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Issue No. 297 | 03 March 2006 |
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Issue No. 297 | 03 March 2006 |
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*****
Good old Aussie ingenuity has swung to the forefront again this week with the country that gave us the stump jump plough and the Victa one stroke using a bit of Aussie outback know how in developing the Flugge.
The Flugge is a handy device that has a predisposition towards not hearing anything unpleasant, criminal or immoral, thus rendering the Flugge incapable of doing wrong.
Sometimes the Flugge can be seen brandishing a weapon, but one is not to be alarmed, as money dispatched by The Flugge to any enemies of Australia is merely used to purchase ammunition to shoot at our soldiers.
Soldiers, so the Supply Side theory says, are reliable sorts of chaps who don't mind being shot at a bit, as well as being reliable coalition voters who can be handy in a tight electoral contest.
Flugge's handy ability at not hearing anything that may incriminate him or the entire Federal cabinet in culpability of throwing six figure sums at third world dictators they were allegedly trying to depose has created consternation amongst those who attempt to reconcile public policy with logic.
Trevor Flugge recognised that his organisation, the Australian Wheat Board and Wimmera and District Cricket Association, had an excess of cash, and giving it to despots to build human shredding machines was merely his way of sharing the love.
Why should evil despots in the Middle East be excluded from a bit of old fashioned Aussie generosity? Our man in Baghdad, Flugge, knows how a bit of the old palm oil smooths every highway.
Now this sort of action may be viewed as questionable by Howard hating members of the latte sipping left, which - judging from public opinion - seems to include everyone and their dog.
Luckily our Tool Of The Week hasn't wasted any of his remarkably considerable remuneration over the years on something as whacky as a hearing aid. If he had he would have worked out that he was breaking the laws of nature, let along the laws of society.
This selective deafness is a fantastic new development for public life in Australia. It means that every legal, moral or social obstacle to carrying on like a spoilt two year old is removed, thus allowing those with money and privilege to assume their rightful place in society to do what they bloody well please.
Of course, he may have buggered up the wheat trade with one of our largest export partners but, hey, everyone has a bad day at the office.
Just multiply that bad day by 365, and multiply that by the number of years the Flugge has been in his job and you will get the idea of with this exceptional man calls a career.
Now, a less tolerant nation would call this corruption, treason and aiding and giving comfort to a known enemy. But we are a far more tolerant folk. Our government saves its wrath for people who are trying to raise a family or some other such subversive activity.
After all, there is a war on. And next best thing to distract people about the fact that we propped up a bloke who has been represented as some kind of 21st century Hitler, is to blame the victims who ran away from that steaming bucket of sith and came here for a better life.
After all, none of them are customers of the AWB. Or at least if they are, then we didn't hear, right? Either way, no one knows what the hell is going on and how do you get to run anything in this country without having the mental motor function of a fire hydrant with none of the memory ability?
Mr Flugge is probably deserving of an accolade as a hero, certainly he was to the Saddam regime. His efforts to ensure they weren't inconvenienced by sanctions must have come as some relief to the enquiring minds at DFAT.
Someone without a firm grasp of market economic theory may view the actions of Mister Flugge, and their remarkably tangential relationship with government policy, as the sort of arse-falling-out-of-your-brain experience that deserved a public flogging, or at the very least acquainting him of how the door worked, vis a vis using it to leave and not come back.
But that sort of muddle headed thinking has never gotten a member of the idiot rich anywhere. No, Howard decided to punish this man by giving him a million dollars.
Imagine how much he would have got if he could actually remember what he's doing from day to day.
The only problem is that Mr Flugge seems to have a very sound memory concerning the million dollars, a sum he refers to as "my money".
What would be refreshing would be if the Flugging idiot forgot we gave him all that dosh, and that it came back to the people of Australia so we could spend it on bullets for Australian troops, not bullets to be fired at them.
It's not the same as getting back what his company gave Saddam Hussein in his hour of need, but it'd be a start.
