*****
David Gallop has copped a lot of flack since he took over the reins of the rugby league.
Many have asked what this corporate lawyer, who bares an uncanny resemblance to Michael Douglas's character in falling down, was doing in charge of the great working class game.
Certainly, he looks just about as far away as you can get from the mining towns of Northern England, where the game was first played.
He has been called a glorified bean counter - a mere stooge in the Murdoch-isation of the game.
Although Gallop shows less emotion than Phillip Ruddock on mogadon, the barbs must have been stinging.
What other reason could there be for his attempts to buy the players union?
He's obviously keen to prove himself a working class hero to the games loyal fans.
This kind of logic would work for a dalek like Gallop.
After all, this is a guy who judges the health of the sport, not on the passion of the players or the supporters or even the level of skill, but on Key Performance Indicators.
Clearly, with a geek like Gallop in charge rugby league is not safe from the workplace Americanisation.
Why not? Already league's rules have been changed to make the sport more like NFL.
How else do you explain the success of the Melbourne Storm this year?
They get away with forward passes - a feature of American football, running into the defence - a feature of American football, and slowing down the play the ball - a feature of American football.
In fact, the Storm is just another extension of the soulless octopus that is spreading its tentacles around rugby league, choking the dear life from it.
News Limited, Gallop, Melbourne Storm are the unholy alliance out to destroy rugby league.
Therefore, I implore all Tool readers to make a stand against this and join the Shed in barracking for the Dragons this weekend.
But if you can't bring yourself to do that, let's just hope Gallop is poached to rescue a sport he'd be more suited to.
I hear Badminton Australia is looking for someone.
Recently retired RLPA secretary Tony Butterfield, a former Unions NSW organiser of the year, says the Association�s new leadership has failed to consult with members and doubts the proposal will be endorsed.
Butterfield says the Association risks trading off years of effort to secure a cash deal which is subject to so many conditions, it may never deliver the promised $320,000 per annum.
The RLPA's new leadership has signed a Heads of Agreement that sees the NRL guarantee an annual payment as part of an increase in the players' salary cap.
In return the RLPA agrees to deregister as a trade union, meaning it can not enforce its collective agreement in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
Butterfield, who has clashed head on with the NRL in his efforts to get the collective agreement registers sat out of the negotiations this time around but stayed on as the board in an advisory role. But he has resigned saying the new leadership has refused to take his advice.
"The problem with this agreement is that it undoes all the hard work in getting a collective agreement up, " Butterfield told Workers Online.
"Becoming registered as a union was the only accessible way of enforcing their rights, if this goes the only option is costly court action.
"Players like Craig Gower, who gave up his Dally M in 2003 are asking why the sacrifice is being traded off. I can't answer him.
"How can a union accept a deal that takes away the right to push a legally binding industrial agreement?
"Given that WorkChoices has weakened these rights, there was a case to have another look - but deregistering the organisation in this way is not solution."
Butterfield also sees the decision as a betrayal of the union movement that backed the association through the process of negotiating a deal.
"In my view, we owe a massive obligation to the union movement - we would never have achieved what we did - you just can't do this on your own."
Personally, Butterfield says the decision is a blow. "I'm gutted - my role was to advise the board because of my experience and they have ignored that advice - apparently I am now a trouble-maker.
But he takes heart from the fact the deal still has to be endorsed and provided the vote occurs during the season, players will ask questions and find the new agreement wanting. "That's what I'll be saying to anyone who cares to ask," he says.
As unions put forward a proposal to change the law to force company to tell customers where their information is sent overseas, Westpac is refusing to tell their back office workforce what it intends to do with them.
The Finance Sector Un ion exposed the plans to cut jobs from its Concord processing centre on Wednesday, 24 hours before the staff was to receive the rules of a review into the centre, which handles sensitive information of Westpac customers.
Under intensive media and public pressure, Westpac refused to rule out the off-shoring option, instead buying time by delaying the review for another eight weeks.
FSU national secretary Paul Shroder said the aim was now to force a Westpac back-down through sustained public pressure.
"We don't think the bank expected the heat that it has received; they now want it to cool off before sneaking their announcement through. We are determined this will not occur."
The FSU will maintain public pressure and is also mounting a political case for changing privacy laws to force companies to disclose when data is off-shored,.
"We know from our research that the public will make purchasing decisions based on where their information is handled; so we t6hink there is a compelling case that banks should be up front with this information," Mr Shroder said.
