Ian Robertson, a member of the Local Government Super Board member - and secretary of the Environmental Health and Building Surveyors Association - says all trade unions should be taking a closer look at how members' funds are being used.
The Local Government Super Board will next week launch a $130 million Regional Development Trust to provide investment in regional development projects that respect environmental standards and economic sustainability"
Robertson says it's an approach that needs to be further developed. We should be asking groups like the ACF to help us identify ethical investment opportunities.
"Asset managers and the financial industry are either hostile to or bemused by concepts of ethical investment," Robertson says.
"But there is a developing interest among employee trustees and some funds are developing ethical policies or more environmentally attractive members choices.
"There is also an interest developing in corporate governance and the potential to use employees' assets generally for good purposes."
The ethical investment call comes just a week after international shareholder pressure forced global mining giant Rio Tinto to back off its anti-worker agenda in Australia. And seek peace with the union movement.
Labor Council's super expert Mark Lennon says the Local government Fund's initiative is part of a broader push by industry funds to incorporate ethical principals into their investment decisions.
"This is an increasing trend internationally," Lennon says. "Trustees are generally becoming more involved in issues of corporate governance. "
"For example , the Californian State teachers Fund has dropped the majority of its investment in tobacco companies, while the Californian Public Employees' Fund - worth US$175 billion, is using its holdings to put heat on Lone Star Steakhouses over their corporate governance policy."
The Labor Council has called a meeting of union trustees and interested affiliates to develop a strategy and advisory role on the issue.
A Perth-based technology company Livingstone Group - which markets 'anti-misuse softwear' - made headlines this week with claims businesses were losing millions in productivity because of office surfing.
But research from Workers Online shows the prevailing management ethos is that surfing is good - improving workers web-based skills and encouraging the sort of lateral thinking demanding in the information economy.
Anderson Consulting, one of the world's largest business consultancies, has published an article called 'The Web Police' - http://www.enf.uwaterloo.ca/~iwarrior/archives/V22115/SciTech/Point.html. Which critically analysies the monitoring of employees' use of the web.
It acknowledges that "strict-use Internet policies (including the implementation of large-scale Web monitoring and filtering systems) in the corporate sector could actually slow productivity.
"By providing their employees with unlimited web access, enterprises virtually guarantee that their workers can find a wealth of business-related information in a fraction of the time that a traditional (real world) search would take. Limiting employee access to the Web in general or via Web-monitoring and blocking tools can slow that free flow of information to a trickle."
It concludes that "savvy corporations will be careful to maintain an open dialogue with their employees about acceptable Internet use on company time.
"Most enterprises will eventually leran that, like the office telephone, the Web is a tool whose business benefits outweigh its drawbacks as an in-office (and company-funded) distraction."
Infoculture web-zine takes the argument further. It argues that workers who surf the net at work are actually adding to the value of the New Economy which their employers rely upon.
"By goofing off on the job and browsing the web you're stealing from your employer," it argues.
"But by stealing from your employer, you're supporting the technologies and the new economy that your company, like it or not, now depends on.
"So send an email, create a job or, at the very least, save a job in one of the traditional sectors of the economy that is benefiting form the increased investment in technology."
Of course, none of the media that carried the Livingstone PR/survey story explored these issues ...
by Mary Yaager
And other rural workers are being forced to pay for their accommodation, workers pay up to $50 dollars a week for pitching a tent on the property they are working on .In addition they also have to pay for drinking water, ice and sun protection.
Australian Workers Union president Mick Madden has raised the examples on the eve of a major campaign to clean up the industry.
"The accommodation and amenities provided to these rural workers are appalling, not even providing the basics such as a toilet and anyone visiting some of these workplaces would find it hard to believe that they were in the Australia," Madden says
"You can imagine workers in the city offices having to eat of chemical drums or having to squat behind a photocopier - I don't think so".
"Not all employers in the bush are guilty of not providing adequate amenities and I have come across a number of decent employers, however there are a number who leave a lot to be desired and the union is stepping up a campaign to improve the standards across the board."
Part of the AWU campaign on this issue is to lobby Country Labor to ensure the Carr Government introduce a Code Of Practice to cover the standards of accommodation and amenities for Rural Industries.
Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union state secretary Barry Tubner says that the Howard Government has agreed to unilaterally extend the SPARTECA Agreement, providing trade privileges to the textile and clothing companies operating in the Fijian Free Trade Zones.
"Even though the agreement has expired and the Australian Government is in no way legally required to observe the terms of the agreement, the Howard Government has decided to reward the forces of dictatorship by agreeing to prolong the trade benefits to textile bosses under the agreement," Tubner says.
SPARTECA was signed 13 years ago to assist Pacific Islands increased their standard of living specifically by allowing those nations to import textiles and garments into Australia without attracting tariffs.
Along with the establishment of a Free Trade Zone, the agreement has allowed Fiji to create a strong textile industry employing an estimated 20,000 on the back of a workforce paid just $1.20 per hour - half the minimum award rate in the rest of the nation.
Chaudhury's promise to remove the Free Trade Zone and his reticence in extending SPARTECA are seen as one of the factors that turned powerful business interests against his government.
Tubner is particularly critical of Australian companies operating in Fiji saying they had been vocal opponents of sanctions, but big supporters of the Howard government's 'kids gloves' approach to the crisis.
"Cheap clothing does not go hand in hand with democracy," Tubner says, "it just goes hand in hand with exploitation."
The Labor Council has called on the Howard Government to immediately cease its extension of the SPARTECA Agreement until both of the following conditions are met:
- Democracy is restored in Fiji; and
- In accordance with earlier commitments of the democratically elected Chaudhury Government, the wages and conditions of Fijian workers currently exploited in the Fijian 'Free Trade Zones' are brought into line with the legal minimum wages and conditions of all other Fijian workers.
by Andrew Casey
And just under eight per cent of Sydney Hotel workers rate the Olympics preparation work done by their employer as bad.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow will speak at an LHMU meeting of all Sydney Hotel workers next Monday morning at the Masonic Centre.
Ms Burrow will emphasise the importance of hospitality workers being organised to get the best career opportunities, best professional standards, best pay and best conditions.
" Hotel workers want their employers to talk to them right now about their preparation for the Olympics," Kylie Mills of the Hotel Union - the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union ( LHMU) - said today.
" If our top class Sydney Hotels don't start taking their employees into their confidence soon then morale will completely collapse at a crucial time.
" Our members pride themselves on their professional standards of hospitality. The Olympics will be a time when these standards are truly put to the test - and we all want to pass with flying colours."
The hotel and tourism industry is a profitable growth industry. Union members want to make sure they get the respect for making this industry work - and that they get their fare share, Ms Burrow will tell the meeting.
Kylie Mills of the LHMU said:" We did our own confidential survey to try and test the waters - and we were shocked that so many of our members recorded a lack of confidence in the preparation work being done by the Hotels.
" More than half of our members answered the questionnaire - and the survey results marked the hotels as poor.
" If our members are not confident about the hotel's Olympic preparations then we have to worry that the professional standards will slip," Kylie Mills of the Hotel Union - the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU) - said today.
" That's why our members want us to run our "Let's Talk" campaign - to get the companies to sit around the table and talk right now with the delegates about their legitimate concerns," Kylie said.
The LHMU meeting on Monday - which starts at 8.30am at the Sydney Masonic Centre - is expected to be an overflow meeting of members anxious about getting the best results for the Olympics.
Workers are currently threatening a mass stop work meeting in early August to rpotest the plans to contract out the steelworks' entire maintencance section.
Australian Workers Union Port Kembla branch president Andrew Whiley says management has quietly threatened unions and the community that the board will not approve fututre capital investment at Port Kembla unless the contracting out proposal is accepted.
"This is basically corporate blackmail of not only the Illawarra community but the cotre of Australia's remaining iron and steel production that BHP still controls," Whilley says..
BHP local management informed workers this week that they planned to contract out entire maintenance facilities - 1,000 blue collar jobs - regardless of any arguments the workforce put forward.
Whilley says the positions will be filled by contract workers - but the concern the community will lose full-time jobs, and end up with a predominantly casual workforce.
BHP argues the contracting out is necessary for 'cost and efficieny reasons - an argument that doesn';t wash with ther woerks.
"We don't accept that - our view is that its part of the slimming down of the industry to the point that steel making is just a vestiage and Port Kembla is a skeleton," Whilley says..
Job level delegates have decided to campaign against BHP and tio seek approval from fellow owrkes for a mass topwork meeting that qwould bring iron steel production to a halt - early August
by Rowan Cahill
WorkCover was notified of the accident by the South Coast Labour Council, following the failure of Joy management to immediately notify authorities.
The accident occurred almost two months after unions involved in a dispute with Joy claimed working conditions at the depot were dangerous.
The Coniston depot is one of a number of sites controversially carrying out work usually done 70 kilometres away by Joy workers in Moss Vale.
Since the collapse of EBA negotiations earlier this year, about 70 workers employed by Joy in Moss Vale have been see-sawing between strike action and being locked-out. The original lockout began in April and ran for 3 months, but late last week Joy management announced it would be extended until September 5.
Throughout the dispute Joy management has attempted to shut unions out of negotiations.
Workers have been picketing the Moss Vale worksite for nearly 4 months. Their activities, and those of their unions (the AMWU, AWU, and CEPU), are restrained by Supreme Court injunctions.
Delegations of locked-out workers are touring worksites nationally seeking financial support and explaining the ramifications of the dispute.
As they see it, what is happening to them has national relevance. Increasingly they believe that in the rural isolation of Moss Vale, Peter Reith's strategy of locking out workers, starving them into submission, and undermining unionism, is being tested.
There has been a heartening response to the delegations so far, with strong pledges of support from Victorian unionists, while levies have been agreed to by workers in Wollongong, Newcastle, and the Hunter region.
Donations can be made by sending a cheque marked "Joy Workers (Moss Vale) Fighting Fund" to AMWU organiser Alan Ward, P.O. Box 1399, Wollongong, NSW, 2528.
Protest outside Bank's HQ
Meanwhile, supporters of the Joy workers will rally outside the headquarters of one of the companies key backers in several capital cities this week.
South Coast Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris says rallies will be held outside the offices of Chase Manhatten bank in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra next Thursday (July 27).
"The Chase Manhatten Bank has become a target because of its support of Joy and its US parent Harnischfeger to the tune of US$750 million," Rorris says.
"This support comes at a time when the parent company is facing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US and Joy, its wholly owned subsidiary, is practicing crude union busting techniques at its Moss Vale plant."
The Sydney Rally will be held at 12 noon Thursday outside Chase Manhatten, AAP Building George Street
by Scott Connolly
Currently the workers, members of the Transport Workers Union, commence at 4.00am. But a new contract commencing this week between Hurstville Council and Cleanaway Waste Peakhurst puts the starting time back to 7.00am.
While the council's position is that it is an issue of noise for residents in the early mornings, for the workers it's an issue of health and safety to both themselves and members of the general public.
They say it will increase the dangers for runners on residential streets during early the early morning peak period.
"In short we believe the choice is one between minimal noise in the early morning one day a week and the serious injury or fatality of a garbage worker, resident, or worse still a school child," TWU state secretary Tony Sheldon says.