Atirua Kautai stood by her son, Samuel, who is legally blind after his boss allegedly beat him with a claw hammer, to tell those who couldn't afford to enter John Howard's lavish celebration that unions had become like family since they went into bat for her son.
"What happened to my son was really terrible ... I want to thank the union," the shop assistant from the Cooks Islands said.
She said Howard's assault on unions was an attack on young, vulnerable people like her son.
Kautai's speech was in stark contrast to the suits slipping into the $1000-a-plate dinner.
About 1000 workers gathered at Martin Place to highlight Howard's attack on workers, as business people and politicians celebrated.
Unions NSW Secretary John Robertson said workers had suffered as a result of Howard's 10 years.
He said the situation would only get worse with the introduction of WorkChoices.
"These laws are not going to help families," Robertson said.
"They have been drafted by big business they don't talk about people; they don't talk about families; they don't talk about Australian society.
"The only thing big business is interested in is how much more money they can make."
After hearing from other workers, the crowd moved opposite the Westin Hotel where they jeered guests who entered.
Seoul Broadcasting Service (SBS) is expected to show Koreans a documentary in the next seven days, based on shocking information about the treatment of their countrymen in Australia.
Journalists have been in WA interviewing trades people who claim they were brought to Australia under false pretences and ruthlessly exploited by a labour hire outfit, using federal Section 457 visas.
Workers Online has seen statements from workers who say they were conned into selling homes and businesses to come to Australia. One said he signed a contract with a sponsor, in Korea, promising $A24.10 an hour but, ever since arriving, he has received a flat rate of $15 an hour, despite regular overtime and weekend work.
When he complained, he said, he was threatened with deportation.
Another said he was promised $A72,000 a year but after the labour hire company made deductions for a range of items, including "legal services" and "health insurance" he received only $840 for a regular 56-hour week.
When his toddler was hospitalised for four days he was told not to worry, the expenses were covered. Now, he reports, they are being deducted from his wages.
At least two of the Koreans claim they were sacked after comparing wages with Aussie workmates.
Another said he was ordered to sign a new contract after arriving in Australia. It was written in English, only, and he was forbidden any representation or advice.
Several of the Koreans claim that on arrival they were instructed to buy cars, all costing $21,000, on the basis that they couldn't work without transport.
In a separate case, an angry South African welder says he has been split from his wife and children for more than a year, despite taking the job on the basis of visas for the whole family and the promise of permanent residence.
In a desperate effort to reunite his family he has written to the Minister of Immigration.
The South African says that when he asked about his family's visas, his employer said he would only proceed with them if he signed a new contract and bonded himself for at least another two years.
"The details of the letter were that I sign another agreement over and above the first one I signed before I landed in Australia and also that I must agree to work for him for two years and should I leave within the time specified I will have to pay Industry Partners $5000," he said.
"In the meantime my family will not be able to join me in Australia because my application is on hold!!!
"When I tried to speak to him about the clause in this agreement he said 'it is not negotiable'.
AMWU branch secretary, Jock Ferguson, calls the situation a "disgrace" and a "national embarrassment".
His union has taken the workers' cases to the Immigration Department and State Department of Consumer Protection. Workers Online understands that national secretary, Doug Cameron, has put detailed documentation before Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone.
Feguson says the matter is a human rights issue.
"These people must be treated with respect and dignity," he says.
"We are not going to allow unscrupulous employers to use the skills shortage as a cover for old-fashion discrimination and exploitation.
"Unfortunately, Work Choices and federal government attitudes work against us, because their bottom line is to give employers a free hand to do what they want."
The AMWU has been at the forefront of fighting dodgy immigration deals. Two years ago, it blew the whistle on large scale exploitation of skilled South African tradesmen across WA.
Some of those people were earning less than a third of what Australians, working alongside them, were being paid.
At the time, one boilermaker publicly likened his situation to "slavery".
Whose side would you take?
The answer, for John Howard's Building and Construction Commission is simple. Last Friday, it went to the Supreme Court in Melbourne to back-in rogue operator, Tony Goss.
