*****
It was a tough decision, made after minutes if not seconds of deliberation, but this shamelessly self-indulgent promotion of the attractively packaged Deck Of Tools has rendered the author of this diatribe to be none other than a Tool himself.
It is not a unique observation, shared as it is by many who have observed this author's unique take on the nature of life, language and fashion sense.
As an unreconstructed Bogan, and someone who lists among their hobbies as drinking and smoking, marketing has presented itself as a new challenge.
Although stooping to new lows has never previously presented itself as a problem to this author, luckily Workers Online has a precedent to work off.
Just as after edition 100 we had a veritable array of toolworthy behaviour, so it is 200 odd editions on, with some sterling performances across the land, including:
- A half arsed Prime Minister invoking the spirit of mateship while doing his damnedest to rip it up and turn us all into a nation of backstabbing brats and slaves.
- A media mogul who decided to step into the limelight and remind us that donations to a worthy cause were a good thing because they got your company mentioned on the telly.
- A workplace relations minister from a parallel universe who seems to think that safety will always take precedence over profit.
- A right wing think tank that believes that human life can be protected by the invisible hand of market forces, although most of us would prefer a decent harness or something solid between us and the moving parts of the machinery.
It is interesting to note, over 300 editions of Workers Online that we have never been short of a tool each week.
We know the universe to be infinite because it has to hold the cluelessness of those that like to think they run the shop. From the grubby little embarrassment who passes himself off as the Prime Minister, to the empty wastes inside the head of his morally and intellectually bankrupt treasurer, through to the coke addled darlings of the Eastern Suburbs tennis circuit, we have a constant source of amusement, and an endless reminder as to why we will win - because, when it's all said and done, the people we are up against couldn't run a tap.
Watching the Howard government is like watching a car crash in slow motion.
To celebrate Workers Online lasting this long, an achievement in itself given this journalist's ambivalent relationship to the concept of a deadline, we have produced an attractively packaged deck of cards we describe as our Deck Of Tools.
From Piers the Hutt through to George W Bush we present a veritable cavalcade of tools, and we are offering this limited edition offer to you our valued reader, for the bargain basement price of $10.00 (A$20.00 for overseas readers).
Cards are a great way to socialise in and out of work. Even David Beckham can play snap. Some journalists can even count to ten. So the Deck Of Tools is a barrel load of fun waiting to happen.
They also make excellent gifts to Federal Liberal politicians and annoying conservative in-laws.
To get your very own Deck of Tools, and make the most of this new low in advertorial content, simply send your cheque or money order, along with your return postage details and the quantity of decks you want, to:
Workers Online Limited Edition Deck Of Tools Offer
Level 2
Trades Hall
4 Goulburn Street
Sydney 2000
Normal service will resume next week, but Phil Doyle will still be a tool.
It's good to know that some things remain constant in these troubled and ever-changing times.
The NSW Mines Rescue Service, a specialist operation half-owned by the CFMEU, worked hand-in-glove with the AWU to rescue the gold miners buried 1000m below Beaconsfield in Tasmania.
The CFMEU's Peter Murray, a Rescue Service board member, said Howard had an agenda to undermine safety training.
He said they wanted to put an end to union-backed safety organisations, such as the Mines Rescue Service.
The organisation, formed 80 years ago after a string of underground disasters, provided the experts for the Beaconsfield rescue and trained one of the trapped miners.
It provides safety training to miners under state-based OHS laws.
The laws require at least five percent of the mining workforce to undergo safety training.
However, the Howard Government has flagged wresting power off the states in OHS - threatening specific provisions in mine safety.
Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews' draconian legislation specifically forbids the inclusion of union or union-backed safety courses in agreements.
His Office of the Employment Advocate has just refused to ratify a Queensland coal mining agreement that green lights union-endorsed safety education.
His government is a fierce opponent of the CFMEU. It has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a dodgy Royal Commission and a special anti-worker building industry police force in a bid to limit its ability to represent its members.
Three Bendigo construction workers, employed by contractor McFee Propriety Limited, had their pay docked after delivering proceeds from a whip-around to a union office in town.
