHugh said the Government's argument that the advertisements related to higher pay and productivity seemed "divorced from reality".
The union movement, supported by the Labor Party, has challenged the constitutional legality of the $20 million ad campaign in the High Court.
The Government claims that the single line it included in the budget covering "higher productivity, higher pay workplaces" is enough of a fig leaf to cover spending as much as it likes of taxpayer funds on the ads.
More than 500 maintenance workers met at Parramatta Leagues Club to discuss Sydney Water's plans to allow contract labour to blindly respond to leaks in the city's water pipes, many of which are unmapped.
Workers spoke at the meeting about the impact the new shift work system is having on their families.
They returned to work following a first round victory in the Industrial Relation Commission (IRC), which resulted in Sydney Water deferring introducing a planned new roster system.
Sydney Water must negotiate any new shift work plans through the IRC.
"The Commission's direction to Sydney Water, while not yet a final determination, is encouraging news to maintenance workers as many have been at their wits end trying to manage the huge strain the new rosters have placed on families," says Australian Services Union Secretary Sally McManus. "However, this is just a first round victory. We will continue to campaign for more staff and better resources to improve Sydney's water infrastructure and save water.
"Sydney Water maintenance workers have unique knowledge of the pipeline system underneath the city, which is largely unmapped and are the only people who know where critical valves are in the event of a leak in any of the 'black spot' areas of Sydney."
Sydney Water maintenance workers have unique knowledge of the pipeline system underneath the city, which is largely unmapped and are the only people who know where critical valves are in the event of a leak in any of the 'black spot' areas of Sydney.
A 'flying squad' of maintenance workers will be established to respond to any leaks in the pipe system.
About 800 BDS Recruit workers voted to go on strike after learning the firm and its client Telstra were cutting their wages up to 12 per cent.
Electrical Trades Union telecommunications organiser Garry Rogers said neither company would claim responsibility for the cut.
"Telstra say 'it's not our problem' and BDS Recruit say they have been negotiating with the union in good faith," Rogers said.
BDS Recruit is the largest of four labour hire companies providing casual workers to Telstra for work on its general phone network infrastructure, mobile phone towers and broadband infrastructure.
Rogers said industrial action would continue until the workers wages were restored.
"We want Telstra pay for Telstra work," Rogers said.
"Is it any wonder Telstra is recording record profits when it and its contractors treat working people like this?"
Telstra recorded a $2.3 billion half year profit in the six months up to December.
The workers have been joined by other industry stakeholders including farmers, local companies and the Tasmanian Government on a Vegetable Taskforce to ensure that food products are labeled accurately.
Over 400 jobs at the McCain's plant in Smithton are under threat because of a flood of imported food products. Last month food workers joined rallies in northern Tasmania after fast food giant McDonalds announced that it would no longer source french fries from Tassie.
"At the end of the day it's regional jobs and regional communities that are on the line here," says Anne Urquhart, Tasmanian AMWU secretary. "We want clear and unambiguous food labelling that clearly identifies the contents of a packaged product and where it is from."
Urquhart praised the Tasmanian government's work in establishing the Vegetable Taskforce and said that it was a measure of how seriously this issue was being taken that the Minister was personally involved in the deliberations of the taskforce.
The taskforce has also heard from stakeholders of how imported food products are having a negative effect on other jobs and businesses in the food industry.
"The Tasmanian government is on side in a big way," says Urquhart. "We need to the Federal Government to show some leadership here and ensure there is accurate country of origin labelling."
Product labelling is administered by a body known as the Foods Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ).
Food workers fear that ambiguous or vague food labelling means consumers may believe they are buying Australian produce when in fact it is imported.
They want the Federal Government to ensure FSANZ moves to implement accurate food labelling.
By filling in a short questionnaire on the Office of Industrial Relations website, employees can help the NSW Government measure how family friendly our workplaces are and where improvements are most needed.
Minister for Industrial Relations John Della Bosca said that as well as providing an overview, the survey results would provide practical guidance for developing successful work and family policies.
He said it would also help measure how well these policies were already being implemented, and said the NSW government was committed to ensuring workers could achieve a good balance without having their rights at work undermined.
"Against the backdrop of the Howard Government's radical Industrial relations agenda, with its potentially significant impact on women and casual workers, it is important that we continue to promote best practice family friendly arrangements and highlight the dangers that the federal proposals present," Della Bosca said.
Fill out the surveys at www.workandfamily.nsw.gov.au.
Help the State Government is using online surveys to help measure the work and family balance in NSW workplaces.
By filling in a short questionnaire on the Office of Industrial Relations website, employees can help the NSW Government measure how family friendly our workplaces are and where improvements are most needed.
Minister for Industrial Relations John Della Bosca said that as well as providing an overview, the survey results would provide practical guidance for developing successful work and family policies.
He said it would also help measure how well these policies were already being implemented, and said the NSW government was committed to ensuring workers could achieve a good balance without having their rights at work undermined.