It wants an injunction against the CFMEU, and one of its reps, Bobby Mates, organising a picket that both say they are not organising. If the Building Industry Commission is true to form, a suit for massive damages will follow.
The community action, outside an apartment development in Heidelberg, targets Goss in his latest guise, Hardcorp.
That company came into being after Goss put its predecessor, Melbourne Transit, into liquidation in advance of penalties being handed down for its involvement with the 2004 death of an apprentice carpenter.
According to the CFMEU, the youngster had been sent under an insecure beam during a concrete pour. His employer told him to toggle the beam but, instead, he was buried in concrete.
Both the employer and the company were charged with negligence. The employer pleaded guilty but Goss chose to put Melbourne Transit into liquidation.
Subbies, formerly with Transit, say they are owed $3.5 million for work completed.
Wage workers employed by those sub-contractors are short $180,000 in owed entitlements. The administrator has told them they will receive two cents in every dollar.
Less than a month after the liquidation, Goss was operating in Heidelberg.
Melbourne Transit had an EBA with the CFMEU but Hardcorp refuses to be bound by negotiated terms.
Out-of-pocket subbies, with community support, picketed the development but Howard's Building and Construction Commission, staffed by taxpayer funded lawyers and investigators, rode in to back the Phoenix operator.
CFMEU Victorian secretary, Martin Kingham, says Goss operations have sheltered behind administration on at least three previous occasions.
"It is an outrage that a public agency would support an employer of this calibre," Kingham says. "It demonstrates, clearly, what the Building Industry Commission is really about."
After hearing months of evidence, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission green-lighted the right of permanent casuals to opt for permanent employment, after six continuous months, and also sheeted home OH&S responsibility to host employers.
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Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, hailed the breakthroughs as "important steps forward for thousands of families.
"It gives the families of permanent employees the right to some security. It's only basic justice but, with the federal government determined to demolish the concept of a fair-go, it is actually very significant."
"These people can go from sitting waiting for the phone to ring, to being able to budget for the first time."
The decision, released by the NSW Commission full bench, recognised Unions NSW's core argument that some employers were using casual terms to avoid obligations to fulltime workers.
The Commission rejected a union claim to have labour hire companies meet the wages and conditions of the host company. But it did accept the argument that the host must accept responsibility for OH&S requirements on its site or sites.
All the claims were vigorously opposed by business and employer organisations.
Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported, last week, that Australian Business Industrial was considering an appeal.
The Commission heard dozens of witnesses. One, Bill Parker, testified he had been working, average 40 hour weeks, for the same company for more than seven years as a casual.
In that time, the tradesman had had only two weeks of unpaid leave.
Community workers earning $1566 a week on collective agreements are being offered $938 on individual contracts while chefs on $1069 are being offered $749, according to data released by NSW Industrial Relations Minister, John Della Bosca.
"Now more than ever, workers need to be fully aware of their entitlements, many of which will be lost if they're forced onto individual contracts as a result of the Commonwealth's Work Choices," says Della Bosca.
Even before the Howard Government's Work Choices laws come into effect, the NSW Office of Industrial Relations found workers are already being asked to sign away pay and conditions.
"Many of the AWAs examined so far have stripped away penalties for shift work, overtime, paid public holidays, provisions for jury service, bereavement leave, annual leave loading and meal, uniform and travel allowances."
The statistics emerged following the establishment of the NSW Government's Fair Go Advisory Service, launched by Premier Iemma last year.
The service features:
· a hotline for information on current award entitlements
· a checklist of issues to consider before signing an AWA
· a statewide program of seminars on the impact of the Work Choices
legislation
· a range of web resources and publications.
Mr Della Bosca said the Compare What's Fair calculator would allow users to judge an Australian Workplace Agreement against existing state awards
Compare What's Fair is located on the Office of Industrial Relations website at www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au
Heffernan brushed the $1000 a plate function to join a rally against his own Government, last Thursday.
He grabbed Robertson by the lapel and tried to steal his "Rights at Work" badge before skulking around the fringes of the rally, talking on his mobile phone.