The company said they were 15 minutes late from their lunch break and extracted 30 minutes off their wages in retaliation.
McFee site manager, Peter Anstee, told local radio: ``We are not involved in mining, we are a construction company. If we had to chip in for every poor bugger who got killed at work we'd go broke.''
About a hundred construction workers employed at the Bendigo gold mine passed the hat around for Larry Knight's family, raising about $3500.
"Three shop stewards on the site went to management and said, 'look, we want to take this money down to the AWU office in Bendigo so that they can deliver it as quickly as possible to the family'," Victorian secretary of the Construction and Mining Union, Martin Kingham, told ABC radio. "They asked for permission to leave the site. They indicated that, because there was some distance for them to travel, that they might be a little bit late coming back from their lunch break.
The ABC reported that the Office of Workplace Services has looked into the matter and didn't propose taking action.
The Australian Building and Construction Commission said the actions of McPhee Propriety Limited might well be legal.
"For the Howard Government to praise the Australian spirit, while overseeing laws that will destroy mateship and collectivity at work is a joke," said Kingham.
Gerry Hanssen already uses �guest labour�, AWAs and body hire to undercut going industry rates by hundreds of dollars a week.
And the cost is being borne by buyers of his Swan River and CBD apartments who face long delays before they can occupy their dwellings.
An internal Hanssen Pty memo, leaked to Workers Online, reveals the company wants more than 50 additional "guest workers" as projects, across Perth, fall months behind schedule.
The May Day memo shows his most advanced job, One-28, is only 37 percent completed when it should be 85 percent ready. Avena has reached less than a third of its planned 66.9 percent completion; and Soho is more than 50 percent behind schedule.
Hanssen admits both his most advanced projects are more than three months behind.
CFMEU state secretary, Kevin Reynolds, says it is little wonder because experienced construction workers won't put up with sub-standard wages, conditions or health and safety.
"He's indicated to us that he intends importing 300 guest workers," Reynolds says.
"People on the ground say he is paying the Filipinos $15 an hour, all-in, but we can't confirm that because it's Gerry's secret. He refuses to discuss it.
"We know for a fact he has them working on site, seven days a week.
"What we also know is that he uses AWAs and labour hire to pay all-in rates to his Australian workers. They don't get sick leave, redundancy, rostered days off or annual leave and the guys won't stay."
Reynolds says, on core rates alone, Hanssen pays crane drivers $16 an hour below EBA standards.
Hanssen's first foray into construction, The Tile Shop, ended in bankruptcy.
He reappeared as a small-scale operation before being contracted to do all the building for Singapore-based Finbar which has capitalised on Perth's apartment boom.
Hanssen is aggressively anti-union and a champion of Howard Government attempts to cut living standards..
He was one of the first large scale users of "guest labour" in the construction industry.
Hanssen sent his memo to managers to cover a two week absence while he visited India, China and the Phillipines. He said he would be "clearing bureaucratic issues" in Manila.
CFMEU national secretary, John Sutton, said Hanssen represented a growing number of "aggressive" employers keen to cash-in on John Howard's IR laws and lax immigration policy.
"We have seen the number of temporary migration visas skyrocket under this government. This arrangement leaves employers in total control of vulnerable workers. The big winners are unscrupulous employers and the losers are young Australians," Sutton said.
Houlihan�s company, IR Australia, has drafted AWAs that seek to dud employees at more than 50 Childs Family Kingergartens of every cent they won in a recent pay equity case that found they had been victims of the �undervaluing of women�s work�.
IR Australia has stuck John Howard-endorsed individual contracts in front of directors of 37 centres across NSW. They seek to slash wages by a minimum of $138 a week, remove access to rest breaks, eliminate holiday loadings and cut sick pay entitlements.
The same company has been contracted by Cubby House Australia to come up with a non-union agreement for its staff and, according to Ian West, MLC, it is near identical to those being foisted on Childs Family Kindergarten people.
"They claim to tailor agreements to individual circumstances but these agreements are very similar and, in some parts, identical," West told Workers Online.
West blew the story in a state parliament expose.
"The owners and managers of these two organisations would like people to think they are family friendly and they support families," West said. "But they are treating employees with contempt and abusing their new-found master-servant relationship.