"FSU members, including those from the Concord centre have already been to Canberra to talk to politicians about these changes and we think it is something that both sides of politics should support."
For the latest on the campaign go to www.fsuion.org.au
Up to 400 employees currently working in-house at Qantas Information Technology Pty Ltd (QFIT), including programmers, website developers and application support staff, are at risk.
Late last year, Qantas announced an IT Applications Services Review, to look at the possible outsourcing of IT application development, enhancement and support services.
In July, two prominent Indian-based companies - Tata Consulting Services and
Satyam - were short-listed to take over the work.
Of 800 IT jobs at QFIT, the Australian Services Union believes between 250 and 400 are under threat, although Qantas refuses to confirm which areas are being targeted.
Applications operated by QFIT include internet and intranet environments like Qantas.com and Qantasholidays.com; operation logistics, crew and engineering operations; Frequent Flyer; and financial and payroll systems.
Many of these applications were built in-house specifically for Qantas and the aviation industry, with specific safety and security requirements.
The employees likely to be affected have a typical length of service of 10 years, with salaries of between $45,000 and $80,000.
"This is another case of an Australian company seeking to cut labour costs to the disadvantage of workers and customers," the ASU's Linda White says.
The ASU is joining in the campaign for 'Right to Know' laws that would force the airline to disclose to customers that their information was being handled offshore.
Where unions could previously organise a strike on the strength of a show of hands they must now hold a secret ballot of members, a strategy designed to undermine union solidarity. In this case, it backfired.
"All credit to John Howard, we've actually been very much empowered by the secret ballot," said Graeme Thomson of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).
The CPSU and the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), who cover 2,500 ABC employees between them, each conducted secret ballots through the Australian Electoral Commission as required by new industrial laws.
Unions had to provide details of their memberships to the AEC, to be matched with employment records held by the ABC. Forms were sent to union members' homes, completed in secret and returned.
The results were unequivocal. Both ballots had return rates of over 75 percent, with over 90 percent of returns voting 'yes' to the 24-hour strike.
While the logistics of confirming union members' details - some of which hadn't been updated when members changed job or address - were a headache, the results were brilliant, said MEAA's Mark Ryan.
"With a show of hands arrangement you can always be accused of just attracting union and rabble and intimidating people, but this is a genuine, government-endorsed strike. It gave us the moral high ground."
Thursday's strike attracted a strong level of support around Australia, with very few staff reporting for work and managers going on air to maintain a skeleton news service.
The results provided for some horrendous broadcasting, and would strengthen the hand of unions as they continue to campaign for a new collective enterprise agreement, Thomson said.
Management has offered a sub-inflation pay rise of 3 percent, partly funded by cuts to existing penalties and allowances.
"People are really annoyed, it's a feeling of betrayal, it's a statement that their management don't value them," Thomson said.
"Rates of pay at the ABC have seen a 16 percent reduction in real terms over the past 10 years."
Western Sydney-based Futuris Brakes, which supplies brakes to state-owned corporation RailCorp, is refusing to negotiate a collective agreement with its workers.
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission in August rejected a bid by Futuris to terminate a 2003 certified agreement, but pressed ahead on its rollout of AWAs.
"The company has thwarted all reasonable attempts to begin a dialog," National Union of Workers state secretary Derrick Belan said.
Unions NSW called on the government to follow Victoria's lead and only deal with businesses that have pre-WorkChoices agreements.
Secretary of Unions NSW, John Robertson, said there needed to be a requirement for good faith bargaining in state government contracts.
He said the NSW Government should follow the lead of the Victorians and only deal with businesses that steered clear of the Howard Government's industrial relations laws.
Meanwhile, Robertson welcomed the introduction of legislation to the NSW Parliament designed to further protect NSW workers.
Objectives of the Industrial Relations Further Amendment Bill are:
"This is a very important step in trying to isolate as many workers as we can," Robertson said.
Robertson said there should be an element of retrospectivity in the legislation to protect people who have been victimised for raising OHS issues after the introduction of WorkChoices.
Under the new guidelines, �regional work� is now defined as being within 30 kilometres of a town centre rather being based on the services available at the work site, such as guttering and street lamps.
The subbies from Downer, which provides technical work for Telstra in regional areas, are now refusing some work in the bush saying they cannot afford it.