Workers Online understands the controversial senator was supposed to have been inside supervising National Party senators.
Roberson laughed off Heffernan's attention.
"Now I know how Barnaby Joyce feels," he told Workers Online. "His social skills are pretty ordinary but it was interesting to see him trying to stand over an opponent for a change."
Robertson confirmed Heffernan had grabbed him and demanded his orange workers rights badge.
Robertson joins a list of people Heffernan has tried to intimidate, including colleagues Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash.
"I never thought I would have something in common with the National Party," he laughed.
Heffernan, regarded as one of John Howard's closest allies, gained notoriety when he falsely accused High Court Judge Michael Kirby of using Commonwealth Cars to pick up male prostitutes.
In the face of threats to jobs across the state public sector, the IRC found that Sydney Water was in breach of its legal requirements under the award.
"This is an employer that thought they could sack hard working, long term employees for no reason," ASU Deputy Secretary Naomi Arrowsmith said.
"Sanity has returned to Sydney Water thanks to the NSW industrial relations system."
Arrowsmith said the IRC decision had reigned in an out-of-control management at Sydney Water.
"This employer thought they were operating under the Federal Government's WorkChoices laws. If this were the case, workers would have had no choice but to take widespread industrial action that would have inconvenienced the wider community.
"This is a victory for all public sector workers and a reminder to the government that if it cuts jobs, it cuts services."
Arrowsmith said the NSW Government must sit now sit down with unions and negotiate a way forward that doesn't cut key public services.
The eight workers were handed forced redundancy notices earlier this week even though they were not part of any displaced list and had been working fulltime for as long as 14 years in jobs that relied on their expertise.
The Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) says about 300,000 outworkers were employed in Australia's textile industry, and were paid as little as $3 per hour, in a breach of the Clothing Trades Award.
The union is launching a Federal Court action against 27 companies accused of exploitation.
TCFUA state secretary Michele O'Neil alleged the clothes companies were breaching laws designed to prevent exploitation of outworkers, garment makers who work in their homes.
"We want to bring attention to the industry that it needs to clean up its act," says O'Neil. "I think most shoppers and consumers would be really shocked to find that in 2006 we still have this problem in Australia.
"That we have workers who work long hours, day and night, for garments that sell for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars and the worker gets $10-$20 for that garment."
The factories and companies which produce clothes for the fashion houses are accused of having gaps in their records.
Mrs O'Neil said the records were supposed to show who the companies were sub-contracting work to and what these people were paid.
In 2004, the Federal Court handed textile company Lotus Cove a $20,000 fine for breaches of the Workplace Relations Act relating to outworkers.
"People think 'I want to buy this product because it was made here'," Ms O'Neil said. "We want people to support the Australian fashion industry but not at the expense of exploited workers."
The Libs have sent the begging bowl around unions, asking them to cough up cash so Tories can strip union members working conditions.
The move has surprised unions, and is seen by some workers as a sign of desperation, ahead of state elections scheduled for March 16
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) received a letter from the Liberals asking for donations, no matter how small.
President Gerry Kandelaars was shocked at the request, given the Federal Government's new industrial relations laws.
"I was just dumb struck that they would even consider sending such a letter to a trade union given their attitude to trade unions," he says.
Mr Kandelaars says members are being asked to support Labor on March 18.
The move has added to media speculation that the Opposition has a financial crisis.
Last year the Liberals launched a scheme inviting farmers to offer in-kind grain donations to help fund the party's election campaign.
Business Council heavyweight, Geoff Dixon, continues to dangle the threat of off-shoring 2500 heavy maintenance jobs over stalled EBA negotiations with the AMWU and AWU.
Dixon's strategy flies in the face of an assurance he gave workers that he would talk jobs with their unions once the Federal Government handed down its aviation policy.
Canberra announced, last month, that Singapore Airlines would continue to be frozen out of the lucrative Sydney-Los Angeles route.
But, as late as last week, Qantas spokespeople were refusing to be "pushed" into announcing whether or not they would make good on their threat to export Australian jobs to low-cost Asian workshops.