At present there is a moratorium in place at all other councils on any change in starting times until a full risk assessment of any change for the health, safety and traffic delays is conducted for both residents and waste workers.
The TWU is arguing that this should be the case at Hurstville as well. Currently, TWU members are refusing to work in accordance with the new contract and are still working the early morning starts.
Despite two attempts to force their compliance in the Industrial Relations Commission, yesterday the Commission acknowledged our concerns and declined to force the issue.
by Dermott Browne
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The personal details that Telstra intends to tape include customers' sex and marital status, their home addresses, commercial and financial details and even silent numbers. Anyone trained in the use of this technology will be able to access this information on demand.
Staff are concerned for their own privacy and for the privacy of the tens of thousands of Telstra customers who regularly discuss sensitive issues with staff.
Assistant secretary of CPSU, Communications Section, Stephen Jones, said, 'What Telstra want is completely over the top. It's ASIO stuff. Call-recording is not warranted and we can't see a way that it can be done that protects the customer's privacy or the rights of staff.'
Telstra is claiming that the new recording technology is being introduced as a quality control and training initiative, however the union suspects a darker motive.
"Telstra is planning to shed 10,000 jobs and our members are concerned that the taping calls is going to be used thin out numbers. Staff are already being monstered for saying 'Thanks for calling Telstra' instead of 'Thank-you for calling Telstra'. In this sort of environment, it is easy to understand our concern about the widespread introduction of taped calls."
But it is not just Telstra staff whose rights are being trampled, as Mr Jones explained.
"Telstra are gung-ho about creating a market advantage over their competitors and we suspect they will use the taped information to cross-sell other products to customers. Well, business is business but they are actually invading your privacy.''
"We want the public to make their views known to Telstra about having their private conversations recorded." added Mr Jones.
Chaired by Professor Michael Quinlan, from the School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour at the University of NSW, the inquiry is investigating current levels of safety in the industry.
As part of this process the inquiry is convening a number of public hearings in NSW, Victoria and Queensland taking submission on impact of clients requirements, current forms of regulation and enforcement, and the realities of excessive driving hours, speeding and drug use in the industry.
In Newcastle today the inquiry heard oral submissions from a number of drivers in the industry, their wives and family members, and members of both the Transport Worker's Union and the Concerned Families of Australian Truckies.
The submissions focussed on the realities of living and working in the long distance trucking industry and will include evidence on increasing pressures and demands on drivers in the industry that are forcing them to drive excessive hours, take drugs, or speed at the risk to both their health and safety and the health and safety of every other Australian road user.
Australian Services Union clerical division secretary Michael Want says the union has receives pay slips of labour hire workers employed at Cabcharge's Darlinghurst center.
Want says the slip shows clearly the employee is not receiving the appropriate loading under the award. Cabcharge, a company owned by the major taxi operators, sources its labour from the labour hire firm Duke & Rosetto.
He says the ASU has been advised the Cabcharge told their previous agency that unless they were prepared to drop their rates considerably the arrangements would not be renewed. The Labour Hire firm refused to undercut the award and lost the contract.
Want says the example shows how both workers and legitimate Labour Hire providers are losing out in the current system.
United Front for Inquiry
Meanwhile, Labor Council affiliates have agreed to mount a united front in the current NSW Government Inquiry into Labour Hire being chaired by Jennie George.
Labor Council assistant secretary John Robertson says the unions will commission the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training (ACIRRT) in preparing and coordinating its submission.
Key issues being addressed by the inquiry include:
- security of employment
- occupational health and safty arrangements
- rehabilitation responsibilities
- and access to training.
by Matt Thistlewaite
What Olympics jobs? Asked the AWU State Secretary Mr. Russ Collison.
The AWU is a major union covering Olympics workers and is party to the Olympics award, but says many of its members at Olympics venues are not being offered work in September.
"If anyone can tell us where all these jobs are we will be only too pleased to advise our members that currently work at Olympics venues but are uncertain if even they will be offered employment during the Olympics.
"We are the major union at Stadium Australia, the Sydney Superdome and the International Aquatic Centre. Currently these venues employ about 1 200 of our members collectively, but less than a quarter of them have been offered employment during the Olympics.
"At the Sydney Superdome about 900 employees were told by SOCOG they could apply for 60 team leaders and supervisors positions. The rest of the workforce at that venue during the Olympics will be made up of volunteers.
"Although our union endorsed the protocol with SOCOG for volunteers we were guaranteed our existing members at Olympics venues would be employed. Well there is less than two months to go and more than half of our members have not been offered employment.
I had to laugh when I read the comments of a spokesman for the Minister for Community Services Larry Anthony in the Herald this morning. He seems to think job seekers "should be able to find work" in the Olympics jobs boom.
"Obviously no research went into this comment. Never let the facts get in the way of an opportunity to beat up on the unemployed.
Anthony's spokesman failed to inform the Herald that these job seekers probably would not be paid for their Olympic work. Not even a free SOCOG track suit and a good dose of Olympic spirit can make up for that oversight
The call for nominations is for all executive positions for the national executive and state or territory branch executives.
National Director of the ARM, James Terrie, says this election process is an important step in rebuilding the ARM and reinvigorating the campaign for an Australian Republic.
"The ARM has developed a new constitution that will ensure that it is able to accommodate a wide debate on options for establishing a Republic. This includes discussing options for direct election models."
A number of the candidates who have indicted their intention to stand have >previously supported a direct election model, such as the Rev Tim Costello, while a number those who previously supported the model which was put at the Referendum last year, such as the current Chair Malcolm Turnbull and Jason Li, will also be nominating.
"The key thing for all republicans is to learn the lessons we can from last year's referendum and use this knowledge to include Australians and make sure they are involved in the process from here on in," Terrie says.
"This will ensure that we understand the challenges and the threshold decisions the nation has to make to achieve an Australian Republic and Head of State.
"This election of a new team to lead the republican cause in Australia is the first step to achieving change which will be embraced by most Australians."
by Zoe Reynolds
The NSW Court of Appeal today ordered the Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee to pay former waterside worker and asbestosis victim Mr Ron Gibson damages - ruling that the commonwealth authority had breached its duty of care to Mr Gibson and thousands of other waterside workers.
The landmark ruling confirmed that the Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee (who inherited the liabilities of the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority) failed to take adequate measures to warn waterside workers of the dangers of asbestos or provide suitable respiratory protective equipment.
Solicitors for Mr Gibson, Turner Freeman, claimed this was one of the most significant rulings in the long-running battle to secure just compensation for victims of asbestos related disease on the waterfront.
"The High Court established in 1999 that the SIFC owed its waterside workforce a duty of care," claimed Mr Armando Gardiman from Turner Freeman Solicitors.
"This ruling confirms, without an inch of doubt, that this duty of care was breached. This case clears the way for literally thousands of waterside workers to seek compensation from the Commonwealth in the future," he said.
"Up to 100,000 Australian have been employed on the wharves in various capacities since 1950. We know that many of these workers either have or will, be diagnosed with asbestos realted disease. For these people, today's ruling is a truly momentous event."
Assistant Secretary of the NSW Central Branch of the Maritime Union of Australia, Mr Barry Robson hailed the settlement as a great victory for his members.
"For more than 12 years we have fought for justice for the waterside workers who, through no fault of their own, have sustained this life threatening illness.
"The time has finally arrived for the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authroity to accept its responsibility for this catastrophe. They knew the dust was dangerous and should have done something to protect the workers," he said.
"Mr Gibson, with the assistance and perseverance of the Maritime Union and Turner Freeman Solicitors, has paved the way for thousands of waterside workers affected by asbestos to recieve compensation for clear breach of care."
FACTS
� Australia has used more asbestos per head than any other nation in the world.
� More than 40 per cent of all workers heavily exposed to asbestos will die from asbestos related cancer.
As an enthusiastic supporter of WOL and the role it plays in drawing together issues and debate for working people in an accessible and serious way, I was shocked by your interview with Doug Cameron.
For a start, what's this 'AMWU Boss' headline supposed to mean? As you well know, Doug Cameron along with every other national official in Australian unions is actually an elected representative. This stands in stark contrast to actual bosses who are appointed by directors of companies who themselves are all too often a bunch of mutually self regarding incompetents. A populist style for a workers weekly is to be commended. A style that borrows from the reactionary and anti-worker populism of much of Australia's press to describe some-one whose views you do not agree with is totally unacceptable in my view. Shame on you.
My second point goes to the actual debate itself. Might I commend to you a search of the Web on these isues where you will find a level of sophisticated debate on so called free trade and its actual performance for the international economy which is far ahead of anything so far attempted in this country.
It behoves a serious and relevant weekly like WOL to keep abreast of debates such as this one, and to bring to your readers attention the views and analyses being developed by, among others, the EU, conservative economists in the US and of course, the ICFTU. Not a great thing to ask I would have thought. It simply is not good enough to frame the debate in the way you attempted to do without providing some background to the debates which are raging internationally, and at last reflected here by a democratically elected Australian trade union representative.
The ALP has a responsibilty to deal with these emerging issues and debates in exactly the same way it does in relation to other issues of vital importance to working people. Frankly, the current position of the ALP sounds as though they haven't had a thought since the late 8os on this issue. WOL should be prodding a deeper understanding and a wider, more informed debate by workers on this issue, not setting up crude and simplistic 'right-wrong' stereotypes.
I challenge you to deal with the issues raised by the emerging global economy, and the economic and social implications for all working people of the 'free trade' gospel. By the way, are you aware that the mantra being peddled by the current leadership of the ALP differs little from the doctrines espoused by the 'Manchester liberals' who dominated policy debates in the UK through most of the C19th. Now that would be a nice way to open the debate wouldn't it, because it was that same grouping that denied relief to Ireland during the famine, and fiercly resisted the formation of trade unions on the grounds that they were an interference in the market. Does this ring any bells with you? I'll bet it would to Australian workers.
Linda Carruthers
: Fair trade appears to me to be nothing but disguised protectionism. The AMWU leadership, having capitulated to the untrammeled rule of capital over the last twenty years or so through devices such as the Accord, and as a consequence having participated in the destruction of jobs, now wants to redress their industrial failures by protecting profits (not jobs)through "fair trade".
I also don't understand how tariffs on goods from developing countries actually help workers in those industries. If the workers of developing countries were crying out for developed countries to impose tariffs on the goods they make, then I would be prepared to listen. But that is not the case.
The alternative to fair trade is to help the trade union and democratic movements in developing countries to win their demands. So the Australian trade union movement would be better off concentrating its efforts on supporting for example independent trade unions in China and striking workers in Korea, and making Australia a refuge for those in other countries persecuted for their trade union and other humanitarian activities.
John Passant
Kambah ACT
Dear Sirs,
Judging by your analysis of Maxine McKew, you rate journalists by what they conceal rather than what they reveal, and by how they serve politicians rather than how they serve the public.
How very interesting.
Yours, Tim Blair
Dear Sir,
The revelations by the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, of rats infesting Telstra Telephone Exchanges should surprise no thinking client of this under performing conglomerate!
Bodgie Beryl
Dear Editor.
As one hears things from time to time, this last little profile got under my skin.