CEPU Organiser Shane Murphy said Telstra had changed the definition of what makes a rural job, forcing down rates from $105 per job to $80. He said Telstra also reduced the rate for telephone installations where lines already exist from $87 to $38.
But the Telco is washing its hands of the decision, attempting to hide behind complex contractual arrangements with Downer.
"Telstra is hiding behind these contract arrangements to try to escape blame for this shabby treatment," Murphy said.
"The truth is, they are the ones who are moving the goalposts and reducing rates."
Murphy said the sub-contractors would continue to refuse rural work on a case-by-case basis until rates were restored.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow backed the subcontractors' campaign.
"It is wrong for Telstra to unitlaterally decide on the pay rates for sub-contractors," Burrow said.
"Surely the subbies should be entitled to negotiate directly with the company they do all their work for."
Burrow said the Howard Governments Independent Contractors Act, currently before Parliament, would make it even easier for companies like Telstra to push workers out of the industrial relations system.
In June 2003, the fireworks factory he worked in erupted as the machine he was operating caused gun powder to ignite, setting off a chain of powerful explosions.
Dushan woke from a coma two weeks later with third degree burns to over 70% of his body and an uncertain future with the possibility of never being able to work again.
He also woke to the reality that exists in NSW where he is unable to sue for damages, due to changes to compensation laws introduced by the state Government over the last six years.
The controversial changes were met with strong opposition at the time from Unions NSW and the wider union movement.
The resulting campaign included a mass union meeting that broke all previous records and culminated in a firey picket outside State Parliament in June 2001.
Now a new campaign is being mounted in the lead up to the March 2007 state election to restore personal injury compensation rights that were stripped away under the guise of tort reform.
Named A Fair Go For Injured People, the campaign has seen four peak legal bodies - the Law Society of NSW, NSW Bar Association, Law Council of Australia and Australian Lawyers' Alliance - join forces.
Their aim, according to NSW Bar Association President Michael Slattery is " to educate the public about the impact of the laws in the lead up to the March State election... with the ultimate aim of restore fairness to the system."
Individual stories, like that of Dushan, will be used to highlight the negative impact of the changes to personal injury laws.
Since the accident, Dushan has very little mobility in his upper body which has required constant operations to re-graft skin. Needing around the clock care, Dushan's wife had to quit her job to become his primary carer fulltime.
" Beacause of the accident I have lost everything," Dushan said.
Australian Lawyers Alliance President Richard Royle called the politicians to take notice.
"The Government must hear these voices and amend laws to bring fairness back to the system," he said.
The retail giant - which pocketed $1.16 billion in 2005-2006 -revealed last Friday the jobs were to go under a restructure designed to fight a takeover from a foreign investment group.
Coles's restructure will see Melbourne-based administration staff for K-mart, Bi-Lo and Liquorland made redundant - with the outlets being replaced by Coles SuperCentres.
The Australian Services Union Secretary Ingrid Stitt said Coles had not complied by its industrial obligations to negotiate with the union and workers ahead of the restructure and job losses.
Earlier in the week, Coles took out full page advertisements in newspapers across Australia.
"A big thank you to every one of Coles Myer's 164,000 team members for helping to achieve the challenging financial goals we set ourselves five years ago," according to the ads.
Despite the sackings, CEO John Fletcher and two former senior managers trousered $111.2 million in bonuses.
Analysts believe Coles is following the lead of international retail giants, particularly the infamous US chain Wal-Mart, in its restructure.
Directors will see an extra $1.1 million dollars after Chairwoman Meridith Hellicar back flipped on a promise made last year to not grant any increases for directors until compensation had been resolved.
Hellicar will pocket the biggest increase, with her annual paycheck set to soar from $285,000 to $397,000.
The decision comes almost two years after Hardies agreed to a payment deal for victims of its asbestos products.
Asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton said the move was "outrageous".
"We don't want these people paid before the victims," Banton said. "The money should be paid before they get a pat on the back".
Australian Shareholders' Association chairman Stephen Matthews said James Hardie it would be "insensitive to apply the increase before the agreement is signed off."
The Government today announced changes to regulations affecting sick leave and the cashing out leave entitlements in a move to ease community concerns over the impact of the extreme industrial laws on Australian workers.
The Australian described the Government's changes as a " clear response " to the Your Rights at Work campaign for fairer workplace laws - observing that " if John Howard wasn't in election mode before, he certainly is now."