Angry Qantas maintenance workers staged noisy protests at Melbourne and Sydney airports, last week.
An airline bid for Section 127 orders against the workers was thrown out by the Industrial Relations Commission which said Qantas hadn't made out a case and that workers concerns were understandable.
Unions are unwilling to get down to the nitty-gritty of massive clawback claims while everybody's future is up in the air.
"We are not going to engage in bargaining that will reduce terms and conditions. Qantas is the world's most profitable airline with the best maintenance record," AMWU national official Glenn Thompson says.
"Maintenance workers are sick to death of being used as political pawns when the safety and reputation of the airline rests in their hands.
"We want Qantas to level with us, and enter discussions about the future of heavy maintenance.
"There are more effective ways of addressing costs than simply slashing jobs or cutting the living standards of Australian families."
The franchise chain is using the Howard Government's Work Choices laws to shift workers onto individual contracts that strip penalty rates for shiftwork, weekends and public holidays in West Gippsland towns.
The ACTU said it was a raw deal and workers could expect worse under new laws, effective later this month.
"The Government's new work laws effectively give a green light to employers who want to remove basic conditions,'' ACTU policy director George Wright said.
The contracts are being pushed at the chain's Morwell and Traralgon stores.
Workers can be required to work shifts anytime between 6am and 10pm, seven days a week, without receiving penalty rates.
Up to five public holidays -- including Anzac Day and Good Friday -- could be considered normal days for the purposes of the deal.
In an apparent departure from of reality, Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews flatly denied that the deal could happen.
"We're beating them in their own turf," says Robert Coombs from the Maritime Union of Australia. "They'd be better off spending that money on fair conditions for their staff instead of using pricey lawyers to screw workers out of entitlements."
Maz Al-helo, who works for the cruise operator, told a Sydney rally he was relieved the company's bid to go non-union had been blocked.
"Today is a triumph," says Al-helo. "This is a victory for all workers who have stood up against Work Choices."
"They can spend all the millions of dollars they want, but victory belongs to those who need it the most."
Captain Cook's attempt to register a non-union agreement in the Federal jurisdiction backfired when the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ruled Al-helo and his colleagues could have the protection of a union.
Al-helo was one of half a dozen rank and file workers who spoke of their individual battles with Work Choices at a rally organised by Unions NSW as a show of defiance outside a celebratory dinner held by the Liberal Party to mark the 10th anniversary of the Howard Government.
Tune in to Workers Radio Sydney 88.9FM Weekdays 5:30am - 9:00am
The 2006 Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA raffle
Is now open!!!
We invite you to take part in this year's Raffle by buying a ticket, selling
tickets or encouraging your family and friends to participate.
FIRST PRIZE Round the World Trip for Two. Imagine, you and a friend heading
off around the world on a trip of a lifetime!! Every ticket gives you the
chance to win the great prize of a ticket for two around the world with $720
spending money and one night's accommodation in London thrown in.
SECOND PRIZE Acer Travelmate Laptop Computer. You will be able to go
anywhere with this great laptop, valued at $1,300. Acer Travelmate Model
2304Lci, Celeron M-350 with new 1MB Cache, 15" Widescreen, 256MB RAM, 40GB
Hard drive and many more features.
Raffle tickets can be purchased from 1 March 2006:
· Ph: 1800 888 674 Fax: (02) 9261 1118
· Email: office@apheda.org.au
· Online at www.apheda.org.au
Bid for Freedom
Art Exhibition and Auction
When: Exhibition March 1-5, 2006
Mon-Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat, Sun 1pm to 5pm
Auction March 5, 2006
Sunday March 5, 1.30pm to 5pm
Where: The Glen Eira City Council Gallery
Cnr Glen Eira and Hawthorn Roads
Caulfield VIC 3162
Melways Ref: 68 A2
More than 100 Australian artists have generously donated works to be
auctioned to raise money for the Brigidine Nuns Asylum Seeker Project
For more info see http:www.bid4freedom.org
Sick of marching in a straight line?