"If workers sign these individual agreements they will lose between $138 and $313 per week, depending on their classifications.
"It is a massive amount of money and they will lose it straight away.''
Workers Online has discovered that Houlihan, infamous for his roles in the Mudginberri dispute and the 1998 Waterfront shambles, orchestrated by Peter Reith and the NFF, is a director of IR Australia.
According to its website, the company is fronted by Sydney-based Peter Rochfort.
Ballarat-based manufacturer, Maxi-TRANS, punted 13 locals a fortnight ago, and another 22 last week.
AMWU state secretary, Dave Oliver, said federal government policy was directly responsible for the job losses.
"The federal government is fuelling the skills crisis and costing our young people opportunities, so it can drive down wages," Oliver said.
"These local people had been employed as casuals, for years, but not offered the training they needed to become skilled welders.
"Instead, MaxiTRANS has used government's scandalous policy to import and keep Chinese welders who only have to be paid the minimum wage."
MaxiTRANS, which builds semi-trailers, announced a $14 million profit, last year, under the headline: "MaxiTRANS Delivers Another Record Profit.'
The figure is nearly double that it recorded for the 1994 financial year.
During that period, it has been mired in controversy over its use of cheap overseas labour at the expense of Victorian youngsters.
Its strategy was unmasked, last year, when it brushed nine locals who had been promised starts through a group training company in favour of imported tradesmen it could put on individual agreements that undercut negotiated rates.
One youngster, Chirs Walters, confirmed his promised steel fabrication apprenticeship had been shelved.
He called the MaxiTRANS about-face a "kick in the guts".
The figures were confirmed when the NSW Government announced major rolling stock contracts would be awarded to either Goninans or EDI Rail, in an about-face that removed the prospect of off-shoring the giant rail deals.
AMWU state secretary, Paul Bastian, called the decision a "great win for Newcastle and the Hunter Valley".
"The decision to keep this contract in NSW marks a significant change in the direction of public policy. It recognises the importance of keeping high skill jobs in the state," Bastiain said.
He was responding to Premier Morris Iemma's announcement, last week, that work on 72 new trains and 600 carriages would be done at Hunter Valley heavy engineering shops.
Last year, the state government released a short-list of four tenderers for a PPP contract to design, build and maintain its new rail fleet.
Two of the contenders were likely to have their grunt work done on the cheap at overseas workshops.
The AMWU swung into action, arguing offshoring would cost jobs, skills and opportunities in a region still trying to adjust to the loss of BHP's giant steelworks.
The Union took its message to state MPs, the Treasurer, Newcastle's Lord Mayor, and the community, through local media and centrally-located billboards.
Stop work meetings, rallies and leafleting of shopping centres and transport hubs backed the message.
Bastian said last week's decision would mean at least 2000 high skilled jobs on the frontline, and a minimum of 1500 more in companies directly servicing the successful bidder.
The consortia short-listed last week were Star Alliance (United Goninan and Mitsubishi Electric) and Reliance Rail (Downer EDI, ABN-Amro, Itachi and AMP Capital).
The Commission ruled Post could not force employees to see company doctors unless it was assessing fitness for work, after the Communications Union (CEPU) presented evidence that injured workers were being harassed.
Postie Alana Weissel said she felt "harassed" when she received phone calls and a personal visit from Australia Post management, who were trying to get her to see a company doctor after hurting her back at work.
Management said not attending a company doctor would put her workers compensation claim at risk.
"The practice was grossly unfair to injured workers because doctors - paid by Australia Post - invariably found them fit for work when Postal workers' own doctors were saying they were unfit following a workplace injury," CEPU Secretary Jim Metcher said.
According to Australia Post's figures, employees who attend their own doctor are found unfit for work 95 per cent of the time.
When they see a company doctor they are found unfit in six per cent of cases.
Metcher also said the case highlighted the effectiveness of the IRC in resolving workplace disputes.
"John Howard's industrial relations changes, which unilaterally remove the power of the AIRC, are an attack on workers mistreated by their employers."