This latest decision follows other recent examples poll-driven policy tweaking such as the privatising Medibank, Telstra and the Snowy.
Predictably, Workplace Minister Kevin Andrews denied claims of that the policy reversal was due to union pressure, instead trotting out the mantra that "the Government is always listening to the community."
Opposition IR spokesman Stephen Smith warned the public not to be fooled by the policy tinkering, labelling it a "manipulative political fix."
"These laws can't be amended, they can't be made good - they must be ripped up," Smith said.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the moves proved that the new workplace laws were "too extreme" and that the changes did not go far enough.
"They seem to involve only minor amendments to the Government's new watered-down sick leave provisions and while they promised to protect public holidays, data shows that public holiday entitlements were cut in 40% of all new AWA individual contracts," she said.
Citing research conducted by the Government's own IR watchdog, the Office of Workplace Services, Burrow explained that two thirds of WorkChoices individual contracts slashed penalty rates, overtime payments and leave loadings.
"More than half of these individual contracts cut shift loadings and around a quarter of new AWA individual contracts individual contracts contain no pay increases over the life of the contracts, which can last for up to five years," she said.
"These IR laws are grossly unfair to working families and this bit of window-dressing by Kevin Andrews doesn't change that."
Members of the AMWU and AWU joined forces to secure the deal, which delivers efficiencies to the airline and a three per cent annual increase for the workers.
But AMWU's Glenn Thompson says what is not in the agreement is just as significant.
"At the outset of what has been an 11 month process, the company was initially proposing an agenda that would have cut conditions that would have represented pay cuts of up to 20 per cent.
"And they put this on the table against a back drop of their CEO Geoff Dixon, publicly endorsing WorkChoices, funding the campaign with company money and opening the prospect of AWAs in Qantas.
"Pushing back from this position has been a significant win for workers - and it has only been possible because the workers have remained united throughout the process.
AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten says the proposed agreement would provide protection for AWU Qantas members from many of the worst aspects of the Howard Government's unfair industrial relations laws.
"When our negotiations with Qantas for a new EBA began last November, AWU members at Qantas were justifiably concerned that the company would seek to use John Howard's unfair laws to strip back their conditions," Shorten says.
"We are pleased our members held firm through the protracted negotiations, and through their strength, appear to have secured vital protections.".
But importing workers won't address the root cause of staff recruitment and retention problems in the childcare industry - low pay - and could exacerbate the situation.
Low pay rates and poor working conditions are the real reasons behind the high turnover of staff in childcare centres, says Sue Bellino of the LHMU Childcare Union.
"It may be the case that bringing in workers from overseas will drive wages down even further," she says.
Fixing the skills shortages in childcare requires significant investment in training, funding for more places in areas of high demand and wage increases that adequately reward training and hard work, says Bellino.
"There's always been a workforce here, but people want to work and earn a decent wage."
The ACTU has slammed the proposal, saying importing childcare workers would reduce the already limited career advancement opportunities for Australians.
Childcare co-ordinators have joined 35 other trades and professions, including tilers, pastry cooks and engineers, on the 'Migration Occupations in Demand List', making people with skills in those areas eligible for skilled migrant visas.
The construction industry has enthusiastically embraced the skilled visa program. But rather than filling genuine skills gaps, employers in the building game have exploited the scheme to import cheap workers who are often forced to work in unsafe and substandard conditions.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley has branded the inclusion of childcare workers on the skilled migration list a disgrace, and has committed Labor to paying the education costs for childcare students as a means of addressing the skills shortage.
NUW
The action was part of the LHMU's 'Clean Start - A Fair Go for Cleaners Campaign'
The cleaners are calling on major building owners to only use contractors that have signed Responsible Contractor Policies. Contractors who sign these agree to help lift hygiene standards and working conditions in the cleaning industry.
Numerous major cleaning contractors have now signed these policies, including ISS who employ 20,000 cleaners across Australia.
Currently, however, the Commonwealth uses contractors in central Melbourne who have not signed this policy: Consolidated Property Services and Eski Cleaning Services.
The LHMU Cleaners Union estimates the Commonwealth Bank would need to spend just 1 per cent extra of their rental return in their Melbourne headquarters to fix the problem.
" Just one per cent extra to use a good contractor -- it really is a piece of cake for the Commonwealth Bank not to tolerate poverty wages and falling hygiene standards inside their buildings," says LHMU Victorian Secretary Brain Daley.