The incoming ALP President has been seen wearing $1000 hand made shirts, very expensive belts, shoes and zegna suits!!
These items were seen by a person who knows luxury goods. Is just me or do you have a niggling doubt about a "luxury goods wearer" ?
Signed, a trade unionist.
Dear comrades,
Just a quick note regarding an article about musicians for the union band , I just want to say a heartfelt thank you for your article and the time you took to run it.
I have had a great response and hope to increase the interest.
The first performance of this union oritentated band was at the CFMEU rally regarding workcover on the 05/07/00. At that performance there was just the two of us!! but it went really well.. 4000 CFMEU members is a good way to get the idea noticed!!
I have expanded the group to a four piece and am still looking for union members to continue the fight!! and to play for the cause..
Am also looking for a name!! any suggestions truely apprecentive.
Solidarity and peace,
James Cox
Got a name for a left-leaning outfit? Email them to James on mailto:[email protected] - he'll give you a copy of the unnamed group's first hit CD!
by Peter Lewis
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I'll start off with a general question. Are you optimistic about the potential of the new economy and globalisation?
I'll start with the new economy. Let's deal with globalisation separately.
What the new economy is about is a reach of information - the cheapness of computing power and the connection at the edges which the Web provides.
The Web once worked through Kray computers in the universities and defence establishments and people hooked on their communications software to talk to one another. Now nobody cares how the messages are delivered - just that they get delivered. And everyone can be connected, if they wish, at the edges and not the centre, and this represents a revolution in information. It is that focus of information that I think is most important to us.
Globalisation was well on the way by the early 1980s. In the 15 years to 1995 world trade grew at twice the rate of world output, and that has been assisted by more open markets and greater fungability of funds coming through more intelligent operating systems. And of course, this internet moving the way it's moved, and secure networks being more secure and faster, just means that the whole process of globalisation has in a sense been reinforced and if anything, speeded up.
But what has been the benefit in all this for the average working person who is basically seeing their job and their certainty in life disappearing?
Well, they are not seeing their jobs disappear. They are seeing a new job appear not dis-appear, a-ppear. If you look at the structure of employment in Australia now, compared with the early 1980s, before tariff reform, people's jobs in the main are much more secure than they ever were with the haunting spectre of growing unemployment. That is not there any more. Unemployment is there but not growing. It's declining.
And things like education which Labor invested heavily in, will pay handsome rewards for Australia, as has to date, research and development in particular fields. We are producing technology now which is world class and we are getting to market it better. But at any rate we are living now from the explosion in financial services, in all categories of services including of course things like tourism. All of which didn't exist before 1983. So people who think that without protection their jobs are going to go are, as the record goes, wrong.
These changes you are talking about, do you think our politicians get it?
Some do. But politics is always divided between the clever ones and the not so clever ones. That was the ideological divide that wasn't really left and right.
Who are the clever ones at the moment? Who are the ones that are leading us in the right direction?
I'm not going to go into any names. I have got no intention of doing that, but it is about those who perceive where the future is and do things to maximise Australia's potential - and those who don't.
What is your take on the data casting debate and the decision down in Canberra the other week? It seems that the Packers were the big win with that one ...
Data casting is a trick the Government dreamed up to describe something people may do which doesn't go to entertainment. In other words, the opportunities which the Web and which both wireless and terrestrial transmission provide now with digital technology, can provide all sorts of things to people. What the Government is trying to do is to wholesale it. They are still in the wholesaling business. They are trying to round it up. I think it is futile, frankly, but they are doing it and the winner so far of course is the free to air networks.
What is your take on the impact of that decision over the long term?
Well in terms of jobs for Australia it will be a very big negative about the enablement which these technologies bring, but if Australia doesn't even maximise the opportunities from the enablers, let alone entrepreneurship - the enabling quality of the technology - if we don't even let that happen, what chance do we have? What the current Government is doing is actually not permitting the enabling technologies to deliver things to people which other people in the world will have.
News Limited seems to be the loser in the short term play. Do you see them as a company with a lot to offer in this area?
News Limited is a world company and if ever the phrase "thrives on competition" means anything, it does mean something to the News Corporation. Murdoch took on Fleet Street. He build a pan-European satellite entertainment network. He didn't wait for some government to do him a favour. Now, that is not to say that News Corporation won't be in the favours business - like the bunch at Channel 9. But they are decent enough to put it within a competitive framework. Nobody at Channel 9 or PBL believes in competition. They regard that as ultra vires of their interests. They want monopolies at best, or duopolies or oligopolies - but nothing less than that.
On trade unions, when you addressed the ACTU Executive, your message was basically that unions should be embracing the new economy in the interests of their members. I think you also said something along the lines that 'the union movement may have fulfilled its historical destiny'. What do you mean by that?
I did not say that. But I did say that we are going to reach a point where individuals will be able to command a premium on their own abilities. In the days that I grew up, capital was king. In future, capital is going to be in reasonably plentiful supply and the prizes are going to go to intellectual product - to the knowledge workers, and what this is going to mean is that people with abilities are going to be able to eke out a place for themselves in the economy. And if you have got skills you will be paid more. And if you don't like where you are currently employed you will be able to move on. And the likelihood is we are going to find skill shortages of this kind. Which is going to mean that a lot of people who formerly were simply employed are going to find themselves, certainly in a world without the old certainties, but also in a world where they actually earn more and have more freedom for themselves. And this has come by way of developed education. But again who worries and contributes to these things?- the Labor Party. When we began in 1983, three kids in 10 completed Year 12. When I finished in 1996 that was nine kids in 10, and we trebled university places. That output is now creating a much more clever country.
That is not to say that there won't be a place for trade unions, of course there will because not everyone, say women working in retail and those sorts of things will be able to cart themselves around and offer their wares and services elsewhere at a premium. Nobody I think believes that. But there is going to be a much more fluid and much more mobile workforce and it is going to be more highly paid. And there is some triumph of labour (l-a-b-o-u-r) in all that.
If you were Secretary of the ACTU in the early 21st Century, what settings would you be putting it on at the moment?
In the international division of production we have to be at the front of the wave. We have to be on the board with our toes hanging over the front! If we are up the back just sloshing about waiting for the next wave to come - which is where Doug Cameron and co are - the likelihood is it will go across the top of us. And it is only at the front of the wave where the new wealth will be created. In the current international division of production, Australia can't be left doing the old things. We can do some of that, where we think we need to - I still believe we should build motorcars for instance. But they should be cheap, and they should be of good quality. But I don't believe we can make shoes, shirts for ourselves - although we may make some. Those that have some fashion premium to them - and we will get a premium for that. But not cheap mass production; we cannot compete at that. That is old think.
In the end it is actually better for Australians to have higher disposable incomes by having someone else make their shoes, and someone else make their shirts and their underwear, etc., while they do things which are more valuable. That is the way. With that in mind - the ACTU leadership ought to be focussing on information, because more and more its constituency is in the public sector and in strategic parts of the private sector - and that will probably intensify. So there is need for focus, a focus on information that will take the ACTU and the union movement generally, down pathways that the old dogma didn't and won't.
What sort of information are you talking about there?
The new pathways of information are going to change the way everyone lives. That is not to say that we are not going to go home at night at the usual time; get up in the morning at the usual time, or kick our shoes off and watch the evening news at the usual time, but outside of that - because people are going to be educated in different ways - they are going to find economic opportunities in different ways - they will exploit those opportunities in different ways.
There will be a lot more people working from home, and the revolution in the internet is yet to come. The internet is going to change in a very big way and a lot of complex things that now can't be done on a personal computer are going to be able to be done on huge, centralised mainframe computers with complex enabling software, which will then be able to deliver to you. Which means that the power of the thing is going to manifestly change. If we don't understand that and we are not there we are going to miss out; badly. And we need no false prophets here, or Pied Pipers with the wrong tunes; taking us to the wrong places.
Let's just stay with that idea of fair trade - Doug Cameron's call - for a moment. Can you understand why his membership of traditional blue collar manufacturing workers are feeling locked out of all the gains of the changes going on?
There is a great moral dilemma here for people of Labor persuasion, and that is that they don't want their jobs taken by the workers of developing countries. The case is dressed up as a real concern, with concern for the welfare of the workers in developing countries. The genesis of the concern is however, the welfare of workers here, and the workers in the United States.
As President Portillo of Mexico said at the time of Seattle - that protest movement was a movement preventing developing countries from developing themselves - and I agree with that. It is pretty savage to say we will be in the developed world, we'll exploit its market but you can't. And they enquire: But why can't we? Well, because you are exploited, you are not paid enough.
What would you say to the blue collar workers who have seen their jobs lost in Australia? What do you say to them?
What do I say: What is your new job like? One of the 2.5 million created since the early 1980s. People have found better jobs. I mean, did we ever hurt anybody liberating them from the car assembly line? When they left the car assembly line and got a more interesting job in the economy, did we do them a disservice? Of course we didn't. And the way people talk about this free and fair trade as if the economy is static and not dynamic and a job lost is not a job replaced, is just bunkum.
We are going to have commerce run every minute of every hour of every day, right before your very eyes, at home if you want it, and some of these people like Cameron et al, think we can isolate ourselves from that. That in some way we can insulate ourselves, while at the same time having a growing standard of living - it's tripe - it is such horrible tripe - that it shouldn't run for five seconds.
I just want to ask you a couple of questions about the IR system. You introduced the enterprise bargaining system which is now seen by some in the Labor movement as part of the problem in terms of their decline.
Well, it saved the Labor movement. If we had had a centralised wage fixing under this vicious government, they would have chopped the head off any person who was still in there. It would have been like a chaff cutter going through a wheat field. But by learning to enterprise bargain we diminished their capacity to hurt us. I made this point clear to the ACTU in 1993. What the 1993 election did was give the labour movement at least three more years, given that Bill Kelty and I had started this earlier - at lease three more years to get itself - to get the unions positioned to be useful in the real economy at bargaining at enterprise level.
If workers had been subject to and dependent upon the centralised wage fixing system - I don't mean other that from the safety net - but I mean as a primary method of wage adjustment - the Labor movement would now be in deep trouble. Howard is a reactionary - an ideologue and a reactionary, and an inveterate enemy of the working people of this country. To have left our battalions at his mercy and the likes of Reith would have been something I would not have wanted to be responsible for.
Now those who think we should roll back - and God knows who they are - is there anyone in the Labor movement silly enough to think we could roll back to centralised wage fixing?
Oh, there is still a strong push.
Yes, well they need their heads tested.
Of course the other line coming out of that 80s to 90s period is the idea that the union movement got too close to Labor. Do you think for instance Bill Kelty got too close to you during that period?
See how close they are to this Government? Does it feel good to be frozen right out? To have no influence in social policy. No influence on economic policy. No influence on tax policy. These people enjoy the worst place on the field; left right out.
The numbers went down a long way during the Labor years though didn't they? Almost halved union membership.
That was because of the inevitable decline of the old structure to which Australia was completely vulnerable. Australia was very lucky in the 1980s that it didn't go the Argentinean road. The Accord with the trade unions and the sensible operation of economic policy saved Australia. It wasn't just a matter of the numbers declining, they would have just been decimated. I mean, Bill Kelty I believe, and his executive, led the unions through the valley of industrial death in the 1980s and they came out the other side. Richer. With higher incomes and more people in work.