The Queers in Unions group - Workers Out - invites you to be involved in our float and parade entry for Mardi Gras, Saturday 4 March.
We're looking for all sorts of union members from all sorts of unions to come along and join the fun.
You can be a dancer, help us build our fabulous float or get a group together and come along and be part of the parade entry on the night.
Contacts
Dancers and other performers: Bronwyn Winter on 0412 770 424
General parade entrants: Dominic Quigley on 0424 007 638
All other enquiries: Email bkeeffe@spsf.asn.au
Long time activist and campaigner for workers rights who recently passed away
Thursday 9th of March, 5pm
Victorian Trades hall Council
Human Rights...Negotiable?
What would an Australian Bill of Rights do for you?
Presented by the Port Jackson ALP State Electorate Council
Saturday 11 March 2006
Leichhardt Town Hall 2- 4:30pm
Cnr Norton & Marion Sts, Leichhardt
Guest Speakers
The Hon. Rob Hulls MP Victorian Attorney General
Julian Burnside Queen's Counsel, Refugee Rights Advocate, Author
Tim Palmer Walkley Award Winning Journalist, ABC Jakarta
The Hon. Susan Ryan Chair of the New Matilda Human Rights Campaign
RSVP: SEC Secretary Verity Firth on 02 9692 8761 (leave a message) or at verity_firth@yahoo.com.au by 1 March 2006
John Howard: 10 Years On
It is now 10 years since John Howard was first elected as Australia's Prime Minister.
This forum will consider the Howard Government's 10 years in power and the impact it has had on Australia.
With:
Julia Gillard MP, Shadow Health Minister
Gerard Henderson, columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald
Judith Brett, Author
When: Wednesday 22 March from 6.00pm to 7.30pm
Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
Cost: Free
Chair: Senator John Faulkner, President of the NSW Fabian Society
APHEDA VICTORIAN ACTIVISTS MEETING
Tue 4th April, 6.30 PM.
The first meeting of the Victorian Activist Group will be held 6.30 PM,
Tuesday 4th April 2006. Meeting Room 9, Community & Public Sector Union
(CPSU), 11th Floor, 575 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Light refreshments will be
provided. RSVP to natasha.joyce@cpsu.org.au by Monday 3rd April.
The Activist network enables members and supporters to meet and share
recourses locally as they support Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA's overseas
projects and campaigns.
APHEDA MELBOURNE MOVIE FUNDRAISER
Thu 20th April, 6.30 PM
Make it a date to remember!
Join Melbourne members and supporters at the Cinema Nova for a night of film
and fundraising. Raising much needed dollars for Union Aid Abroad-APEHDA's
overseas projects, tickets are just $20/$15 to see the Academy Award
nominated film Tsotsi in it's first week of release (see below for movie
blurb). Thursday 20th April 6.30 PM at the Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon Street
Carlton.
Contact Steve Mullins for bookings (payment MUST be made before the night)
Mobile: 0413021412 smullins@actu.asn.au
Tsotsi - (m) nominated for Academy Best Foreign Language Film
Set amidst the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto - where survival is
the primary objective - Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless
young gang leader who ends up caring for a baby accidentally kidnapped
during a car-jacking. Tsotsi is a gritty and moving portrait of an angry
young man living in a state of extreme urban deprivation. His world pumps
with the raw energy of Kwaito Music - the modern beat of the ghetto that
reflects his troubled state of mind.
The film is a psychological thriller in which the protagonist is compelled
to confront his own brutal nature and face the consequences of his actions.
It puts a human face on both the victims and the perpetrators of violent
crime and is ultimately a story of hope and a triumph of love over rage.
Winner, 2005 Toronto Film Festival, People's Choice Award
STRUGGLES, SCABS + SCHOONERS is BACK
29th April 2006 from 1:30pm.
This year it is all about the history - and ongoing battles - of working class women. Join us for stories, memories, hope, singing and beer.
Tickets are $30, which includes dinner.
