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Year End 2005   
F E A T U R E S

Interview: Back to the Future
James Gallaway collars Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, on threats, challenges and opportunities.

Unions: A Real Page Turner
Jim Marr glances through Workers Online�s 2005 news stories and finds there is more one way to skin a Rat

Industrial: The Pin-Striped Union
Rachael Osman-Chin profiles a white collar union that is having some almighty blues.

International: Around The World In 365 Days
It was a year of online activism, as LabourStart's Eric Lee reports

Legends: Terrific, Tommy
Jim Marr tackles a champion.

Your Rights At Work: Worth Fighting For
The Your Rights At Work campaign has been a big part of this year and, as Phil Doyle reports, it is making a difference.

Politics: The Year That Was
Frank Stillwell looks at year that saw the politics of fear; and finds many reasons to be very afraid.

Economics: Master and Servant Revisited
Evan Jones asks if the Neo Liberals are taking us back to the future

Culture: 2005: The Year of Living Repetitively
Nathan Brown ignores Oasis and decides to look back in anger after all

Bad Boss: The Bottom Ten
Nathan Brown digs through his voluminous dirt files and comes up with the top 10 grubs of the year.

Religion: Hymns from a Different Song Sheet
James Gallaway on the Way, the Truth and life according to Brian.

C O L U M N S

Predictions
The Crystal Ball
Workers Online consults a raft of leading psychics to find out what readers can look forward to in 2006.

The Soapbox
The Things People Say
It was a year of quotable quotes, reports Phil Doyle.

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Ian West checks the rear vision mirror on 2005, and plants his foot down

The Locker Room
The 2005 Workers Online Sports Awards
After years of being overlooked by selectors at club, representative and national levels, Phil Doyle and Jim Marr, agreed to hand out our 2005 sports gongs.

Postcard
Postcard from East Timor
In East Timor entertainment also spreads an important message into the community

E D I T O R I A L

Waves of Destruction
2005 was the year book-ended by two waves of destruction - the first causing untold suffering across the Indian Ocean; the second reawakening our darker angels on beaches closer to home.

N E W S

 Melbourne Burns AWAs

 Corporates Defend Costello

 Speaker Won't Talk

 Bank Pays on Dodgy Contracts

 Plan to Save Jobs

 Harper's Bizarre Excuse for Failure

 It's Not Fair: Business

 Workers Walk As Warnings Wiped

 Teenager Hit With Shrapnel

 Pay Day �Unlawful�

 Tassie Rail Win

 Professionals Fear for Their Kids

 Boss Pings Rorters Charter

 New Ways to Take a Share

 An Hour of Need

 Boeing Steals Christmas

 Trouble at the Mill

 Activists What's On

L E T T E R S
 Pension Pinching
 Free to Rat
 Tax Cuts and Cockroaches
 Proportion, Not Distortion
 Corp That!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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The Locker Room

The 2005 Workers Online Sports Awards


After years of being overlooked by selectors at club, representative and national levels, Phil Doyle and Jim Marr, agreed to hand out our 2005 sports gongs.

And the awards are:

Pitch Doctor of the Year: Forget Pakistani cricket curators and Uruguayan football officials, the Victoria Racing Club has nailed this one, in perpetuity, for its actions in the first days of November. So all future meetings at Flemington will be contested on a slow/dead surface. Yeah, right.

Dummy Spit of the Year: No ducking out the back door this time, stand up Wayne Bennett. In his every public action, Wayne reminds us that sport should be fun. After leading Australia to its first losing rugby league series in about 140 years, the self-proclaimed internationalist tossed it in to concentrate on his club team. Why? None of our business, but he might tell us later, at some undisclosed time, if he feels like it. But, hang on, it definitely wasn't because of the media. Then he proceeds to bag the media for the rest of the interview - "I was going to be the news story ... either way they were going to get me ... double standards ... I am glad I am not one of their parents ... I hate all the negativity that surrounds our sport ... it's rubbish ... If I thought I had given the media what they wanted, I would go and neck myself ... I have spent 30 years trying to give them what they didn't want." Then we get the real reason. When the Aussies won, last year, apparently, there wasn't enough media at the airport to report his triumph so, when they lost, he decided not to talk. Jeez Wayne, what about a nice glass of milk and a long lie down?

Team Man of the Year: St Kilda spinner, SK Warne. He might live in a parallel universe but when he crosses the boundary rope, he's the real deal. Warne bowled himself to a standstill, and fought it out with the bat, as Australia's unbeatable tag turned to Ashes.

Best Pick Yourself Up and Dust Yourself Off effort: Who could not be moved by the effort of Australian cyclists Lorian Graham, Kate Nichols and Katie Brown after they lost their team mate in a tragic accident in Germany, which claimed the life of Victorian cyclist, Amy Gillett, 29. Their plucky return to the road is an inspiration.

Best Rags To Riches To Rags To Riches Again Story: The South Melbourne, Sydney Swans, Geoffrey Edelstened Warwick Cappered, came from absolutely nowhere, good guys do come first, best little footy club between the Murray and the Tweed. They nearly died in the eighties and the nineties, but they've got more lives than Dame Nellie Melba's cat and these [insert superlative here] good things had the added advantage of not being West Coast.

Trendy of the Year: Who bloody said trade unions were dinosaurs, promoting old-fashioned values? When the movement went fishing in the sporting pond for someone to personify its relevance in a changing world, there could only be one catch and the catch was, Mr Bling himself, Tommy Raudonikis.

Comeback Queen: She's copped plenty of serves in her 22 years but Jelena Dokic made a return that counted when she swallowed her pride and flew into Melbourne. Better still, she appears to have lost her most troublesome baggage. When she was making headlines, for all the wrong reasons, she was just a kid and deserves the opportunity to call Australia home.

Pass Master: Benji Marshall's reverse flick was the defining moment of a refreshing rugby league grand final. With Sonny Bill sitting on the sidelines, Benji stole his super star mantle. What is it with these bloody Kiwis?

Coach as Superstar: All the Aussie contenders knocked themselves out so, in the end, this one turned into a Dutch Auction and there was only one bidder, Guus Whatsisname? On the strength of about three games, they're whispering his name in tones that used be reserved for Jack Gibson and Ron Barassi.

Alan Jones: Talent scout of the year. This man's ability to really play mix and match with sporting celebrities is truly impressive

Joys of Privatisation Award: The dead-set loons who run, for want of a better term, the Auckland Worriers. A tape of talks between Cullen Sports and the International Rugby Board has been released showing Worriers heavies promising the G and T brigade to make the 15-man game their first priority. This would have involved turning New Zealand's best rugby league players into kick and clappers plus, the small matter of ditching its "brown face" supporter base for a paler demographic. Should spark interests amongst Souths and Newcastle supporters.

Best World Cup: soccer FOOTBALL!


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