So the trade off was less members?
That was the creaking industrial structure - the structure doing that, not disaffection with unions per se. As everyone in the business knows.
How do you feel at seeing the GST finally coming in?
The GST is the tax that Australia did not have to have If you are a low or middle income earner and you spend all you earn you will be taxed more heavily and more discriminately under the GST than you are under the income tax system.
And what is this national horror story for? To give the States a growth tax. So the State Governments can grow their services as their Cabinet rooms please. But ordinary wage and salary earners will be paying for it.
How different is this model to the one that you pushed in the 80s - the consumption tax idea?
We were pushing a retail level tax that had one purpose. And that was to pay for the enormous growth in outlays to GDP which dangerously and irresponsibly was left to us by John Howard. When I became Treasurer outlays were at 30% of gross domestic product and I got them down to as low as 24%.
When it seemed as though saving ourselves in the balance of payments crisis of the middle 1980s, meant rapidly pulling the public sector call on savings back, we believed the quickest and only route was to go down the road of another base in the tax system. A consumption tax. But as that didn't happen, we then went the longhand route. Having been denied the shorthand route, we went the longhand route and spent seven years cutting back outlays in two budgets a year. A May statement and a budget every year for years.
And in the end, because we had cut outlays to GDP by 5 to 6 percentage points - and that is worth today savings of $30 to $36 billion a year, every year - we didn't need a GST or the consumption tax. So where the primary urgency in the middle 80s was to deal with the current account imbalance and our savings paucity, to cut back the public sector call on savings quickly - when that was denied to us we went the longhand, quality route, by cutting recurrent outlays and not resorting to a new tax.
If revenue to GDP is higher than outlays to GDP, as it is, - in other words if the budget is in surplus - why did we need a second tax base? And the answer is - we didn't. With the budget in surplus, why did we ever need to put such a burden on ordinary people. Because Labor structurally changed the nature of the budget - structurally changed the level of outlays to something that existed before the Whitlam Government came to office, we never needed a second tax base in expenditure. We lept over the issue of ever needing a GST.
The GST is a 70s issue. It is a hangover from the 70s, and everything about Howard in the last three years has essentially been to retard the country's opportunity. With the Republic; with Reconciliation; with Asia; with the GST. They are all look-behind-you issues. They should have been decided in the 80s and 90s. The Liberals are driving through the rear view mirror, instead of getting on with the real challenge, which is the new economy; information; Asia; its problems; the place where we live. Instead of doing those things, he is wading around in the old issues, fighting for his obscurantist view till the end. A sunken version of the Cinque Ports.
How much of a diversion for the ALP is the current debate about how much of the next campaign should be built around opposing that as opposed to these other themes we have been talking about?
Federal Labor's position is, I believe, a completely correct one. The GST is going to rake in more money that the Treasury has ever estimated. When they first did the estimates on the capital gains tax - the first year estimates from memory was I think $15 or $20 million. And I said "you've got to be joking, I know at least one person who will pay that." The conservative bias in the GST revenue estimates is there again. Howard knows this. This is why he is now trying to pump up and proselytise on Defence spending. He knows that there is going to be a poultice of money, and he thinks it should be spent on Defence - so he's telling us.
What Kim Beazley is saying is that there is going to be a poultice of money, and with that poultice he is going to roll back some of the iniquitous parts of this tax. He cannot change the whole tax base because that egg has been scrambled by this Government. But he is going to deal with the more iniquitous parts of it. A completely respectable position. But he won't know, and can't be expected to know, what the actual revenue collections are going to be. We are going to need at least a couple of full years of collections to see what the level of collection is.
So you think the last week - the misadventures all will end up being light noise down the track?
They don't alter the fundamentals. This thing applies in areas that I think the Labor Party finds socially distasteful. And it can deal with them, but it can only deal with them in office.
My final question is: How you think Australia would be different today, if there was still a Keating Government in power?
First of all I think we would be a Republic. We wouldn't be into pathetic caravans to London. We wouldn't be posing for pictures with the Queen with medals on. We would have a constructive relationship with our largest, nearest neighbour, instead of a poisonous one. That's Indonesia. We would be relevant in Asia as we are now irrelevant. And we wouldn't have things like participation rates in schools declining.
We would be abreast of the New Age in a way this government could never imagine. All these things are themes that I was interested in then, as I remain interested in them now. And which remain relevant now. The Liberals used to say of me that the Republic was a distraction - but it took a couple of years of Howard's last term. That Reconciliation - that Mabo was a day of shame. - That's what John Hewson said, yet I notice him saying in the Financial Review recently that the Government should apologise. Perhaps he ought himself.
Asia: They said I had an Asia-only policy. And they have an Asia first policy. Well, God help us if we had less! We would be nowhere in Asia. I have never known a time when Australia has been more seriously marginalised in Asia than now.
And the other thing I think we would have given the country - continued to give the country - is verve and some political joy. What one may call, if we use Chinese health analogy "chi"; "political chi": the energy that makes the political blood run faster. Gives the country a prouder and more certain sense of itself.
This is the dullest government that I have seen, but unfortunately they come at the wrong time in our history. The only chance of the opportunity being recovered is with a Labor government. - And I think Kim Beazley: all those debates in the 80s; all those Cabinet discussions about the economy; all those structural changes in the economy - all that huge infrastructure of knowledge is in his head. And that is why a government he leads will not only be principled, but it will be one that has Australia's vital interests at heart. And I underline the word vital, as distinct from political interests. It will have Australia's vital interests at centre stage.
by Brenda Finlayson
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A Nelson Point production operator who signed a contract has worked 300 extra hours since January. He calculates that under the collective agreement, he would have been paid $11,000 for that work. 300 hours overtime over six months has cost that worker $11,000.
When he contacted the WA Workplace Agreements Commissioner, he was told an employee was required to work a 'reasonable' amount of overtime under a staff contract. So far, he has not been given a definition of 'reasonable'.
The definition of 'reasonable' is also a key aspect of negotiations between the unions and BHP for a collective agreement. This employee is only one of several operators who are clocking up extra hours for less than they were paid under the EBA.
The unions representing Pilbara iron ore workers are the AMWU, AWU, CEPU, CFMEU, and the TWU.
34 witnesses appear for unions
The case over the introduction of individual staff contracts by BHP to its iron ore workforce in the remote Pilbara started in the Federal Court in Melbourne on July 10.
During the first days of the hearing, ACTU Secretary Greg Combet told the court that BHP discriminated against union members by offering pay rises and sign-on bonuses to iron ore employees who accepted individual staff contracts.
The unions are arguing that BHPIO has attempted to illegally de-unionise its workforce by offering inducements for workers to sign staff contracts and give up their right to bargain collectively, and access collective union representation.
The final union witnesses gave evidence in the Federal Court in Melbourne this week. The unions called 34 witnesses, all BHP employees and union members. BHP has listed 58 witnesses.
The first witness for BHP was Iron Ore human resources vice-president Jeff Stockden, who said that BHP had introduced individual staff contracts to exclude "third parties" in the workplace.
Mr Stockden agreed under questioning by union lawyers that the lesson learned from operations at Hamersley Iron was that excluding "third parties" lead to the prospect of better flexibilities and greater productivity.
When asked if by third parties, he meant unions, Mr Stockden replied "Yes."
The case is set to run until July 28.
What is the case about ?
Under Australian workplace law, it is unlawful for an employer to induce an employee to leave a union.
The unions say that when BHP offered better wages and conditions only to workers who signed individual workplace agreements, and at the same time refused to bargain collectively, BHP induced workers to leave their unions.
So, the unions are saying that BHP has acted unlawfully.
Both sides agree
It appears that both sides agree that BHP refused to negotiate a certified agreement with the unions covering iron ore workers in the Pilbara.
How does BHP defend this case?
BHP says that:
Implementing a system of individual contracts does not mean the company is trying to induce workers to leave the union. It does not care whether workers join a union or not. If workers have left the union, they have left for other reasons
What do the unions say?
The theory behind an individual contract is that an employee negotiates directly with their employer on an equal footing - but the practice is a different story. Last year, when BHP offered individual staff contracts to its iron ore workers, the offer was made on a take-it or leave-it basis - there was no negotiation.
On the other hand, a worker who is covered by a collective agreement joins with their work mates under the umbrella of their union. Negotiations are carried out by union delegates from the job and their union officials.
The unions covering the BHP iron ore workers say that if workers are prevented from bargaining collectively, you remove the main reason for being in a union, and people will leave.
It's a bit like saying that if you ban a football or netball club from playing in competition, that club is soon going to lose its members. You join a sports club to play sport. Who would join a club that could not play against other clubs?
You join a union to be part of a collective process . . . to be part of collective bargaining. That's what the word "union" means. So why would people join a union that can't bargain collectively?
So, the unions say that BHP induced people to leave their union by offering superior wages and conditions only to those people who signed an individual contract and, at the same time, refusing to have a collective agreement. Therefore such a strategy is unlawful.
What you can do?
The Pilbara is a remote region in Western Australia. You can let the workers there know that they are not alone.
Send messages of support and solidarity by fax: (08) 9177 8107 or mailto:[email protected]
by Lee Rhiannon
Last Monday Sydney seemed an odd venue for a gathering of farmers. But by Wednesday, with the interests of the big end of town stamped over the major decisions of the conference of the NSW Farmers Association (NFA), the decision to avoid a rural venue was not surprising.
The hottest topic at this year's conference was genetically modified (GE) crops, and the companies that are slaughtering the family farm were richly rewarded. In a controversial session, marred by what some conference observers said was gagging of debate and refusal to count votes on closely contested issues, the NFA endorsed the commercial release of genetically modified products.
Mr Hugh Roberts, chairperson of the Association's biotechnology taskforce, told the conference that consumers did not care about genetically engineered products. He dismissed labelling as a superfluous issue and attempted to denigrate opposition to GE products as "hysteria" whipped up by green groups.
Mr Roberts sidestepped the fact that 90% of Australian consumers have consistently called for labelling. His outburst against GE activists, who handed out material at the conference, and warning to delegates to expect a rumble, angered a number of farmers.
A farmer from Peak Hill told the conference "This wasn't rent-a-crowd - many of these women could be our wives, motivated by their concern for the well-being of fellow Australians. They have taken time off their jobs, taken time away from their families to be here. They are telling us they do not want genetically engineered foods. Yet we are too deaf to hear. We ignore them at our peril."
A number of delegates and observers expressed concern that the controversial pro GE motions were passed on the voices and votes were not counted. The chairperson even helped knock over a motion calling for a moratorium on GE crops until research on safety and other issues was undertaken. Mr Roberts told delegates that this was tantamount to stopping research. Delegates who objected to the bias intervention of the chair were shouted down.
Monsanto and Aventis, the two agribusinesses with probably the most to gain from the NFA decision, were quick to welcome the pro GE position of the Association. Along with the CSIRO these companies have worked hard for this outcome since last years conference when the Association was unable to reach a position on GE crops.
The decision of the NSW Farmers Association comes at a time when genetically modified products are increasingly out of favour across Europe, North America and in New Zealand.