"Against the backdrop of the Howard Government's radical Industrial relations agenda, with its potentially significant impact on women and casual workers, it is important that we continue to promote best practice family friendly arrangements and highlight the dangers that the federal proposals present," Della Bosca said.
Fill out the surveys at www.workandfamily.nsw.gov.au.
Brunero won the cash in a cook-off between himself and Big Brother winners 'the Logan twins' on Network Ten program Celebrity Ready, Steady, Cook.
By naming Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA as his charity of choice, Brunero's winnings will be forwarded to the humanitarian organisation to assist its international aid projects.
The bulk money will be used to fund East Timor training programs in carpentry, basic literacy, blacksmithing, journalism, radio broadcasting and feature production.
Some of the money will also be used to send Brunero to East Timor so he can experience the training programs first hand.
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's annual fundraising dinner will celebrate 21 years of global solidarity from 6.30pm on Wednesday 21 September, 2005 at Petersham RSL Auditorium, 7 Regent St, Petersham.
Cost is $50 per person or $450 for a table of 10.
For more information and bookings contact Candice at APHEDA on (02) 9264 9343 or email [email protected]
Work Rights Tour Heads West
The bright orange Unions NSW Your Rights At Work tour bus visits communities in western and southern NSW from September 5.
The tour will be explaining the impact of proposed changes to workplace laws, which are set to radically affect working conditions across the country.
With visits to cities, towns and workplaces scheduled across the weeklong tour, Unions NSW will also be listening to the concerns of community members and answering their questions about the changes.
The tour will be visiting the following centres:
Wagga Wagga - Public Meeting - Wagga Commercial Club, Monday September 5 at 12.30pm
Albury - Public Meeting - Albury Sailors, Soldiers and Airmens Club, Monday September 5 at 7.00pm
Leeton - Visiting Sunrise Rice Mill workers at Leeton, Tuesday September 6 at 12.30pm
Griffith - Public Meeting - Griffith Ex-Servicemen's Club Tuesday September 6 at 7.00pm
West Wyalong - Workplace Visit - Wednesday September 7, Time and location to be advised
Parkes - Public Meeting - Parkes Leagues Club Wednesday September 7 at 7.00pm
Dubbo - Workplace Visit - Western Plains Zoo, Thursday September 8 at 12.30pm
Orange - Public Meeting - Kenna Hall, Hill Street Orange Thursday September 8 at 6.30pm
Bathurst - Public Meeting - Charles Sturt University Friday September 9 at 12.30pm
Neilson comes to Sydney
An exhibition of new paintings by Peter Neilson will be held at Australian Galleries in Sydney from September 6 to October 1, 2005
Drifting South, Always South
Australian Galleries
15 Roylston Street
PADDINGTON
NSW 2021
02 9360 5177
"The art of Peter Neilson is very much a product of urban Melbourne radicalism. He was born in East Melbourne in 1944 and grew up in the inner - Melbourne suburb of Essendon where he formed a life long affiliation with the local football club." (Dr Sasha Grishin 2002)
Doin' it for the Kids
Young people and politics: Engagement and participation
Tuesday September 6
5.30 for 6pm
Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney
Cost $25, (Evatt members and concession card $15)
Entry cost includes wine and cheese refreshments
RSVP is essential:
Evatt Foundation
Phone: 9385 7137
Email: [email protected]
Join the Sydney Protest 12pm Friday 9th September Canadian Consulate General 111 Harrington Street, Sydney asbestos campaigns: ABREA:Brazilian Association of the Exposed to Asbestos http://www.abrea.com.br/17ingles.htm Ban Asbestos Network of India: contact Toxics Link http://www.toxicslink.org/
A More Diverse Media - Can the Club be Busted?
As the Howard Government prepares to overhaul Labor's cross media laws we ask what needs to be done to open up Australia's small media club to more players and a greater diversity of voices and points of view? Our speakers will consider what the new reforms may mean, and how to genuinely invigorate an homogenised and concentrated media.
With:
Mark Scott - Editor, Sydney Morning Herald
Julianne Schultz - Editor Griffith Review and ex-ABC digital strategy
Andy Nehl - TV Producer (Chaser Decides & CNNNN) and Head of TV, AFTRS
When: Wednesday 21 September from 6.00pm - 7.30pm
Where: Theatrette NSW Parliament House
Cost: Free
Chair: Tony Moore, Member of the NSW Fabian Society, Pluto Press
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA Dinner
Join us for our Annual Dinner and celebrate 21 years of global solidarity on Wednesday 21 September, 2005
Hosted by members of The Chaser/CNNN team. The dinner will feature live music, fabulous prizes, great food and free parking.