Hundreds of angry South Aussie workers have demanded action after a blast at a South Australian munitions factory killed three and seriously injured two others.
The blast at the Gladstone munitions factory rocked nearby farmhouses, levelled the brick factory and scattered debris across an area the size of a football field.
In one month six South Australian workers have lost their lives, another three have been seriously injured - two with burns and shrapnel wounds, and another is a paraplegic.
"At this rate we're losing more than one life a week while others may never work again due to their terrible injuries," says SA Unions secretary Janet Giles. "This has to stop."
Hundreds attended a rally in Adelaide last week, calling on the state government to strengthen Occupational Health and Safety laws to protect workers.
"The federal industrial laws have made it harder to maintain safe work standards," says Giles. "Workers are reluctant to stand up for safety because they can be sacked.
"Because the federal laws don't promote safety - in fact they specifically prevent employers being liable for industrial manslaughter - it means there's a greater responsibility on the state government to act."
South Australian workers have called on the state government to:
- Significantly increased penalties for negligent employers
- More action by workplace inspectors
- Permission for union officials to enter workplaces for health and safety issues
- Protection from victimisation, and increased training for health and safety officers
- Guaranteed protection for workers who refuse to do unsafe work
- Faster and more thorough investigations of incidents
TV Show Shows Workplace Safety Reality
Meanwhile in New Zealand a new reality television series gives viewers the chance to experience the work that goes on behind the scenes of workplace accidents and investigations.
Special Investigators follows workplace health and safety inspectors for the Department of Labour, Civil Aviation Authority and Maritime New Zealand going about their daily business, and showcases the variety of hazards people can encounter in the workplace.
Bob Boyle, Brian Breining and Brian Smith are three of more than 20,000 workers fired every year because they want to join a union.
In Dover, Ohio, Breining and Smith were both active in trying to win a voice at work with the USW at Cultured Stone Co. They say the safety conditions at the 70-year-old manufactured stone warehouse were "tragic," with holes in the floor, windows falling out of their frames, huge leaks in the roof. There were huge wage gaps between workers doing the same job.
"The reason we wanted a union wasn't what most people typically think," says Breining. "It was to have a grievance procedure, for accountability to management, to have an up-to-date handbook, equal opportunity, so two identical situations wouldn't be handled in different ways depending on who you are.
"It didn't work because the company spread anti-union propaganda. They slandered us. And they gave everyone a 3 percent pay increase across the board.
"They ran a campaign to shoot us down. We put our organizing committee together. It wasn't long after that when I was fired. That wasn't the reason they gave, but that's what happened."
"Employers have a huge amount of latitude in our system. An employer can fire because they don't like the colour of your hair," says former National Labour Relations Board member and AFL-CIO legal counsel Sarah Fox.
Members of the AFL-CIO have signed up a bipartisan group of Employee Free Choice Act politicians to protect workers trying to form a union at work.
But the AFL-CIO is doubtful Republican lawmakers are likely to allow a vote on the legislation even if it does gain majority support.
Costello's budget figures reveal spending on training has declined over a year from 0.75 per cent of government expenditure to 0.73 per cent. By 2010 the figure will be 0.67 per cent
This is despite groups as varied as unions, employer advocates and the Reserve Bank barking for more funding for skills.
NSW Teachers Federation Assistant Secretary Phil Bradley said from 1997 to 2004, the Howard Government had dropped its funding by a dollar for each student, for every hour they attended job training.
Bradley said Costello appeared to be blind to the crisis in skills.
"You've even got ACCI, the Reserve Bank, Peter Hendy complaining and the Federal Government seems to be ignoring them all."
Bradley said as 270,000 guest workers had been brought in to Australia over the last ten years, 300,000 Australians were turned away from TAFE.
Australian Industry Group Chair Heather Ridout told ABC radio: "The Budget didn't go far enough in terms of putting more money behind the skills agenda, which is probably, aside from competition, the biggest issue facing Australian industry and business across a broad range of sectors".
The Reserve Bank identified the shortage of skilled workers would raise both inflation and interest rates.
Money For Jam
meanwhile, the Federal government is throwing money to prop up WorkChoices while victims of asbestos and the Ansett collapse have been brushed.
