Industrial relations campaign update
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The new leader of the WA Nationals, Brendan Grylls, has called on the new leader of the Federal Nationals, Mark Vaile, to oppose Howard’s IR reforms: “We need to uphold our state’s rights and have our own IR system and we would be hoping that Mark Vaile as the new federal leader of the National Party would be using his first week in the job to make that point very clearly to the Prime Minister.”
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The Liberal Party federal council is opposed to the centralist plan, and Western Australian Liberal Senator David Johnson says he might be willing to cross the floor on industrial relations (tell him and his colleagues why they should do so). The Sydney Morning Herald suggests that “at a recent West Australian Liberal state council meeting there were suggestions MPs could lose preselection unless they opposed the centralisation measure.”
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The National Council of Churches, which represents Catholic, Anglican, Uniting and other churches, has expressed concerns about the IR push. Its general secretary said, “The value of each worker is not as a commodity, but as a person, a human being, loved by God. Our community has values that are more important than economics.”
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Anglican Bishop Philip Huggins told an ecumenical service, “If it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.” He noted that John Howard likes to talk about low unemployment, strong wage growth, and low inflation, and concludes that “It is plainly, by his own criteria, a system that is working well.” There’s no need to undercut working conditions.
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A professor of theology at the Australian Catholic University, Neil Ormerod, wonders “how Kevin Andrews, Minister for Workplace Relations, reconciles his workplace reforms with his Catholic faith.” He also challenges Cardinal Pell: “it will also be interesting to see how a certain Catholic prelate, who has often sided with the Howard government, will respond to a policy so at variance with Catholic social teaching.” For his part, Pell said last October that we must “never treat workers as ‘resources’, but respect the Church’s view that persons are prior to resources.”
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Bob Carr has committed to maintaining the NSW industrial relations system for as many people as possible, because the corporations power does not give Howard constitutional authority to completely trample States’ rights.
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Join the growing chorus: attend a rally against the Howard Government’s attack on workers’ rights this Thursday, 30 June. 100 000 people are expected in Melbourne, 10 000 in Perth. Make sure your local rally pulls its weight.
http://www.thewest.com.au/20050630/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto131602.html
“At King Edward Memorial Hospital, there will be no hot food at lunch, which would be sandwiches, cheese and biscuits, fruit, yoghurt and a drink. At Royal Perth Hospital, patients will be offered sandwiches only except for those on special diets.”
Having had first hand experience of Hospital food, I reckon the patients would actually prefer to eat those than the usual fare, plus Sandwhiches are normally offered as part of the lunch menu as well.
I’ll be there. With bloody bells on.
I certainly wont, but good luck anyway.
Was good. Impressive impassioned and civil.
I was at the Brisbane rally. No march, but a very large gathering in King George Square. The turnout was made impressive by the rainy conditions. Somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people turned up. Most of us from about mid way in the crowd back could not hear of what was said. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie spoke strongly in support, as did federal shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan, who was fairly impressive in full swing. There was more, but it is too late at night to think. I was there, standing out like a sore thumb, with a bright orange business shirt :)
Interesting to note the figures reported by various media outlets of the Perth Rally. The SMH says it was 11,000 – this is incorrect as I heard Dave Kelly on 6PR saying it was between 20-25,000.
Also, I was listening to our friends in blue on the scanner and heard them say that the rear of the parade was leaving the Cultural Centre as the front of the parade was entering the Cultural Centre.
I wonder what figure The West will pull out of their collective anal orifices ? :-)
http://www.thewest.com.au/20050701/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto131615.html
Just as I suspected – The West are putting on the spin that the Perth Rally was a failure.
“Speaking as 15,000 people brought the city to a standstill with a protest rally, Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union boss Kevin Reynolds said contractors Leighton, John Holland, Doric and Pindan were among the construction companies in the union’s sights.”
I think only The Australian got the crowd numbers right at 20,000.
I went to the Melbourne protest. It was huge, and it was good to see such a cross-section of the community out too.
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