If you wanna get on board the bus (walkers are welcome & free), please let us know ASAP - you'll have a confirmed seat if you get us the money before the day - please make cheques payable to the PROUD TO BE UNION COMMITTEE INC (send to Struggles, Scabs & Schooners - c/- FSU, PO Box A2442 Sydney South 1235).
RSVP to Chris (chris.gambian@fsunion.org.au
Time for me to leave the letters page for others for a while.
But not before a last word while printing storeys from this issue I read labor sells Hydro.
Please do not try to sell another way of deverting votes from the ALP.
As I enter lunch rooms to place these storeys on tables Blue colar and hard hat workers already say Labor can not win.
Lets elect them and then grab them lobby them and get our views heard.
Ever tried to lobby a Howard minister for workplace justice?
Howard needs no help from us lets unite and fight together.
Allan Bell
What is the government doing to this country?????
All prices are on a permanent increase but the wages are on a decrease. Is the government trying to create a continent full of crime? When the lowest of income earners get reduced to a wage resembling the 1940's and start turning to crime to try and make ends meet, and the rich start bringing in the death penalty again, what will happen to the country?
We are doomed to becoming a third world sector if the government doesn't stop this nonsense.
It is unfortunate that our next generation will have children that will be told where they can live and what they are to do during their time away from work.
Its bad enough that our schools were reduced to just high schools and now "secondary colleges" ( whats next? elimentary,etc?), that now we have a massive shortfall of qualified tradespeople.
Thank you to all our politicians for helping to destroy what migrants called "the lucky country.
Donald Topping
Ya what?
Yup, we could have nominated Sol Trujillo, Whats His Face or any other Business Council of Australia worthy but, for the purposes of demonstrating how Australia has changed under John Winston Howard, one high flyer will do.
Geoff Dixon manages an airline.
He does not fly, maintain or build airplanes. He doesn't even serve the drinks. Like those who do, however, he is a hired hand.
Geoff Dixon is not an entrepreneur. He doesn't risk his own money or assets but manages those of shareholders, on their behalves. And this last point is important because Geoff Dixon definitely doesn't manage on behalf of employees or the Australian public.
This, despite like Trujillo, being in charge of a business that owes its market position to once having been owned by the Australian public.
Geoff Dixon "earned" $6.1 million, last year, up $3.7 million on his 1995 salary. He strongly backed Work Choices, Howard's legislation to hold down the minimum wage, slash job security and speed-up the share of the economy being transferred from ordinary families to a tiny minority like, well, Geoff Dixon.
But, let's leave Mr Dixon alone for a minute, and move to the man of the moment.
To win back-to-back elections is a feat, to rack up four on the trot is exceptional but, then again, there has to be a difference between beating the Brisbane Broncos in a grand final and finding yourself on a winning lap, courtesy of the Naromine Nevilles. But that is a story for another day.
History's report card will include Australia's effort in helping East Timor throw off tyranny but it must also deal with the undermining of Medicare, Children Overboard, SIEV X, weapons of mass destruction, Work Choices, razor wire, and the state of Aboriginal Australia.
The politicisation of the public service, demonisation of the ABC, castration of independent science and prostration before Washington are relevant, as well.
And life under John Howard will never be understood without references to mates and fellow travellers like John Elliot, Trevor Flugge, Rob Gerard and Stan Howard.
All of these factors leave a big question mark over the place of honesty and accountability in Australian society after a decade of a government whose first political principle appears to have been "plausible deniability".
From day one, Howard has maintained that he has governed for all Australians but that just might be the biggest porky of the lot.
Let's say one of his backers, Geoff Dixon, for example, had a problem. He might want to slash Qantas' costs, for shareholders, and the sake of his own bonus. In his sights could be nearly 3000 Australian families whose breadwinners are skilled, long-serving maintenance workers.
Given that Howard's Australia runs a massive balance of trade deficit, it is clear that their skills would be integral to solving that problem.
You've known John Howard, PM, for 10 years. Who do you think he would use his position and power to back-in?
Jim Marr
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