According to budget papers an extra $7.3m to be put aside in the remainder of the 2005-06 year for "education activities to explain the workplace relations reforms", including employer adviser program and seminars announced by workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews.
The Australian Fair Pay Commission will receive $7.7m and the Australian Building and Construction Commission $32.9m for 2006-07, while $1.6 million has been set aside for conducting secret ballots.
Unlawful termination assistance has been allocated $6.3 million.
No allocations have been made to victims of asbestos funding or those affected by the Ansett collapse, despite commitments by the Howard government to fund these prior to the 2004 election.
Many of the casual workers are owed $4000 each two months after the Games started.
Security guard Amin Tawfik told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper that he was owed $2500.
"We worked up to 200 hours, sometimes putting in 17-hour days," says Tawfik. "I'm in debt up to my ears, the whole thing is a mess."
Many of the unpaid guards are overseas students who were given permission to work during the Games.
Tawfik says he was hired by a company called QuickStep, which subcontracted work for Chubb Security.
"Subcontracting is rife in the security industry," says Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union secretary Brian Daley. "In response to WorkChoices we are working with employers to try and eliminate these practices as much as possible."
SEDITIOUS INTENT Short Film Collection
Online now at http://spinach7.com/si/
Seventeen short films - some sad, some funny, some gentle, some illuminating - from the slick to the raw and edgy, ranging from fiction, faction, animation, claymation, subverts to adverts - they make up the exciting web-based SEDITIOUS INTENT short film collection site.
The collection is the result of a call to filmmakers across the country to "create a short film (from 30 secs - 5 mins) that responds in some way to the Australian Government's draconian new anti-terrorism laws".
When we initiated the project, we knew it wouldn't prevent the anti-terror laws from being implemented. However, 'SEDITIOUS INTENT' is aimed at keeping the discussion alive and enabling filmmakers to participate in actions that provoke debate that leads to change.
We have partnered with EngageMedia(http://engagemedia.org), a group distributing video stories about social justice and environmental issues in Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. We are proud to be their first collection.
Labor Tribune
You are invited to the launch meeting of Labor Tribune
Labor Tribune [email protected]
IS MARXISM RELEVANT TO THE LABOUR MOVEMENT?
Speakers: Meredith Burgmann, MLC, president of the NSW upper house Jack Mundey, environmental campaigner, former NSW secretary BLF Andrew West, SMH Online columnist, political biographer, Fabian Society executive Marcus Strom, editor Labor Tribune, secretary Summer Hill ALP
Tuesday May 16, 6.30pm
Mitchell Theatre Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts Level 1 280 Pitt Street, Sydney
www.labortribune.net
'Know Your Rights' Hypothetical
In Brisbane - Based on the 'Hypotheticals' format, Barb Lowing will host a panel including Tony Auckland, Tom McSweeny, Joss McWilliam and Bruce Redman. The event is free for financial Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance members and students (non-members $33) and will be held on Monday 22 May, 6.30pm - The Roundhouse Theatre, 6-8 Musk Ave Kelvin Grove. Bookings are essential. To reserve your seat, call Kate Brady on 02 9333 0911 or email [email protected]
MELBOURNE DECLARES PEACE ON THE WORLD
National Peace Conference Invitation Thursday, May 25, 7pm Public Meeting, Storey Hall, RMIT, Swanston St, City Saturday, May 27 Registration from 9am Maritime Union of Australia, 46 Ireland St, West Melbourne The conference seeks to foster better international connections and develop a clearer coherent national strategy for peace. It will coincide with tours by significant international players in the peace movement including: Hassan J'umar: President of the Iraqi Oil Workers Union, Cindy Sheehan, from Goldstar Families for Peace, USA. Sabah Jawad, Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation. Dr Salam Islmail, From Doctors for Iraq, Muslim Association of Britian and Stop the War Coalition. Cost : $50 for one or two delegates, $20 (waged observer) $10 (unwaged observer) Conference Dinner Saturday $20 waged, $15 unwaged Contact the conference roganising committee on: Phone: 0418 316 310 Email: [email protected] Mail GPO Box 1473, Melbourne VIC 3001
HISTORY AND CULTURE EVENTS COMING UP
Work, Industrial Relations and Popular Culture Conference Monday 25 September 2006, Brisbane Work and Industry Futures QUT, and the Department of Industrial Relations Griffith University are convening a one-day conference that explores Work, Industrial Relations and Popular Culture.