"Cleaners deserve better and so do the Commonwealth Bank's workers, tenants and customers. And with profits of $3.93 billion last financial year, they can easily afford to keep their buildings clean."
Two hundred and fifty trade unionists and other civilians were arrested on September 13, after protests around the country. Around 90 remain in custody and at least 12, including leaders of the Zimbabwean Council of Trade Unions (ZCTU), have been arrested and injured.
The unionists have been beaten, with reports of head injuries and broken bones, according to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
The September 13 protest called for decent wages, action on Zimbabwe's 1000 percent inflation rate and access to life-saving anti-viral drugs for AIDS sufferers.
"These latest reports of brutality must be condemned by the entire international community, and the world trade union movement will do everything within its power to mobile international pressure to put a stop this reign of terror," Guy Ryder, the General Secretary of the ICFTU said today.
"History has shown time and time again, that such brutal treatment of people trying to exercise their democratic rights will simply backfire.
"With each act of repression the Mugabe regime is further isolating itself from the international community and those who continue to pay the price are the Zimbabwean people," Ryder said.
Will Workers Online join with such august bodies as the New South Wales Bar Association, the Law Society of New South Wales, Law Council of Australia and the Australian Lawyers Alliance in overturning the cruel and illegal legislation introduced by the Carr Labor government.
Legislation which denied workers the right to claim fair compensation if injured at work, even if they were in no way at fault.
More information may be found at: www.faircompensation.com.au/
Tom Collins, NSW
I received an Ambulance bill today, a $663.90 bill, but as a Disabled Pensioner I assumed that I would not have to pay. So I phoned, well much to my surprise I was told that I would have to pay $330 dollars. Now having just sold my guitar in order to pay a $400 dollar electricity bill I was not pleased by the prospect of having to pay for the ambulance. It's not just the money but what it means for some one like me the next time I'm considering calling an Ambulance.
When faced with such costs will I delay? Will it affect my decision to call? Well it certainly will, even though last time I lost conciseness in the ambulance, then spent three days in the ICU and two weeks in hospital, I will have to ponder the consequences of that bill, and the weeks of not eating properly as this is the only thing that can be sacrificed in order to pay the bill. I don't drink at all or use any drugs, so I like to eat healthy food and this costs more, yet now though it's all Bi-Lo brand for a time.
So will I delay my call next time? Probably yes. Will such a delay endanger me further? Most certainly. Does this effect others like myself? It must. How many then I wonder will die as a result? Will any one ever know? Does anyone care?
If nothing else this event has made me finally face something I have tried to ignore, for this is just another symptom of our emerging New Australia, one built on self interest where the only goal for most is the acquisition of money.
And I find I'm well qualified to speak of what this future means to us all, so I should give you some ideas of how best to survive this changing Australia. You see I have lived and worked in the USA where the only true god is money and anything goes as long as you make a buck.
So here is your new Americanised Australia, and the following paragraphs hold the key to surviving in this new environment.
First you must learn to ignore any troublesome pangs of conscience, scruples or social decency. Be one with your self and think not of your neighbour. Greed is good. You must learn to be able to walk down streets lined with people living in cardboard boxes, and step over those dying on the side walk without seeing or feeling anything. I have done this, not in India but a mile away from the Washington monument in downtown Washington.
You must celebrate the fact that you will be able to pay someone brought in from overseas to work for you at 50 cents and hour, learn not think of this as creating an underclass, or those cannacks we use to import, or it being like South Africa was, no be happy we have slaves, I mean cheap labour. You will though have to put lots of extra locks on your doors, windows and be very careful when you go out side, you see as those of lower class will have no access to social welfare, when they are down and out they will have to take from you in order to survive, therefore you should carry a gun with you at all times, or like a friend of mine in the USA maybe have a car gun, a lounge room gun, a bedroom gun as well the usual personal gun.
Now the other thing you will have to do is make lots and lots of money and don't worry to much if you do it by unethical means, for as long as you make a buck then it's ok, you see you will need it, I mean aside from what you need for a house etc. If you have say two kids and you want them to be properly educated you will need over a million to do that and the hundred thousand per year for medical insurance, you see if you don't have insurance they will leave you in the Ambulance, you would not be admitted to any hospital. what am I saying that's not an issue at all as you wont even be able to get an ambulance without cover, so no problem you get to die at home alone where no one can see you and you wont be an embarrassment.