In the US more than 30 farm groups organisations, representing tens of thousands of farmers, issued a joint statement warning farmers that planting GE crops poses a risk to their livelihoods because GE food is so unpopular with consumers. The Portuguese Agriculture Ministry has stopped all GE corn being grown commercially. And in New Zealand the Labor coalition government has agreed to a Greens call for a Royal Commission into all aspects of genetic engineering.
Meanwhile in Australia Monsanto and co may have won over a few city farmers, but with increasing numbers of consumers seeking out GE free products, they will have many more battles to fight.
by ICANN
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It should be noted that the policies mentioned in this paper are likely to be features of an eventual proposal for a trade union TLD. This paper is meant only as a guideline, however, and it is quite possible that some or all policies mentioned could be altered considerably, following a full discussion among the sponsoring group on the content of a proposal.
1. Self identification
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions is submitting this expression of interest, on behalf of a group of international trade union organisations and their national affiliated organisations. The group of international organisations, referred to hereafter as "the sponsoring group", comprises:
� Education International (www.ei-ie.org) � International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (www.icftu.org) � International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (www.ifbww.org) � International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (www.icem.org) � International Federation of Journalists (www.ifj.org) � International Metalworkers' Federation (www.imfmetal.org) � International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (www.itglwf.org)
� International Transport Workers' Federation (www.itf.org.uk) � International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (www.iuf.org) � Public Services International (www.world-psi.org) � Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (www.tuac.org) � Union Network International (www.union-network.org) � Universal Alliance of Diamond Workers
ICFTU has 216 affiliated organisations in 145 countries and territories, and represents 123 million workers, 39 million of whom are women. The ICFTU membership includes, for example, the AFL-CIO (USA), CLC (Canada), DGB (Germany), TUC (UK), FNV (Holland), COSATU (South Africa), LO and TCO (Sweden), CUT (Brazil), KCTU and FKTU (South Korea), ACTU (Australia). In addition to the sponsoring group listed above, all of these national trade union centres are closely associated with this expression of interest.
2. Brief Description of the structure and purpose of the proposed TLD
The Top-Level Domain (TLD) would be chartered (or restrictive). The preferred string for the domain would almost certainly be ".union", although some discussion is taking place as to whether it would be necessary, at some stage, to set up a number of "alias" TLDs to make the TLD more accessible to other language groups (such as ".syndicat" or ".sindicato").
The TLD would be open to registrations from representatives of trade unions which are independent of outside control and have a democratic structure.
The purpose of the TLD would be five-fold:
a) to provide a strong and clear identity for workers' organisations on the Internet;
b) to facilitate the efforts of employees to find and contact trade unions in their country, sector, or enterprise;
c) to help internet users identify bona fide trade union organisations, as distinct from bogus unions such as government-sponsored labour fronts, and company-controlled unions;
d) to form part of the ongoing international effort to bridge the "digital divide", by building meaning and utility into the Internet for workers, regardless of country, or economic status.
e) to facilitate employee and public access to a wide variety of union-sponsored services, including apprenticeship and training programmes, health and pension benefits, family and community services, etc.
Registrants:
It should be noted that the registrant database would most likely be managed by the sponsoring group. The arrangement would probably involve the creation of a review body comprising the group's 13 organisations. The body would be empowered to accept or reject an application to become a registrant. A review procedure would be set up, to appeal decisions when and where necessary.
Registrant organisations would be reviewed according to two leading criteria:
a) is the organisation internally democratic? b) Is the organisation free from control by government, political parties, employers or other interests?
These are the necessary conditions for the existence of representative workers' organisations capable of engaging in collective bargaining, within the definitions and jurisprudence established by the United Nations' International Labour Organisation. We intend to explore further refinements to ensure practicality and application. Additional criteria may also be identified and considered as well. It should be noted that non-profit organisations, such as apprenticeship and training organisations, affiliated to approved unions, would also qualify as registrants.
Through the worldwide networks of the ICFTU, and its review body, a system would be devised to screen potential registrants. Applicants not affiliated directly or indirectly to one of the organisations in the sponsoring group would not be excluded from consideration if their organisation is known to be free and democratic.
Registrations of second-level domain names:
A contractor would most likely be responsible for "registry operation". Its responsibility would include the technical management and registration of second-level domain names as well as the billing of approved registrants for those registrations.
We understand, however, from our contacts with ICANN, that this contractor would need to be identified as an integral part of any proposal made, in order to facilitate the rapid introduction of a "test-bed TLD".
It should be noted that a contractor has not yet been identified, and that we feel that our choice of contractor, whose role would be technical, should be evaluated separately from our proposal on the policy for a trade union TLD.
A decision coming from ICANN (or from whatever process ICANN sets up to evaluate proposals), rejecting a contractor mentioned in a proposal from us, should not prejudice any future proposals for a trade union TLD, and indeed, should not prevent a decision being taken, in principle, to support a trade union TLD, subject to the identification of a suitable contractor.
In cases where it is alleged that the names or acronyms of existing trade union organisations have been registered in bad faith, we expect that we will find the machinery of the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) adequate to handle disputes. The sponsoring group would most likely also reserve the right to identify and resolve possible conflicts prior to completion of domain registrations, in order to prevent disputes arising at a later stage.
We are seriously thinking about a range of options for segmenting the TLD space, which would be addressed, should a proposal be forthcoming.
For example, we would consider devising a system for allocating second and third level names for the purpose of avoiding confusion about which unions are involved in a particular second-level domain, and for directing employees to the union branch or local they may be particularly interested in.
Examples: iam.boeing.union, seui.boeing.union, iamlocalxxx.union, seiulocalyyy.union
Segmentation by function is another option we might explore. For example, training.carpenters.union might direct people to carpentry apprenticeships and training links.
Expected size of domain:
It is hard to estimate the number of potential registrations likely to take place in a trade union TLD. The ICFTU's database, for example, contains approximately 2000 trade union organisations. This purpose of this database, however, is primarily to maintain information on international and national trade union organisations, and not union locals or branches, many of which already have their own web site. We expect the overall number of union organisations in the world to be considerably higher - for example, there are about 5,000 registered unions in India and Bangladesh alone. A recent estimate put the figure at 100,000 trade union organisations world-wide.
We would also expect that many union organisations would wish to register several domains in a trade union TLD. For example, the Communications Workers of America already has at least one thousand second- or third-level domain names.
We would also expect that, at least in the early days, trade union organisations from the wealthier industrialised countries would make up a large proportion of the registrations, since the majority of workers with access to the Internet is currently based in these parts of the world. We foresee a strategy to bridge the "digital divide" and promote greater use of the web by unions from developing countries, by making the cost of domain registrations considerably lower for registrants from poorer nations.
Expected use of TLD:
Organisation names: Most union organisations are either registered in ccTLDs (country-level TLDs such as ".uk" or ".za") or in the undifferentiated ".org" domain. Although unions would be free to stick with their existing domain registrations, some union organisations might choose to switch their registrations to a trade union TLD. Others might choose to keep an existing registration, while adding a second.
Examples: cosatu.union, afl-cio.union, cwa.union, icftu.union
Geographic or trade descriptions: Reflecting the way unions have traditionally been structured, it is likely that some registrations might come in the form of descriptions of trades or places:
Examples: bricklayers.union, telecoms.union, seattle.union, ontario.union, merseyside.union, southafricanminers.union, american-painters.union
We would also support the use of a service, product or company name in connection with a trade union TLD.
Unions sponsored services: Union-sponsored services to their members such as training, education and apprenticeship, family and community services, communication, etc.
Example: bricklayers-training.union
3. Indication of the likelihood of submitting a formal application for the proposed TLD
In order to make a decision which is fully backed by the unions we represent around the world, and in order to fulfil our constitutional obligations, we are bound to consult widely (The ICFTU constitution can be found at this URL: http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=990916420). Among the international trade union bodies, and the affiliates of those bodies, we are currently holding an internal discussion on whether or not we proceed in making a proposal to ICANN. There are many issues which need to be examined before we proceed, and we may very well decide either not to proceed, or to defer an application for a TLD to a later date (that is, we may decide that it is too early for us to decide to apply to be one of the first "test bed" TLDs).
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Economic predictions are notoriously unreliable. One jibe is that God created economists in order to make weather forecasters look good! To anticipate our collective economic future the best we can sensibly do is to assess recent trends and current conditions. On that basis, there are sound reasons to be worried about the prospects for the Australian economy at the moment.
A particular constellation of events has created significant economic uncertainty. These include the changes in the value of the currency, the introduction of the GST, raised interest rates and, the effects of the Olympic games and its aftermath. As always, capitalism produces winners and losers, but these are circumstances in which workers in general need to understand what is happening in the economy.
What could cause a resurgence of inflation? One factor is the value of the Australian dollar. This plunged earlier this year, although there has been some recovery since. A lower dollar value is not in itself a problem - indeed it helps exporters of Australian products - but it does mean upward pressure on the prices of imported goods. That fuels inflation, unless consumers switch to buying local products. In some cases these local alternatives are not available because government policies have reduced tariff protection on local industries and accelerated the processes of structural economic change. Further moves towards 'free trade', favoured by many senior ALP politicians as well as the Liberals, would accentuate this tendency.
The introduction of the GST now adds to the inflationary pressures. The latest Yellow Pages survey of small business intentions indicated that prices rises are likely to be well in excess of the Treasurer's official estimates, on which next year's Federal budget is based. So far the picture looks very mixed, with some small businesses actually closing down because of the GST, and great variability in the way in which firms are responding to the new tax. What remains particularly uncertain is whether a GST-induced inflationary surge will be temporary or on-going. If it becomes factored into wage demands and into consumer and business expectations, then there are grounds for expecting a considerable flow-on over the next year or two at least.
What about the prospects for economic growth, employment and unemployment? The stance of monetary policy is one important factor. It has been tightened as a result of the Reserve Bank raising official interest rates four times over the last eight months. This is nothing like as severe as the situation a decade ago when the higher interest rates precipitated what Paul Keating called 'the recession we had to have'. However, there are some echoes of that calamity here. The higher interest rates are having adverse effects on the housing sector, which is typically quite responsive to such changes in the cost of borrowing. Approvals for new house constructions have already hit the lowest level for three years. More worrying still is the likely long-term impact on productive investment in Australian industry.
A tight monetary policy has notoriously uncertain economic effects. It is regionally insensitive, reining in the growth pressures in booming areas like Sydney but simultaneously depressing economic activity in already economically stagnant regions. A higher cost of capital is the last thing rural and regional Australia currently needs.
More generally, the problem with monetary policy is that it runs the risk of causing a significant economic downturn. The Olympics surge is feeding the economic growth process at the moment, particularly in Sydney, but this is by its very nature temporary. An economic slump after the Olympics is a real possibility, as the Carr government implicitly acknowledged in its last budget when announcing the timing of future government infrastructure projects.
Bringing all these considerations together raises the spectre of stagflation. This is the dreaded s... word whose mere mention sends fearful tremors through economic and financial circles. But it is important to face up to this unappetising prospect if the necessary corrective steps are to be taken.
