E D I T O R I A L

Don't Bank on Costello's Oil Shocker
Did the economy slip on a banana skin or an oil slick?

F E A T U R E S

Interview: A Life And Death Matter
Macquarie Street and Canberra are squaring off over safety in the workplace, NSW Minister for Industrial relations, John Della Bosca, explains what's at stake.

Unions: Fighting Back
When John Howard's building industry enforcer started threatening people's homes, one couple hit the road. Jim Marr met them in Sydney.

Industrial: What Cowra Means
The ruling on the Cowra abattoir case highlights the implications of the new IR rules, according to John Howe and Jill Murray

Environment: Scrambling for Energy Security
Howard Government hypocrisy is showcased in its climate change manoeuvring, Stuart Rosewarne writes:

Politics: Page Turner
A new book leaves no doubt about whether the faction came before the ego, Nathan Brown writes.

Economics: The State of Labour
The capacity of the state to shape the political economy and thus improve the social lives of the people must be reasserted, argues Geoff Dow.

International: Workers Blood For Oil
A new book by Abdullah Muhsin and Alan Johnson lifts the lid on the bloody reality of US backed democracy for Iraq's trade unions

History: Liberty in Spain
Worker Self-Management is good management. The proof in Spain was in Catalania, Andalusia and continues in the Basque Country, as Neale Towart explains.

Review: Go Roys, Make A Noise
Phil Doyle thought he'd find nostalgia, but instead Vulgar Press' new book, Maroon & Blue is a penetrating insight into the suburban mind under stress.

N E W S

Ah, Sol

Telstra Contractors in Bush Raid

Spooks Go �Nuclear�

Drivers Under Attack

Stacks on the Hill

Advertising Works

29 Face Secret Interrogations

Bureaucrats Sit on Wages

Blue Mountains Fit Through Loophole

G Spot for Rally

Chalkies Give WorkChoices An F

Howard Base Shaky

Deaf Workers Lose Voice

Canberra Scratches WorkChoices Handicap

MUA Hungry for Change

Vanny Changes Story

Activists What's On

C O L U M N S

The Locker Room
Ruled Out
Phil Doyle plays by the rules

Fiction
Tommy's Apprentice
Chapter One - Tommy and "The Boy"

Politics
Westie Wing
Ian West wonders what might happen if the NSW Coalition actually did win power next March at the State elections.

L E T T E R S

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29 Face Secret Interrogations

And the Commission has revealed its "compliance powers" are being wielded by a former federal policeman who was accused of routinely using illegal communications intercepts.

Nigel Hadgkiss has had a dream run of federal appointments since being fingered in evidence to the NSW Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, in 2003.

Former undercover detective, Michael Kennedy, told the committee Hadgkiss had used covert recordings to fit him up for falsely accusing Joint Drugs Task Force members of corruption. Years later, Kennedy said, Hadgkiss had taken credit for unmasking the same people.

Kennedy said he had lodged formal complaints about the "criminal and illegal activities of Hadgkiss" and others.

When the Howard Government began its anti-building worker campaign it appointed Hadgkiss to head-up an interim taskforce.

Under Hadgkiss' direction, the taskforce aggressively prosecuted building industry unions and their members.

His methods drew censure from at least two federal court judges.

Another former detective who had criticised Hadkiss, Michael McGann, was sacked from the taskforce, last year,

After he lodged a Freedom of Information request, in a bid to prove his axing was part of a Hadgkiss "vendetta", the organisation claimed to have lost records at the centre of his claim.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations wrote to McGann to tell him sought interview notes had been "lost" by the Taskforce.

The holder of the NSW Police's highest bravery award, the Valour Medal, was adamant he lost his Taskforce job because of evidence he had given to the 2003 Parliamentary inquiry.

"I told the inquiry Hadkiss' investigators, at the Wood Royal Commission, fabricated evidence and he should have known about it," McGann said.

"As soon as I came onto his radar at the Building Industry Taskforce I was a marked man. In October, we had to reapply for our jobs and I was the only person not reappointed."

In February, 2005, the decorated former officer publicly warned the government to think long and hard about who it appointed to its permanent Building Industry Commission.

When the Commission was established, John Lloyd was named Commissioner and Hadgkiss a deputy commissioner.

Lloyd immediately delegated sweeping enforcement powers to Hadgkiss and fellow deputy commissioner, Ross Dalgleish.

They have the power to force workers to attend secret interrogation sessions, answer questions and produce documents. Any refusal, carries a prison term.

It was Hadgkiss who signed writs delivered to 107 Perth building workers, last month.

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Last Modified: 04 Aug 2006