Red Rag

Despite repeated assurances that the IR legislation was being prepared according to schedule, John Howard has cancelled a sitting week of the House of Representatives because Kevin Andrews and his team of seconded lawyers couldn’t get the job done. This is despite recent calls from the National Party for the detail of the proposals to be revealed sooner rather than later.

Prominent Jesuit lawyer Frank Brennan has defended the right of clergy to enter political debates, saying “[i]t is far too cavalier for government or their supporters to dismiss church leaders” when they disagree with government policy.

Certainly the Government will have trouble dismissing Cardinal George Pell, a close ally of John Howard and Tony Abbott, who thinks there ought to be “a modest strengthening” of unions’ role in society: “I think we need strong and effective and humane and altruistic unions to continue to dialogue with these people. I am certainly not supportive of a radical rethink of the unions. I think that’s gone far enough, you might even argue it’s gone a bit too far.”

Kevin Andrews says the Government will attempt to squash the minimum wage claim when the Industrial Relations Commission holds a directions hearing. If it does so, the ACTU will take its case to the State commissions.

Last time John Howard turned his attention to the skills crisis, he fiddled the figures so that burger-flippers were counted as apprentices. This time Howard wants to bring apprenticeships under his low pay commission, so they will be paid “at levels that ensure they are competitive in the labour market” — in other words, their wages will be slashed. Stephen Smith says this is “a long standing policy obsession”, and remembers John Howard’s 1992 call for a youth wage of just $3/hour.

The Police Federation of Australia is concerned that the Howard Government’s industrial relations plan “will have a significant adverse impact on the [police] force nation-wide.” Its national conference will discuss the issue, and is particularly concerned about the inclusion of productivity targets if officers are forced onto AWAs. Sergeant Burgess says the community would not like officers “to be judged on the number of infringement notices they issue or the number of people they arrest”.