Stagflation is the economic problem which emerged in the 1970's when simultaneous inflation and high levels of unemployment came to be the dominant feature of the Australian economy, and most other capitalist economies world wide. The redress of this stagflation problem became the principal concern of economic policy over the next two decades, usually taking the form of restraint on wage increases and on government expenditure. These were policies that shifted the burden of adjustment mainly on to workers. The policies were successful in combating inflation but they had adverse consequences for economic inequality and it left us with a persistent problem of unemployment.
The expansionary inflation-free economic environment of the 1990's may now be changing into an environment in which the re-emergence of stagflation is a real possibility. It depends on what happens in the international as well as the national economy, of course. Whether the USA can maintain the economic growth which has been underpinning buoyant conditions in the world economy looks increasingly doubtful. A substantial 'correction' to its overvalued stock market is regularly predicted: according to many financial commentators it is already overdue. And when the USA sneezes, we are all likely to catch cold.
These are circumstances in which caution demands consideration of policy measures to deal with the problem of growing economic instability. In the short term that means no more tightening of monetary policy. It needs vigorous policing of the potential for extra profiteering arising from the introduction of the GST. It also needs a stronger commitment to using government expenditure as a tool of macroeconomic stabilisation and job creation - a policy approach to which the Liberals are fundamentally opposed.
There is also need for consideration of policies to give Australian economy a sounder foundation for its longer-term development. This is especially so because the necessary interventionist policy measures can take a long time to come on-stream.
Industry and regional development policies are obvious examples. We need an industry policy that doesn't leave our economic development vulnerable to the whims and fluctuations of the international marketplace. Targeting industries for strategic development through partnerships between government, business and unions is necessary. One particularly attractive possibility is promoting the development of ecologically sustainable industries, including solar power technology where Australian scientists are at the international cutting-edge. Australia could develop a reputation for its specialisation in that field, much as Switzerland did for watches, Sweden for furniture, Italy for fashion shoes, Japan for electronic goods, motor cycles and so forth. But it won't happen without a consciously interventionist industry policy.
Regional development policies are a necessary adjunct. The growing regional inequalities within Australian society are becoming increasingly of concern to the politicians, of course, but there is an obvious reluctance to embrace the interventionist policy measures that are needed to deal adequately with the situation. There is no easy 'quick fix' solution, but government expenditure on infrastructure projects could be an important source of targeted job creation. That process tends to be substantially self-financing to the extent that it reduces unemployment costs and helps expand the flow of taxable incomes.
The more effective channeling of workers' savings currently in superannuation funds into productive investment in Australian industry also warrants careful consideration. Of course, workers' primary concern, as individuals, is with the management of those funds to maximise their pensions, but there is a broader collective interests in having the money used in ways that foster economic development and create jobs. There is no necessary tension here. Coordinating the process through a National Investment Fund could direct the finances into the most productive economic uses. Public sector employment strategies also warrant careful consideration as means of stabilising the economy and distributing its fruits more equitably.
These are just a few examples of how an alternative economic strategy could be constructed. The basic problem is that these options cannot even get on the policy agenda while the ideologies and practices of 'economic rationalism' reign supreme. But 'economic rationalism' is not rational. It has brought us again to the edge of the abyss - the possibility of a return of stagflation.
Frank Stilwell is Associate Professor in the School of Economics and Political Science at the University of Sydney
by Andrew Casey
Unions in Hong Kong (and China) - their history and their future
Six million Chinese workers are to be laid off from state owned enterprises as China prepares itself for entry into the World Trade Organisation.
Unemployed construction workers go on a riot in Macau to protest against cheap migrant labour being brought in from across the border in mainland China.
Hong Kong public servants stage massive protests as the new China-run government plans to cut back their wages and conditions.
Hundreds killed in unsafe working conditions in mines and fireworks factories.
These are the headlines coming out of Hong Kong and China.
Prominent Hong Kong labour historian, Dr Ming Chan, is visiting Australia, and will give a talk to labour movement activists, academics and other interested members of the community.
How does the economic turmoil affect worker organisation, the labour movement in Hong Kong and China - especially as the tentacles of globalisation reaches into this huge nation.
Dr Chan works as a consultant providing support and advice to the independent trade union centre in Hong Kong - the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions.
Dr Chan is here as a guest of the IUF - the International for Hotel and Catering workers. He is the Executive Coordinator of the Hong Kong Documentary Archives, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
His talk in Sydney will be hosted by the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union.
Time: 2pm
Date: Wednesday, August 2, 2000
Place: Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union
Level 8, 187 Thomas St Haymarket.
For more information contact the Sydney office of the IUF 9264 6409
by Peter Zangari
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Well to some pundits there is absolutely nothing wrong with what they're listening to in the flooded pop music market and seems like they want more of it.
There is however a disturbing trend out there with the so called 'new' music that is released from the major record companies day in and day out. These days you can easily pin point those pop music artists who were in need of a quick fix to make it to the top. But the old adage of 'what goes up must come down' has never rung more true than today.
Here are a number of top ten artists (with their own formula for success) that have helped contribute to the state of dissaray that is the popular music industry today.
Category: Single White Female Vocal
Britney 'I'm sure I was in the movie Lolita' Spears- With the release of her No. 1 debut "Baby one more time" the world was taken aback when a sixteen year-old schoolgirl was asking for another serve.The number of lolita types flooding the industry is worrying when all we seem to be encouraging is manufactured sour school gymnasium pop.
Cross reference: Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Anastacia, Vanessa Amerosi
Category: Yesterday's Pop Star
Bryan 'Resurrect my fading career so team me up with a dodgy dance act' Adams- You know a musical career (built on puny soft rock ballads) is at deaths door when your latest release 'Dont Give Up'features your artificially altered vocal track that sounds more like your wife. If he didn't already get the message in his own song, Brian should definitely give up.
Cross Reference: Cher, Tom Jones
Category: Rock Band
Matchbox 'We really do know at least four chords man' 20- The end of the guitar band is here. These five guys are just out of college and have been looking for a good time. Inane lyrics coupled with beginners chords gives the teeny bopper fans what they want.
Cross Reference: Third Eye Blind, Bon Jovi 2000, Silverchair
Category: Male Vocal Ensemble
Backstreet 'Yes, we once were extras in instant coffee commercials' Boys- Another easy formula . Just grab four or five out of work b-grade actors, gloss them over with a bit of make-up and let them drive expensive cars in their film clips. The chicks love it.
Cross reference: Nsync, Five, Boyzone
Category: Single Latino Male Vocal
Ricky 'Don't touch me- I'm worth more than the combined GDP of 27 third world countries' Martin. Most of what's covered in Backstreet Boys applies to this little spanish fly. Instead Mr Martin was a regular in an American daytime soap, once draped in long locks with a girlfriend called 'Maria'.
Cross reference: Marc Antony, Enrique Inglesias
Category: Female Vocal Ensemble
Destiny's 'Are you two-timing me again' Child. These three average looking wannabe superstars hit the charts this year with the repetitious 'Say my name'. The film clip says it all. No-one will remember their name once the clock has struck twelve 'cos their formula has already been exploited by some other girly group five minutes ago.
Cross reference: Spice Girls, TLC, En Vogue
Editors Note: The words 'musical talent' are notably absent from this story. While this story was intended to cover artists who possess considerable musical talent, the author accepts no responsibility for those artists covered who have a lack there of.......
by The Chaser
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The discovery was made late yesterday afternoon, when Doug Klimes, an unemployed carpet layer, discovered a lump in the seat while watching television. Reaching between the cushions, he found not the expected pen or 50 cent piece, but a family of ethnic Albanians, who had hidden in the cavity between the seat and rear cushions for four months.
"Please do not send me back to the inhumanity and squalor of my homeland," pleaded family matriarch Hirani Grchnlp. "Send us instead to the inhumanity and squalor of New Zealand!"
Eldest Son Tch Grchnlp, 18, wanted to stay; "I would very much like to stay here in Australia, partake of the conspicuous consumption of the West and whinge that education is no longer free. It is so different from Kosovo, where we are thankful if we are not shot through the head if we say the wrong prayers. I want to live in a country where I can constantly complain about minor imperfections, ignorant of the suffering elsewhere in the world. I would like to settle here and one day be able to protest the arrival of people just like me."
Immigration officials calmed the situation claiming that the nightmare would soon be over. "Don't worry we'll get rid of them quick-smart."
Officials have assured have assured human rights groups that the repatriation will go smoothly. "We have got them a space in the back of a Danish semi-trailer on its way to London," said one official. "They'll be fine".
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The social philosopher Edmund Burke once said that you could never plan the future by reference to the past. Certainly, if anybody had told me ten years ago that I would be standing here today facing the future as the Chairman of the UK's General Teaching Council and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, and as a member of the legislature in the British House of Lords, I know that I would have thought they were completely barmy.
But now, having taken early retirement from the film industry, I am hugely enjoying facing up to the challenges of the world of education. In fact, these days, whenever I attend a film event, I am reminded of a story about Jack Benny, the American comedian who late in his career was driving up to the Warner Brothers Studios one night and said to the guard at the gate, "You know, I made a movie here once, it was called The Horn Blows at Midnight. Did you ever see it?" The guard answered, "See it, I goddam produced it."
I mention that story because it gives you a rough idea of how quickly my industry forgets. We are now in a period of immense change. Let me start off by offering you a trio of quite disparate symbols of the velocity of change that we are currently experiencing.
On January 10 this year, America Online, an upstart internet company once known as the cockroach of cyberspace, and less than a decade old, acquired ownership of Time magazine, the Warner Brothers movie studio and a host of other assets belonging to a media empire that had taken most of the twentieth century to create.
The value of the worldwide online economy is set to exceed one thousand billion dollars next year, and to triple that by the year 2003.
The United Nations estimates that more people around world will be seeking formal academic qualifications in just the next 25 years than have done in the whole of human history.
So it is hardly surprising that people respond to change in quite contradictory ways. It is said that when Robert Fulton tested his first steamboat on the Mississippi, a vast crowd on the river bank waited expectantly while engineers kept tinkering and making last minute adjustments to the machinery. Sceptics amongst the crowd eventually started shouting, "She will never start, she will never start." Finally, amidst clouds of smoke and sparks, the boat began to move sedately up the river. The watching throng were silent for a moment. And then they again yelling after it, 'She will never stop, she will never stop." This is the way that most people respond to change. Until the very last minute, they are convinced that it will never happen, and then when it actually does, they are immediately concerned that it is all hopelessly out of control.
Such is the pace of development today that it has been seriously suggested that we should now be measuring the rate of change in terms of dog years, based on the notion that one year of a dog's life is equivalent to roughly seven of human beings. And that since things are happening about seven times as fast as they used to, a dog year is probably the most appropriate measure of change.
This morning I would like to address three principal themes.
First, to reflect on the necessity of encouraging people to unlock the full creative potential of the new technologies, as applied to the cultural industries and the arts.
Second, to argue for the merits of technology as tools for education and training.
And third, to reflect on the absolute imperative to invest in training, if we are to create any kind of viable future for our cultural industries, indeed for the future of our developed economies in general.
Turning to my first theme, I am no longer a film producer. But if I were, I know that the merger between America Online and Time Warner would have shaken my world to its very foundations. In was, I think, the 10th of January and not the 1st that marked the beginning of the 21st century as we will come to know it.
