E D I T O R I A L

The Great Repression
In a rare outbreak of candour in Federal Parliament this week we have seen the Prime Minister admit the five-day week is going out the door and his leader of business, Tony Abbott, blow kisses across the House.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Public Defender
The CPSU's Stephen Jones has confronted the Howard Government's IR agenda at close quarters.

Legal: Craig's Story
An inquest in western NSW is a cautionary tale of the use of AWAs, writes Ian Latham

Unions: Wrong Way, Go Back
The WorkChoice legislation sends Australia down the wrong economic road by smashing the instittutions that have made it strong, argues Greg Combet.

Industrial: WhatChoice?
The Howard Government has shown itself to be the master of illusion, writes Dr Anthony Forsyth

Politics: Queue Jumping
The changes to industrial laws, betray a new vision of Australian society, writes James Gallaway.

History: Iron Heel
Conservative governments using laws to take away basic civil rights. It's nothing new, writes Rowan Cahill

Economics: Waging War
When was the last time you heard an Australian politician talk about incomes policy, asks Matt Thistlethwaite

International: Under Pressure
The push for UN intervention in Burma is intensifying, following a report by Vaclav Havel and Bishop Desmond Tutu into slave labour.

Poetry: Billy Negotiates An AWA
More and more people are meeting Billy, the hero of page 15 of the WorkChoices booklet, including our resident bard, David Peetz

Review: A Pertinent Proposition
Nick Cave's "Australian western" touches on some themes still relevant today, Julianne Taverner writes.

N E W S

Nobody Expects the Construction Inquisition

Howard in Redundancy Raid

States Sidestep Wage Hurdle

Catholics Bless Day of Action

PacNat Bids to Railroad Future

Feds Authorise Invasion

Howard Censors Workers

Sol Plays Dumb Card

Boycott Hangs Over Hardie

Directile Dysfunction

Pirates Face Kofi Break

Miners Don�t Dig Safety Levy

Keep the Spirit Alive

Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
Men and Women of Australia
What makes a perfect speech? Michael Fullilove has scoured Australian history to find out.

The Locker Room
The Hungry Years
Phil Doyle gets the feeling we�ve been here before

Culture
From Little Things
Paul Kelly's song about the battle for land rights misses one important character, writes Graham Ring

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Ian West takes a look at Public Private Partnerships, and wonders if we should all just drink rum�

L E T T E R S

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Convict Costello

It is common knowledge that the role models for John Howard are "Bob Menzies" and "Winston Churchill" and Paul Keating ostensibly, is the persona that Peter Costello has adopted and these roles like many of the dunghill nobility resident in the pens of our federal and state parliaments they portray with great efficacy.

This passion for role playing only surpassed by that of rabid republican the member for Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull, who paradoxically appears to have embraced all aspects of William Wentworth (1793 - 1872) was the Sydney Lawyer, Explorer and later New South Wales politician and whom the Electorate of Wentworth is named after.

Some of Wentworth's attempts in creating the "Bunyip Aristocracy" included a draft bill including limiting suffrage to land owners, and renters who earned as much as their landlords. Electorates were to remain the same as the gerrymandered ones of 1851 that gave undue power to landed interests. The bill also created a colonial aristocracy to populate the upper house and ensure the power of the landed interests.

Is the Member for Wentworths� advocacy for a republic and his suggestion that the sedition laws be removed or amended a perverse method of creating a new house of Harlequin Aristocracy for these would be Australian Mandarins?

Is it possible that under the current legislation, if it was applied equally to all, that those who advocate a republic could be convicted of sedition?

Reference: Dan Deniehy's Bunyip Aristocracy Speech 15th August 1853

Daniel Henry Deniehy was born in Sydney on 16th August 1828.

Tom Collins, NSW

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005