So here we are, on the cusp of this bold new Australia where the notion of looking after your mates can finally be totally ignored, where you may and should talk about saving the environment but don't really have to do anything about it, where you pretend to be social but only go to parties if you can get ahead through meeting the right people� and where it would be of great benefit to you if you learn to lie very well, the current government should be used as an example of how to do this well.
If though you find you are still not happy, no matter that is what annalists are for, and plastic surgery can replace those frown lines with happy ones, remember in this new world it's all about appearances, - substance counts for nothing. So folks just celebrate the fact the best Australian Prime Minister the Americans ever had is leading us all irreversibly towards this great new experience, this America, right here, right now, not just on our TVs but everywhere.
Finally then, how do you know when you have made it? Well when you are driving a big 4WD truck in the city and suburbs I can tell you your well on your way, as you obviously don't give a stuff about those around you, or the environment, and that is a good start.
Jeff Morgan, SA
Prime Minister,
Your comments that you might expect immigrants to know something about cricket seems a bit odd because cricket, dear boy, is a British game - in fact, a British upper class game - which is why the 'baggy green cap' a relic of public schools of England ( called private schools in this country, confused?) is still worn today - a symbol of CLASS. Actually AFL is the only big Australian homegrown game, but I suspect that you wouldn't know anything about AFL. Am I right?
Dan O'Brien, ACT
To Mr Kim Beazley, Associates and Australian Workers
I would like to put forward a platform for your consideration Mr Beazley and fellow workers.
SURVIVAL IN AUSTRALIA FOR THE WORKERS
Bring businesses back to Australia Mr Beazley and you will win the election.
The economic state of Australia since businesses and manufacturing have gone overseas has created a big hole in the economy for Australia and the workers in this country.
Hundreds of thousands of business's have been forced to go overseas.
Why? because governments have looked towards globalisation as they call it.
Well globalisation does not work for all countries who have free trade agreements.
Free trade agreements have caused millions of hard working Australians and workers in other countries who follow this trend to put people out of work.
Why? because governments have forced business and manufacturing business's to go overseas.
We must survive too, we have to be more protective of our country and keep Australia safe and secure for the future.
Countries who are the manipulators of world economies, have made us the victims of their power. Why should we the people be subject to their manipulation and their greed?
When business's go off shore - how many people have lost their jobs? Because of this happening. Millions.
How many workers have been forced onto unemployment benefits because of these decisions?
How many of our children are disillusioned by not being able to get a job?
The young people of this country and older people too, who have been affected by economic flaws in government policies are the victims. Why should they be?
Mr. Beazley we need businesses and manufacturing back in Australia, now it is imperative that something must be done.
It is important for Australia to control business and manufacturing and to support the people of this beautiful and wonderful country - which is our home.
We must have stability for the future of all Australians to maintain our existence.
Why should our next generations be disadvantaged and kept ignorant- give them all the opportunities that they need to survive.
Education to secure their lives and the future generations.
Education extended at school, to levels of future education in skills, in all areas that they will need to be skilled in, trades, university everything so that Australia and future Australians can show multi-national organisations, that we are the leaders and not the followers, and to hell with globalisation. We will lead the way for the world to follow.
And will be the leaders for the future of the Southern Region at all times.
Barbara Balemans, NSW
Amanda Vanstone will need more than her substantial hide to protect the Federal Liberals from the voting peccadillos of thousands of disgruntled and thankfully educated parents, who are already unable to see any viable blue collar future in Australia for their children as school leavers.
Amanda Vanstone and her party has supported this wrong-minded political exploitation of third world countries for decades, now it is accommodated within this countries borders.
State owned Hunan Industrial Equipment at Wetherill Park, apart from being an embarrassment to Joe Tripodi, and Minister John Della Bosca at a State level, is a localised microcosm of what many thinking people are able to understand is the rape and pillage of Australasia by world class money men.
The interest of our Papua New Guinea and Timor allies in the gas reserves between Australia and New Guinea/Timor have been traded away to Indonesian dictators for a shameful and embarrassing kickback, in full view of anyone with a TV and hearing.
This whole process will be exposed as simply bad politics, regardless of which politician or party indulges in and supports it! Australians have never played on a level playing field, mincing about on the world stage only to become the lowest common denominator is not our lot.