The future of the information, entertainment and large parts of the communications industries will now be largely driven by the world of the dot-com wizards. Time Warner's vast stock of films, books, magazines and newspapers, not to mention the news gathering capability of CNN, will be pumped at high speed down telephone lines into literally hundreds of millions of homes across the world.
A genuinely global economy is taking shape, an economy fundamentally driven by just two things: information and images. And these in themselves are increasingly intertwined as ever greater volumes of information are conveyed through those images, and in particular through moving images. For me, the term 'creative economy' is just one of a number of shorthand ways of describing this convergence of information and images. As a result, we are already expanding our whole notion of what we mean by the labels content, culture and artist to embrace entirely new areas and disciplines. The world of work will never be quite the same again.
Worth mentioning parenthetically, that this has come very hard to my party, the Labour Party. It is essentially a party of industry, with a strong industrial base. Even today, if you ask most of my colleagues to close their eyes and imagine the world of work as they would prefer it, they will still see ten thousand men and a few women carrying lunch pails and going through factory gates each morning as the hooter sounds.
The idea of the type of fragmented industry and the type of fragmented world of work that we are now confronting is not so much anathema to them, but a foreign country.
But what this means above all is that we have to start treating the cultural industries (those sectors including the arts which create intellectual property) in an entirely different way. The creative economy has proved itself to be much more than a catchy political slogan. Its implications for the evolution of what we call creativity are almost impossible to underestimate.
The history of cinema offers an interesting and illuminating parallel. One hundred years ago, who would ever have dreamed that the kinematograph, that ghostly medium of moving images then just a few years old, would become one of one of the most influential, if not the most influential, cultural forms of the twentieth century. When one of the medium's founding fathers, Louis Lumiere, hired Felix Mesguish as his first cameraman, he warned him that he was not offering him a job with much in the way of prospects. Lumiere saw it as more of a fairground job, that might last six months, a year, perhaps more, but probably less.
Likewise, the custodians of traditional culture dismissed cinema as a mere novelty for the great unwashed, one more craze that would quite quickly burn itself out amid the gloomy city slums where it had most firmly taken root. In Europe, the development of film was for the most part left in the hands of scientists, inventors and magicians. In those early years, cinema was principally seen either as a scientific tool or as a device for producing mind-boggling visual tricks, the forerunner of today's special effects movies. In fact, it took quite a long time for cinema to realise its potential as a wholly distinct form of art and entertainment.
As it turned out, Lumiere was fairly accurate about Mesguish' personal job prospects but spectacularly wrong about cinema itself. Public appetite showed the way forward. The public very quickly grew tired of novelty films with a seemingly endless stream of dancing bears, boxing kangaroos and exploding policeman that passed for entertainment. They wanted stories, bigger and better stories. They flocked in their millions to the very first thrillers, most notably The Great Train Robbery made by Edwin Porter in 1903. Today, that film comes across as a crude attempt to film a relatively mediocre play in 12 minutes. But it had an enormous impact at the time it was first screened. Just over 25 years later, the release of The Jazz Singer marked the advent of sound in the form of feature-length talkies, and film took an enormous leap in a new direction. Then, 50 years after The Jazz Singer came Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Cinema again took another leap forward.
I believe that the stage we have reached in terms of the new digital technologies is somewhat similar to that moment just before The Great Train Robbery. We have made the leap well beyond the stage when the use of digital technology is a mere novelty - yet the real creative potential of these new technologies has as yet barely been tapped. Frankly, who would dare to predict what kind of stories, ideas and images will flow down the information highway just a few years from now. Once the real potential of the technology has been demonstrated, there is never any going back. The Great Train Robbery beckoned to the imagination of filmmakers like D W Griffith or Abel Ganz who, by a process of creative alchemy, were able to build on basic ideas and turn them into very sophisticated ways of telling stories using moving images.
But it is essential to remember that, at heart, technology is simply what makes the revolution possible. It is a bridge and not at all a destination. This recalls an observation made recently when someone asked, "Will computers actually make films one day?" "Most certainly," came the reply from the audience, "and other computers will flock to see them."
The advent of the creative economy heralds not just new ways of thinking and working together, but far more importantly, new ways of imagining the world. And yet the focus of pundits and policy makers is too often on technology as an instrument principally geared to making our lives more convenient, shrinking an ever increasing number of activities into an ever shorter period of time.
We need to be actively encouraging and nurturing the creative use of these technologies. This is every bit as important as promoting e-commerce or seizing business opportunities, important as those tasks are. Surely this present rather blinkered vision of development sells us all short.
As the history of cinema demonstrates, we can be sure of one thing. Change will, as ever, be driven by those with vision, courage and creativity, rather than by those who are merely well-informed and technically competent. It is worth reminding ourselves of a basic truth, that all information and communication technology will only ever be as good and as creative as the people who use it. This calls for a truly effective strategy to ensure that young people are equipped with the competence and the expertise to understand and benefit from these new technologies.
Which leads me to my second theme - the creative use of technology as tools for education and training.
Since education and young people are two of the topics you will be talking about for the rest of today and tomorrow, I thought it might be useful to offer some observations from my own experience.
I absolutely believe that interactive and digital media, online services and all the rest of it, are crucial to the future of learning. The world that I know best, that of the moving image, films and television, interactive media, will become evermore central to education and training.
The entertainment industry has established itself as probably the most effective and efficient means of addressing people ever created. This is particularly true of young people. If the skills involved in creating that entertainment are brought to bear on a new area such as education and training, then the opportunity exists for us to be phenomenally effective.
Above all, this will require a genuinely ambitious national strategy, one that ensures that young people are equipped with the confidence and the expertise to understand and benefit from all of these new technologies.
We must not come to see the impact of the computer on education as merely paralleling the impact of the calculator on arithmetic, that is to say speeding up and simplifying the process without offering any significant change to the process itself. If these technologies are properly used, with sensitively developed, intelligent and challenging content, then they have the potential to change the development of the whole educational process, and with it all of our national futures.
The irony is that the younger generation understand most of this instinctively. They are living the revolution. Computers are not seen just as games machines. In the United Kingdom, one third of those under 17 already use a personal computer in their leisure time for something quite other than playing computer games.
So what does all this mean to us?
More than 30 years ago, an early pioneer of virtual reality in the United States wrote that a display, connected to a digital computer, gives us the chance to gain familiarity with concepts not realisable in the physical world. It provides us with a looking glass into a mathematical wonderland. Now, as a child at school, it never occurred to me for one moment that mathematics might be any kind of wonderland. To me, and I suspect to most of my classmates, it was not much more than a confusing nightmare. To end that dismal situation for the majority of today's schoolchildren would be of no small consequence to society. The human race has barely begun to get to grips with the way that information technology can revolutionise learning, and by extension, the way it can change the way we think, communicate and create.
To my mind, the sum of a well-rounded education is significantly greater than merely the accumulation of different knowledge components. Education is about developing the perception, the attitudes and the ability to learn. That ability will allow a free spirit to emerge and, when it is ready, to really take flight. Developing understanding allows each individual to participate fully as a member of the human race. Unlocking the articulation of feelings (which I believe is best achieved through the arts) gives every student the ability to weather the sometimes very tricky journey that lies ahead of them.
Within any national education system, whether here in Australia, the UK or anywhere in the world, the arts are not necessary only as an autonomous part of a well-rounded education. By now, we all should have realised that the arts can no longer be viewed as a lightweight, pleasurable diversion from the more taxing, serious subjects of mathematics and science. Increasingly, research is showing how artificial that schism that we seem to have created between the arts and the sciences really is.
In the 1980s, I was a trustee of the Tate Gallery and I am now a trustee of the Science Museum. It fascinates me to see how many real similarities there are between the two, and that the sciences and the arts are complementary. We have been quite absurd in the United Kingdom to imagine them as alternative forms of development. And we have been even more absurd in forcing children at the age of 14 to decide whether they want to pursue their lives in one or the other, as if in some bizarre way they are mutually exclusive.
Even worse, we have allowed the arts and the sciences to become rivals for funding within a modern economy. Nothing could be more stupid.
I am by nature an optimist. I cannot help but remember something that Marcel Proust once wrote. He said, "We do not need new landscapes, we only need new eyes to see those that already exist." We know what we have to do. It is now about finding a new way of thinking about, and discovering, the means by which we can incorporate creativity and the arts into the whole of our learning process.
For instance, research shows that symmetrical or cordant sounds such as a Mozart piano concerto are transmitted faster to the brain's neurons than discordant information. Simply stated, music can help learning.
Many, many pieces of research done by employer organisations around the world set out quite clearly what today's employers in the developed world are looking for in our young people. Literacy and numeracy of course, but just as important are confidence, adaptability, personality, problem-solving capacity and communications skills. All of those qualities that just about any child exposed to good arts teaching acquire as a matter of course.
It might not be long before every company follows the accountancy giant PriceWaterhouse in asking as they did in a recent job advertisement in the United Kingdom, "Which musical instrument do you play?" Not if, but which. And how long will it be before other businesses follow the lead of the BBC whose senior management team was recently addressed by the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, Ben Zander, on the use of music in management. As an aside, I was at a headship conference some years ago where Ben Zander has six hundred new principals and several government ministers sitting on their chairs singing Beethoven's Ode to Joy in German!
With that image in mind, let me offer you a couple of specific thoughts from my own work in the UK on how members of the creative community might genuinely contribute to the educational system. Together with colleagues, I have been nurturing an initiative that would involve music students spending a year working in primary schools in exchange for tuition fee support and a partial teaching qualification. In this way, helping to develop exactly those skills I have been talking about, confidence, adaptability, personality and the rest of it; and also solving a real crisis that we have in the teaching of music to primary school children. I have also been promoting an initiative to allow acting skills to become integrated into the very best of our teacher training. This helps teaches acquire a whole range of communication and presentation skills, which could be extraordinarily valuable to the future development of our educational system. If I have spotted one thing in my many visits to schools, it is that the very, very best teaching is effectively a performance.
Now to my third theme: the implications of all of this for a meaningful overall training strategy for the cultural industries, and most especially for the funding of such a strategy.
Whilst most of us acknowledge that quality training is just about as desirable as motherhood and apple pie, when it comes to actually paying for it, it takes an extraordinary amount of time and effort to persuade companies and individuals to invest serious money. In fact, the process of turning warm aspirations and promises into practical reality has proved one of the great disappointments of my working life.
For pretty much the whole of the 30 years that I spent working in the film industry in the United Kingdom and Hollywood and shooting films around the world, I have been committed to (and some would say a fanatical advocate of) high quality training. I have spent many hundreds of hours badgering individually and collectively the film, television and media sectors, policy makers, regulators and the government in an effort to pull together an adequately funded strategy which would ensure some form of coherent, ongoing professional development.
Talent and skills are, and always have been, the key to the future of the film, television and the entire creative industries. Talent and skills right across the board, not only in the technical and craft grades, but also among writers, directors, producers, on-screen talent and even a new generation of managers with a serious interest in marketing and finance. In Australia, as in the rest of the world, ultimately the only competitive advantage lies in the quality and the cost-effectiveness of your workforce. You can throw as much private and public money as you want into the arts, but a great deal of it is likely to be wasted unless that investment goes hand in glove with an all-embracing, properly thought through training strategy. The quality and the depth of your workforce and your creative skills base are the key to unloading this country's true potential, and that is true right across the arts and cultural industries.