David Pope, the cartoonist behind the Heinrich Hinze cartoons will be Keynote Speaker with his presentation - "Is the pen mightier than s356? Cartoons and Work" (www.scratch.com.au)
We welcome any paper that explores the manner in which popular culture is used by unions, management or policy makers or alternatively, how work and industrial relations is represented within popular culture.
Sub-themes for the conference include: - Policy, Influence and Modern Mediums - Which is Reality, Work or TV? - Popular Music: Is it the End of the Working Class Man? - Working in the Movies: What do we see? - Popular Culture as a Teaching Tool. Call for Papers. Abstracts are due 14 July 2006 Full papers are due 11 September 2006 Location; Southbank, Brisbane.
The convenors would welcome participants to submit proposed titles earlier to assist in preparations. For further information please contact Keith Townsend ([email protected]) or David Peetz ([email protected])
Rekindling the Flames of Discontent: How the Labour and Folk Movements Work Together
A CONFERENCE / DINNER / CONCERT
The Brisbane Labour History Association is holding a Conference/Dinner/Concert on Saturday 23 September. This event will explore the historical relationship between the labour movement and the folk movement in Australia with a particular emphasis on Queensland.
Why? To celebrate the history of the interaction between the Folk and Labour movements, and promote its longevity.
When? Saturday 23 September. Conference from 1pm. Concert from 7pm.
Where? East Brisbane Bowls Club, Lytton Rd, East Brisbane, Next to Mowbray Park
It is still in the formative stages, but to date the following are confirmed:
1-5pm CONFERENCE (will include music with the presentations):
Doug Eaton on John Manifold & the Communist Arts Group in Brisbane, Brisbane Realists
Bob & Margaret Fagan on Sydney Realist Writers
Mark Gregory on trade union & labour songs/music, nationally/internationally
Lachlan & Sue on international perspectives
5 - 7pm Drinks followed by DINNER
7 - 11pm CONCERT
Combined Unions Choir
Bob and Margaret Fagan
Mark Gregory
Jumping Fences
For more information contact the BLHA President Greg Mallory on [email protected], or Secretary Ted Reithmuller on [email protected], or Dale Jacobsen on [email protected]
I have a story about my experiences with the Immigration Department and my efforts to come back to Australia to live again. I hope you can help me by bringing this story to the attention of the minister, as I feel that the staff of the Immigration Department can't cope with my case as it's outside their usual framework. They can't seem to look �outside the box� at individual cases.
I'll try and keep the story as short as possible, but I need to go back a few years to give you the background of my case.
My first husband and I were married in England in 1972 and our honeymoon was the plane trip to immigrate to Australia. We were only 21 and 19 years of age and it was a great adventure. We settled happily in Brisbane and over the next 15 years we built up a subcontracting business and then went into the building industry. We had a pretty successful business and paid thousands of dollars in tax, and our two daughters were born in Brisbane in 1976 and 1978. We thought of getting naturalized one day, but as with most immigrants in those days it was something that we would do one day.
In 1986, at the age of 35, my husband Graham was diagnosed with a brain tumor and he died 6 months later. A few months before he got sick he had done a job for a big businessman down the coast who then didn't pay him. As a result Graham was served with bankruptcy papers while he lay in hospital dying. So, while I was trying to care for our two children, who were only 10 and 8 years of age, and trying to care for my dying husband, our family home was repossessed and I had to find a rented house at rent I could barely afford. I stayed with friends for a short time after Graham's death and then decided that the children needed the security of family and a home, and so I returned to England so that we could be with my parents and brothers and sisters.
Over the next 17 years I remarried, worked hard and made sure the girls had a stable life. My oldest daughter went on to do a University degree, and my youngest daughter married and had her first child. I tried to forget my life in Australia, even though my children had been born there, as the last couple of years there had been so traumatic. But, of course, my past came back to haunt me!
