E D I T O R I A L

When the Truth Hurts
Some rare moments of candour this week have vindicated all we’ve been saying about WorkChoices and more.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Rock Solid
Bill Shorten gives the inside story on the Australian Workers Union's involvement in the Beaconsfield rescue.

Industrial: Eight Simple Rules for Employing My Teenage Daughter
Phil Oswald bought up his kids to believe in their rights; so when his 16-year old daughter was told to cop a pay cut she was never going to take it quietly.

Politics: The Johnnie Code
WorkChoices is encrypted deep in the PM's political DNA, writes Evan Jones

Energy: Fission Fantasies
Adam Ma’anit looks at the big business push behind the 'clean nuclear' debate that is sweeping the globe.

History: All The Way With Clarrie O'Shea
The WorkChoices Penal Powers are the latest in a long line of penal sanctions against trade unions, writes Neale Towart

International: Closer to Home
If Australia can forgive its debt to Iraq, why not to Indonesia and the Philippines, write Luke Fletcher and Karen Iles

Economics: Taking the Fizz
While the Treasurer has been popping the post-Budget champers, Frank Stilwell gives a more sober assessment.

Unions: Stronger Together
Amanada Tattersall looks at the possibilities of strengthening alliances between unions, environmental and community organisations

Review: Montezuma's Revenge
Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars in a film about racism and retribution, writes James Gallaway.

Poetry: Fair Go Gone
Employers in the land rejoice, for we are girt by greed.

N E W S

Howard's Advocate Fesses Up

Cowra - Work Slaughter Legal

You're Killing Us - BHP Charged Again

Revealed: Beaconsfield Led AWA Charge

Warehouse Pushes the Envelope

Independent Schools Push Class Warfare

Spotlight on Howard’s Porkies

PM Backs Visa Buster

Sutton Wants Middle Men Probed

ATO Recruiting for WorkChoices

Taxpayers to Fund Ad Orgy

New Deal on Canberra Menu

Appeal for East Timor

Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
The Beaconsfield Declaration
As the Prime Minister feted Brant Webb and Todd Russell, their colleagues were outside with a message to the rest of Australia.

The Locker Room
Run Like You Stole Something
Phil Doyle observes that there are some tough bastards out there.

Parliament
The Westie Wing
That fun-loving friend of the workers, Ian West, reports from the red leather of the Bear Pit.

Education
Class Action
Phil Bradley draws the lines between education funding and the current skills crisis.

L E T T E R S

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You're Killing Us - BHP Charged Again

The South Australian Industrial Relations Court laid the counts, less than a year after an independent inquiry warned the minerals giant its AWA-based strategy impacted on safety standards.

Perth lawyer, Mark Ritter, found BHP's use of individual contracts was a "factor which has impacted and continues to impact on the successful implementation of safety systems".

He was reporting, to the WA government, on the circumstances of three deaths at BHP Pilbarra facilities in the space of a couple of months.

Workers Online understands BHP is also likely to face charges over those deaths.

WA authorities said, last year, they would lay four charges over the death of AMWU member, James Wadley, in a horrific gas explosion.

Subsequently, the fiancé of former union delegate, Corey Bentley, killed at the Nelson Port iron ore refinery, filed papers suing BHP Billiton for negligence.

Last week's, South Australian IRC announcement over the death of 38-year-old, Karl Eibi, provoked a storm of protest from family, unions and politician.

If found guilty, Australia's largest company would face maximum fines of $100,000 on each count.

Eibi's father, Max, told a South Australian newspaper his sone told him, three weeks before his death, he would have been safer in Iraq than working for BHP Billiton.

AWU state secretary Wayne Hanson labelled sentencing options a "joke" and called for an urgent review of the state's Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act.

He said fines were not good enough, when negligence was found to have cost lives.

Independent MLC Nick Xenophon labelled the penalty regime "woefully inadequate". He called for a parliamentary inquiry into how workplace deaths were investigated.

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Last Modified: 02 Jun 2006