I can only repeat, investment is absolutely critical. All too often employers, governments and indeed unions, are reluctant to invest. They have an almost myopic refusal to think in the long term. They seem unable to grasp their obligations to the industry that effectively generates their revenues. They are reluctant because they simply fail to understand the real and lasting benefits of a highly skilled and highly educated workforce. They are reluctant because they seem wilfully ignorant of what global competition is really all about.
It is the task of everyone working in the cultural sector to make the case for investment to employers, government and policy makers. Otherwise, there is a very serious danger that you will just get left behind, hopelessly under-equipped in an era of globalisation dominated by new technologies that exist principally to service the bottom line. But in truth, these technologies can help promote access and equality of opportunity in the sphere of the arts, a contribution every bit as valuable, indeed much, much, more so in my view than providing opportunities for a band of twenty-somethings to become paper millionaires overnight.
I would like to close by attempting to draw these three themes together.
We are living in a time of unprecedented technological change, of unprecedented movement and instability. But how we choose to use that movement is up to us. Surely, we are not going to allow our vision of a brave new world to be driven solely by the faceless technocrats of some Orwellian information society. In my view, and probably yours, that would be not much more than a disaster. Instead, it is that creative economy which should be at the heart of our vision, a vision in which individuals are valued for their ability to contribute to a sustainable human conception of the future, and not simply for their ability to deliver ever-faster streams of neatly-packaged bytes, which for the most part contribute little or nothing to the quality of our lives.
We live in challenging times, and these challenges are not just to our technological abilities, but also to our character and to those qualities which we will most need if we are to overcome the difficult and very, very competitive years ahead. By harnessing our creativity, our ingenuity and our imagination to the development of our educational systems, and by the imaginative use of technology within those systems, we can build a genuinely inclusive, vibrant, humane, social community, of which all of us will be genuinely proud to be a part.
So, in all manner of ways, the arts and the cultural industries are of immense social significance, not simply because of the glories of the past, but more importantly, because of their huge potential for the future. In the end, our ability to exploit that potential lies in our fundamental confidence in ourselves. If all of us here this morning can develop sufficient confidence in our own future, we will be that much more likely to summon up the necessary energy to tackle our industry's future. The more energy we have, the more likely we are to recognise the opportunities and to grab them. And the more we see and take those opportunities, the more confidence we are likely to acquire, and so on.
We can in this way create something approaching a truly virtuous circle in which the economic and the cultural benefits alike could in the end be quite enormous.
William Morris, the great artist and educationist and one of my personal heroes, looked forward to a time when all men would be artists, and the audience for art would be nothing short of the whole people. The arts and education are inextricably intertwined. That has always been true in a cultural sense, but evidence from around the world suggests that in the 21st century, a successful meshing of arts and education is likely to become ever more essential to social stability and economic success.
Much more can and must be done if we are to take advantage of the extraordinary stimulus the arts and our individual creativity can offer to the next generation. That is the task that faces all of us here today, and it is a very, very challenging task, one that will call upon every ounce of our creativity, intellect and will.
I hope that I have gone at least some way towards persuading all of you that it is a genuinely worthwhile challenge. Were we to succeed, it would have incalculable benefits not just for our economic well-being, but more importantly, for the fundamental quality of all of our lives.
Somehow or other, we have to bridge the gap that exists between the aspiration for a well-trained, well-educated competitive, intelligent and thoughtful society and the resources that all of us need to actually provide it. At the moment, the gap between the aspiration and the resources is colossal. Our job is to convince government, employers and the rest to bridge that gap and give us all a shot at the future.
Lord David Putnam, who is the Junior Minister for Education in the British Government and patron of Skillset, CREATE Australia's equivalent for the UK film and broadcast industries. Putnam's film production credits include Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields, Local Hero and Midnight Express.
This speech was CREATE Australia's third national conference which was held on April 6-7 at the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne.
by Liam Phelan
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It has been almost a year since the historic vote on August 30 when the East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia.
The Indonesian army and militia destroyed the country on the way out, murdering innocent men, women and children and burning and looting as they left.
"It's shocking. Nothing prepares you for the reality of seeing the absolute devastation," says the gravel-voiced CFMEU Organiser Steve Dixon.
Dixon, Portuguese-speaking CFMEU organiser Tony Vicente and former Socceroo captain and Soccer Australia representative Alex Tobin brought 230 soccer balls to East Timor and distributed them to schools, villages and communities.
"It was amazing to see how something simple like a soccer ball could lift the spirits of the kids. One ball gets used by a whole groups," said Vicente.
Both men had nothing but praise for the patience and stamina of the former Aussie soccer captain Alex Tobin.
"He was made to order. In Dili Stadium he coached for five hours in 40c heat and never missed a beat. They all loved him," Dixon said.
The group travelled throughout Timor, visiting Los Palos, Raca, Con, Bacau, Manatutu, Aileu, Gleno, Ainaro and Liquica, where the town was razed.
"They had destroyed absolutely everything there. The place was levelled," Dixon explained.
The group also visited a large school in Dili, where the buildings were donated and built by the CFMEU. The children were writing on scraps of paper.
"We will be sending crayons, pencils, exercise books over to help them get back on their feet," Dixon said.
Despite the devastation, Dixon said the attitude of the East Timorese was overwhelmingly positive towards their group.
"CFMEU members can be really proud of their efforts. The equipment and balls they raised funds to buy lifted the spirit of whole communities."
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Virtual Carmen
The Federal ALP Member for Fremantle and former Premier of Western Australia The Hon. Dr. Carmen Lawrence MP has recently launched a revamped website located at http://www.carmenlawrence.com.au . Carmen has already been online for several years with a reasonably average website, which is pretty typical of what Pollies are churning out online, however I was pleasantly surprised when I checked out Carmens' new website. Not only is it attractive and easy to navigate but to my shock and horror it actually contains information ....... a rarity in Pollies websites.
Whilst looking at Carmen's site have a look at the site of the Independent NSW State Member for Bligh Clover Moore MP http://www.clovermoore.com . Clover is another rare Pollie who has also invested time and money in her site and has created an informative and interesting site which has obviously been designed to reflect her image and that of her inner city electorate.
Hopefully as more and more politicians are going online a few of them will check out Carmen and Clover's sites and realize that a website should be more than a Billboard in cyber-space but a place for their constituents interact with their local member.
Astro Tabasco
Funky Lounge Band Astro Tabasco has launched a new website at http://www.astrotabasco.com . Astro Tabasco who are regulars in the Sydney lounge seen are also prominent in their pro-Union stance and have featured in the recent union gigs fundraising for East Timor. They will be releasing their new CD at The Metro on Saturday July 29. The site was designed by a member of the band and is well designed and easy to navigate. It also has Real Player downloads of tracks from their new album "Espionage Atrois". A class act all round.
Agitate, Educate, Organise!
With the World Economic Forum (WEF) coming to Melbourne in September local Greens, Anarchists, Students, NGOs , some Unions and Trots in general have started to organise protests to create in their words "another Seattle" .... not an early 90's grunge scene but a repeat of the protests against the WTO that were held in Seattle last year.
The primary way they have been organising is through their website at http://www.s11.org (I really don't understand all these new names s11, m1, a18 ????). The site is a fantastic example of the ways the web can be utilised to organise events and to communicate between organisations. It has areas for different organisations within the movement to have their own section within the site (not unlike LaborNET). The site has been modeled on a site that the organisations in Seattle used to organise their protests http://www.indymedia.org . This site during the protests and riots had up to the minute coverage of what was happening in Seattle including Real Player Video downloads and Audio. Keep watching the s11 site no doubt in September there will be plenty to see.
Cheeky Bastards
A group of university students in the UK recently went to Heathrow Airport dressed as Airline representatives and requested Airport officials to announce over the PA for certain passengers to proceed to the gates for departure. So what's so noteworthy about that, I hear you say? Well, the names they had made up when spoken sound very similar to statements and an example is "Makollig Jezvahted and Levdroum DeBahzted" sounds like "My colleague just farted, and left the room, the bastard". The uni students launched a site at http://www.twilight3d.com/humour/temp/ with sound bytes of their work ..... very funny, well worth checking out.
If you have any sites you think Paul should review or any sites that should be linked to LaborNET email him at [email protected]
The multiple-chinned Upper House book-end tried to score a few cheap headlines at our expense this week, whacking out a media release defending the honour of last week's inductee, serial luncher Maxine McKew. But he did not understand the karmic powers he was unleashing. We will it explain it once: never mess with the Toolshed, Duncan!
Here's how it all unfolded.
Duncan Gay obviously employs a geek who surfs the web looking for ammunition for his issues-starved boss. The geek comes across Workers Online's self-professed shoot the messenger job on McKew and reckons this is worth a go
He knocks up a fairly wordy media release that Gay dutifully puts out. It's laced with sort of tortured National Party humour that makes you hope you'll never be stuck in Dubbo on a Saturday night. 'A Tool is Tradesman's Appliance' the headline trumpets, before going on to pan Labor Council for its 'juvenile antics'. "This is (sic) prime example of the mindless Labor machine at work," he goes on, ": - when one of their own is under fire, all parts of the Party close ranks around them in futile attempts to deflect the blame'.
It must have been a quiet year at Macquarie Street because the release was picked up by ABC radio and Gay hot-footed his way down to the press rooms to give a grab. "Frankly my understanding of a tool is a tradesman's appliance", he sprayed at ABC radio, "and frankly Maxine McKew's article certainly was much more tradesman-like than the description by Workers Online of her as a tool."
Which is where the story would have ended - except there was a twist.
Having entered a cyber-war with the labour movement, a few people decided to check out Duncan's own website - http://www.duncangay.cjb.net/. As politician's websites go it's not too bad - further proof that Gay has a Geek.
Only problem is the site is hosted by a server for free. Part of the deal is you agree to carry web advertising supplied by the host. This advertising, which pops up every few seconds ranges from dating and adult services to online gambling.
Visitors to Duncan Gay Online are :
- given the chance to 'Become a Millionaire' through a bit of online gambling,
- encouraged to 'Make real friends Faster and Easier with Udate.com' - with a graphic of a naked woman - ,
- accosted with the message'I'm looking to get ... Sex!'
- as well as receiving the alluring invitation to 'Chat Online with Anna Kornikova'!
As soon as this information came to light, Gay moved quickly to the back foot, proclaiming ignorance about the nature of the relationships his site was promoting.
The piece on page two of Thursday's Sydney Morning Herald was priceless and is reproduced in full:
"MP Caught Out By Sex Ads - The acting NSW National Party leader, Mr Duncan Gay, was embarrassed yesterday when he discovered that his Web site contained ads for online gambling, sex and dating services. Mr Gay said the site had been running for nine months but he always clicked straight out of the ads and never paid attention to their content. He would revisit the site and see if he could delete the advertisements or change the server. "They give you the site that you can operate and the price you pay is when you open up your [site] that little box with the ads comes up," Mr Gay said "It's not what I need on my Web site."
By the time of posting Workers Online the site was off the air.
So if you still need a definition of a 'tool', Duncan, we suggest you try looking in the mirror.
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