My oldest daughter got the opportunity to return to Brisbane for a year as part of her University degree and jumped at the chance. She didn't remember a lot about her life there but as soon as she got back the memories came back too and before long she had made the decision that she wanted to return to Australia to live permanently. Then, my youngest daughter, after speaking to her sister, decided she wanted to return also and so, at 7 months pregnant, and with her husband and 3 year old son arrived in Brisbane. My second grandchild was born in Australia, so now all my family was in Australia and I was in England! My second husband and I decided to visit so that we could see our new grandchild and so in 2004, after 17 years out of the country, I returned to Brisbane on a holiday visa. All the memories came flooding back, and the good ones far outweighed the bad ones! We loved it, loved the lifestyle, the climate and the people. My husband Chris had never been to Australia before but he loved it too and before we had left we knew that we wanted to return here to live and to be close to our daughters and grandchildren.
This is when the Immigration Department comes in to the story. Once I had returned to England I contacted the Immigration Department and applied to be re-issued with my permanent visa, which I had held for 15 years as a permanent resident of Australia. I was told that because I had been out of the country for more than 10 years and had never been naturalized, that I could not be re-issued with my permanent resident�s visa, and my application would be treated in the same way as any other person applying to immigrate to Australia. This is despite the fact that I had lived there for 15 years, had paid tax for 15 years, had two Australian children, and two grandchildren, one of whom had been born in Australia! I was to be treated the same as someone from Pakistan or China or Vietnam, who had never set foot in the country before.
I tried to appeal the decision, but was told I was not allowed to appeal, that the appeal would have to come from my daughters in Australia. They did appeal (this appeal cost us $1400), and a video-link was arranged between my daughters, two friends who spoke up about what had happened to me and the circumstances of why I had left the country, and a judge appointed by the Immigration Department. At the appeal, the judge informed the participants that although she was sympathetic to our case, she could only adjudicate �by the book, and that the Immigration laws stated that if a person is out of the country for a period of more than 10 years that they lose their rights to regain their permanent visa. So, our $1400 dollars was actually lost before we even started the appeal, as the law also states that if the appeal is successful we would have the money returned, but if unsuccessful we would lose the money.
I was told that we should contact the Minister for Immigration, but that the whole process would be a lot quicker if done from Australia. We still desperately wanted to come to Australia to be with our family, so we decided to sell up our house in England and take a chance on making the new appeals in Australia. We applied for and were given a 6 month holiday visa, with the option that if we leave the country after 6 months we can stay another 6 months. This can go on for 4 years, as long as we leave the country every 6 months, but of course we need to work and can�t work while on this visa, so it makes it a bit difficult to travel overseas every 6 months!
We arrived in Australia in June 2005, with the decision made that we can afford to stay for 12 months without working. After 12 months, if we have not been accepted, we have to go back to England, get jobs and start again. We rented a house and I started the new processes to try and get my visa. I contacted the office of the local state member and was given details of the correct people to contact and started the process again. I have spoken to Canberra, spent hours in the Immigration Department in Brisbane (which is staffed by immigrants!), filled in forms and made countless phone calls. I don�t think the story has even got as far as the minister yet as it�s still going through all the red tape. I was told that I could possibly get a bridging visa while the application is going through, but I have now been told that we DO have to leave the country as the decision won�t be made until AFTER our first 6 months is up in early December. So, we have booked a few days in Fiji in early December and then we can come back for another 6 months to continue the saga.
I just think this is so unfair. We were told by the original judge that the Immigration Department can change the rules if they want to, depending on the case, but I really feel that it just depends on how a particular person feels on the day, as to how fast the application is going through, and whether they will change the rules. We are just every day battlers and we can�t afford for this to go on too much longer. We just want to be with our daughters and grandchildren, get a job and buy a house (which we have enough money to pay for cash). I believe that mine is an unusual case and that it deserves to be looked at fairly. Why can�t a person who has paid tax in this country for 15 years, who isn�t a terrorist, who speaks English, who has come here legally and whose family are all Australian come here when they can give permanent visas to people who have come in illegally on a boat with no identification?