Edward James, NSW
There was 1085mm rainfall in Sydney in the 12 months to September 13, 2006. An average house using five 1KL rainwater tanks (one for each downpipe giving 5KL storage capacity) would have yielded 100KL of water - enough to supply two-thirds of household water used indoors each year.
Rainwater will cost under $1.50/KL if tanks are installed in all houses and buildings. Mains water costs $1.20/KL but it won't be long before mains water costs more than rainwater. Recycled stormwater is unlikely to be cheaper because of the cost to collect, treat and pipe it back to the buildings it came from. Large-scale manufacture and installation of rainwater tanks will guarantee a cost of $3,000 per house. Reduction in mains drinking water consumption can become mandatory at point of sale of a building (enabling simplest, lowest cost financing) with rainwater tanks complying. Most houses can have rainwater supply within seven years because this is the average turnover of houses.
Rainwater tanks are Sydney� cheapest and most sustainable source of additional water supply.
Greg Cameron, Vic
WHAAATT!?? ABC now being taken over by the Beeb. Today I understand that the ABC staff (RN anyway which is what I mostly listen to) are on strike. Who in management had the bright idea of slathering the airwave with BBC broadcast? It is not 23 hrs here (GMT or whatever) but it is time we got up on our hind legs and took some supportive action to protect what's left (whoops! Freud-esque slip?) of the Australian BC before it sinks into the general media morass of mediocrity.
Ariel Marguin, NSW
The Howard Government has clearly decided to wrap up the issues of national security, terrorism and underlying fear of Muslim extremism into a values package it intends to ride all the way to the next election.
Andrew Robb's citizenship play, bringing back the English-language testing of the White Australia Policy era, was to have been the opening salvo in this project to shift attention away from the treatment of Australian workers onto hapless foreigners.
After dividing Australia with his IR laws, the plan was to unite us around our fear of the foreigner, push the limits on redneck policy until Labor resists and then make the point of conflict the battleground of the election.
Howard's mistake was to flag his punches, where Tampa sailed across the horizon and caught Labor by surprise, Robb had flagged his citizenship review months previously.
And for once, Labor was ready and was not prepared to simply vacate the field and let the Howard Government set the terms of the debate. So good on them, for getting out there first.
Our criticism is not in this tactic, but in the strategic direction of our engagement on values.
Labor's push for national identity focussed on foreigners' understanding of some ill-defined Australian values when the real cultural issue at the moment is an internal battle for Australian identity.
Far from being a contest between marginal Islamic values, it is actually a struggle between Australia's collectivist culture and American individualist corporate culture.
Industrial relations is one of the key battle grounds in this subterranean cultural war - the erosion of workers rights in return for the individual freedom that the business lobby tells us we crave.
It is clear that the majority of the Australian population has not signed up to this values shift and as their job security, penalty rates and right to bargain are taken away, the backlash against this agenda will only gain momentum.
But it is not the only element.
Big corporations, whether they have an Australian or a global brand, sending jobs off-shore, is another front in this war. The ongoing search for cheaper labour and the rootless and tenuous workforces it creates is another aspect of the American model of capitalism.
Domestically, this plays out in companies forcing states into a bidding war for jobs; globally it is about sending jobs offshore. In both counts it is un-Australian. As Westpac has felt the heat this week, why wasn't Labor pressing the Prime Minister on where he stood?
The PM is exposed on Aussie jobs being sent off-shore, because he accepts the American model of footloose capital devoid of social responsibility. And that is not an economic argument, it is a values call.
Then there is infrastructure, milking our public efforts for profits rather than investing in public services. Those pesky Three Amigos are not the only thing American about the Howard Government's approach to telecommunications.
And a final element - the threat of global warming - now an accepted scientific fact, the inconvenient truth that Howard and Bush ignore, using the well spun diversions of US think tanks to confuse and obfuscate.
Surely this stubborn refusal to address climate collapse, a greater threat than terror, is another flank in the promotion of an American short-termism in the face of a global crisis.
Again, putting shareholder value against the future of the planet is a uniquely American values' statement.
This is the values debate Labor must prosecute. And it need not be crass Latham-esque anti-Americanism; rather a simple and sustained assertion that Australian values are different.
Take us down this path and a broad cross-section of the society will fall in behind you - working class and middle class, churches and greenies, patriots all.
And all that will be in Howard's corner are the corporates and their CEOs sucking their millions out of the machine.
That's the values debate that we ought to be having.
Peter Lewis
Editor
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