Date: Wednesday 21 September, 2005
Time: 6:30pm for 7:00pm
Place: Petersham RSL Auditorium (7 Regent St, Petersham-Close to Petersham train station and 412 bus stop)
Cost: $50 per person, $450 for a table of 10
To secure your tickets please phone Candice at APHEDA on (02) 9264 9343 or email [email protected]
Tribute to HT Lee
Photojournalist - Independent film maker
Trade unionist
Activist for East Timor
07.08.1946 - 27.07.2005
Saturday 8th October
2-6pm
Gaelic Club
64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills (upstairs)
Speakers include;
� Andrew Refshauge (former Deputy Premier)
� Andrew Ferguson, State Secretary, CFMEU
� Katherine Thomson (Playwright)
� Kim Gago (East Timor Community)
� Neil McLean
� Peter Chandran
� Carmela Baranowski
Other speakers to be confirmed
Performances by Enda Kenny and a choir
Entry by donation
Money raised will go to the HT Lee Memorial Political Film-makers Fund to assist people going to East Timor to work on film documentaries
Jointly organised by Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (Construction & General Division) and
the Australia-East Timor Association (NSW)
www.cfmeu-construction-nsw.com
AUSIRAQ union solidarity Jazz night.
Money raised to go through Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA) to unions in Iraq.
Entry donation: $39 dinner & live jazz. $19 jazz only
CFMEU auditorium, 12 Railway St, Lidcombe
Tuesday 18 October
From 6:30pm to 10pm.
Children & unwaged 1/2 price. Drinks available
AUSIRAQ union solidarity Jazz night fundraiser
Money raised to go through the ACTU's Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA) to unions in Iraq. Best to book ahead for the meal so AUSIRAQ knows how many to cater for.
Contact Lynn Smith: 0439640118
One Year Down & Two to Go - Can Labor Win in 2007?
Fabian Society meeting with John Singleton (Advertising Executive), Geoff Walsh (former ALP National Secretary) & Julie Owens MP (Member for Parramatta)
When: Wednesday 26 October from 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Where: LHMU Auditorium, 187 Thomas Street Haymarket
Cost: Free
Chair: Michael Samaras, Secretary NSW Fabian Society
I have my career deliberately derailed and there is no doubt that my former employer breached 'duty of care' and were clearly negligent under OHS law, and guess who gets screwed?
Here is proof positive that bosses are being protected from prosecution even when negligence is clear cut. And what is most offensive is that medical practitioners are divided on what constitutes 15% whole body impairment, and they have no idea of how to apply this arbitrary figure to psychological injuries.
In other words, under current law 'duty of care' is limited. And for an injured worker to pursue this course of action would be a very EXPENSIVE proposition.
John McPhilbin
The ACIRRT study, commissioned by Unions NSW, scrutinised the PM's mantra that he had presided over a 14 per cent increase in real wages - one of his key weapons in reassuring the public that they have nothing to fear from his industrial relations agenda.
The PM tells us he is the 'best friend Australian workers have ever had' - contrasting this magic 14 per cent figure with a miserable 1.5 per cent increase under the Hawke-Keating Government - conveniently omitting the massive improvements in the social wage under the Accord including the nine per cent compulsory superannuation, which gives workers at least a fighting chance of retiring with some dignity.
So what was so radical about the ACIRRT analysis? Well, rather than taking the average wage increases of the workforce as a whole, ACIRRT went looking for the mid-point or median.
In simple terms, they took high paid CEOs and management out of the equation, diced the non-managerial workforce into decile bands and then looked at the mid-point in each of these bands.
And the findings? First, the minute you took managers out of the equation, the average increase in real wages since 1998 dropped to 3.6 per cent.
Within this non-managerial workforce, the benefits were concentrated in the top ten percent - where the average was 13 per cent; compared to the bottom two percentiles where the average came in at a shave over one per cent.
And the killer punch, each time you shaved the top ten percent off the sample, the graph looked the same - that is, within the bottom 90 per cent the top ten per cent thrive; within the bottom 80 per cent the top ten per cent thrive; and all the way down the income spectrum.
So the ACIRRT findings far from the PM's claims of universal prosperity, found entrenched disparity - with the benefits of economic change not being shared evenly across the workforce. It all comes down to finding the mid-point.
Of course, the national average will look good; there have been some massive, massive winners under Howard whose prosperity, if actually shared across the population, would give us all a better quality of life.
But the only place this wealth is shared is in the Australian Bureau of Statistics' survey of average earnings.
As an aside, it is interesting to note that the real estate industry never publishes average prices, only medians - they know if the high fliers' homes (those same people who push up average wages) were factored into the equation buyers would be scared out of the market.
But back to Howard, at the least he has now engaged on the minimum wage data - a move that had our friends at ACIRRT rubbing their hands in anticipation this week.
If there is going to be a meaningful debate on the data, the first step is to make more information available. Under the Howard Government the ABS has stopped publishing a number of series, such as the analysis of wage movements under awards, EBAs and AWAs.
The second step is to accept that if we are really going to debate the impact of change on middle Australia we should shift to an analysis of the median, along with an analysis of income distribution - the so-called 90/10 split.
And finally, we should take the bosses out of the equation - you don't need a Marxist analysis to see that attempting to gauge the benefits of economic change for workers by looking at the pay packets of their employers is an absolute nonsense.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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