I hope that you are interested enough in my story to contact me and if you do I�ll be happy to talk to you. I will do ANYTHING to try and stay in Australia and be with my family.
Rose Walker Regents Park Qld
The Large Print Giveth And The Small Print Taketh Away
Costello pinched $10 out of your pocket and if you are a low wage earner he will give you back 10c and the other 90c goes to one of the High income earners
L Crossing
The telecommuncations industry for a number of years now has been forcing telecommunications linesworkers to become independent contractors to apply for jobs.
The requirements include the "contractor" registering as a business with an ABN etc, purchase their own late model toyota hiace van ie $25K, own tools ($5K) and take out own workers compensation and other insurances ($5K) per annumn.
Yet these same "contractors" are expected to sign contracts that they will work only exclusively for that company yet with no guarantee of work from that company.
Excuse me, if these workers are forced to set up as their own business then don't they have the same rights as other businesses to market their services to as many telecommunications companies, other businesses and Australian households and undertake work for whom they please.
And if some of these workers should have such superior marketing, resource and other skills to pursuade a number of other businesses and households to purchase telecommunications services off them rather than an existing company and can provide that service satisfactorily then shouldn't these workers be allowed to undertake that work. Wouldn't to prevent or restrict these "contractors" from accepting work for their "business" be a breach of the NSW Trade Practices Act!!!
These practices are very much like me purchasing a service from an electrician or plumber stating to that electrician or plumber I would only use their service if they only worked exclusively for me even though I've probably only needed and paid for electrical or plumbing services 2 or 3 times in the past 10 years!!!! It just wouldn't wash and would be extremely unfair on those people involved.
Pity, because it provided a pretty succinct overview of the political dynamics of the current Federal Parliament, putting a spotlight on the opportunities, obstacles and downright frustrations in running effective opposition in a time of economic boom.
We are no Beazley boosters, but the Big Fella hit most of the right lines last night - accepting the wholesale tax cuts proffered by the Treasurer while sending the focus back to WorkChoices.
Beazley asked the right questions of the government - massive foreign debt, crumbling infrastructure, mounting skills shortage and the uneven benefits of the resources boom.
Yes, there was no alternative when you are responding to perhaps the biggest tax handout in Australia's history but to switch the Big Picture; but the focus was spot on - ask not how the economy is working, but who the economy is working for.
Presenting a Budget in Reply is a little like dancing on your own - there are not any tangible things you can give the public, just the promise of future rewards for a change of government.
The temptation is where the hand outs are only hypothetical, to give up altogether and instead opt for complex policy prescription which is a dangerous road to hoe. We've seen it with Knowledge Nation in 1998, you don't need to let Barry Jones loose to make long-term economic planning a hard sell.
But a few building blocks were put in place last night:
- wrapping the skills shortage into a tangible - accessibility to TAFE;
- wrapping the explosion in the numbers of non-citizens in the workforce into a black ban on foreign apprentices;
- wrapping the work family squeeze into a major project to put child care into public schools;
- wrapping the failure of infrastructure into high speed internet access for Australian families;
- and always bringing it back to the attack on workers rights.
As Kimbo asked, in the grab that may cut though: "What good is a tax cut if you lose your penalty rates." It was a good line.
The problem though is if you mob are not watching him, you can bet Middle Australia isn't - its like the line about trees falling in forests, if no one hears the speech was it really a speech?
While the public may not have been tuned in to Kim's battle, we were all riveted by the amazing escape of a couple of union members from Tasmania.
Beyond the human drama, was the prominent role played by the Australian Workers Union and their national secretary Bill Shorten performing one of the less acknowledged roles that unions have always played, supporting working families in times of crisis.
Even conservative commentators are acknowledging the good work of the union and opining that this is a sign that the federal government may have swung the pendulum too far.
What Bill did so well was not to play politics in a situation where this would have been the easy option, he just stood there beside his members, filling the void and representing their immediate interests during tough times, while preparing to ram home responsibility once the miners are safely home.
You don't need to be particularly clever or creative just real and relevant; maybe that is also the secret for Labor in these most difficult of good times.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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