Justice Heydon Dyson refused an interlocutory injunction against the Government’s IR campaign, because the unions could not give an undertaking as to damages (because the cost of the ad campaign is undisclosed, but tipped to be at least $20 000 000). However, Justice Dyson agreed that the constitutionality of the propaganda expenditure was “a serious question to [...]
Kevin Andrews yesterday explained meal breaks and public holidays would still be a “feature” of employment, but would not be guaranteed. Steve Fielding was not convinced: “The average Australian won’t accept the idea that people could be required to work seven days a week and not get a meal break … [a]nd they won’t accept [...]
Pre-eminent labour lawyer Josh Bornstein argues (as I have) that far from being a plan for the 21st Century, the Government’s proposals will return us to the situation that prevailed in the 1800s. He explains that “freedom of contract” is based on a fictional equality between employer and employee: In very few cases employees actually [...]
Father Tony Percy explains how even tertiary-educated workers have difficulty negotiating on a genuinely equal footing with their employers: “A worker enters the room to negotiate a contract. His employers place on the desk a contract, which has been prepared by the legal department of the employer. Immediately we sense the problem. The employee has [...]
The NSW transport minister, John Watkins, has slammed Howard’s workplace reforms as “an arrogant abuse of power” because “[a]ll these plans were hatched after the election, when the Coalition gained control of the Senate.” His Government will provide free public transport to the Last Weekend picnic in opposition to the plans. In last Wednesday’s New [...]
More evidence from New Zealand shows that radical individualist IR reform hurts the economy. Paul Dalziel’s paper in the Review of Political Economy shows that “the New Zealand economy lost almost two full points of gross domestic productivity growth between 1987 and 1998, while from 1990 to 1998 Australian productivity rose by 21.9 per cent [...]
Asked about the scope of his Government’s $20 000 000 industrial relations propaganda campaign, Kevin Andrews said, “We’re looking at something that will go on for possibly a year or so.” That’s about two years less than the unions have vowed to continue the fight. Queensland’s Premier, Peter Beattie, thinks the prospect of a successful High Court [...]
The Babysitters Club appointed to help out Kevin Andrews has been dismissed by the ACTU, who say “no amount of like-minded friends of the Prime Minister can sell something that tears up basic rights of work.” Certainly the group’s chairman, Andrew Robb, did nothing to suggest his communications campaign would be effective: ALEXANDRA KIRK: So [...]
The Coalition’s infamous “dirt unit” functionary, Ian Hanke, will start work for IR minister Kevin Andrews next Monday. He is expected to take a more aggressive approach than his predecessor. Strewth’s Rodney Dalton describes Hanke as “a Liberal favourite who’s notorious in Canberra circles for issuing propaganda-style media releases that are largely ignored, and for [...]
Yesterday’s attack on construction workers is just a taste of what’s to come as the Howard Government steps up its IR campaign. Their tactic will be to demonise unions by ranting about alleged union thuggery — but despite a Royal Commission and a Building Industry Taskforce whose inspectors are prepared to fabricate evidence, the Government [...]
Comments