In the most recent issue of Overland, Katherine Wilson writes about a man called Ross Irvine, who toured Australia recently to teach big business “how to create bogus community groups, false statistics, and links with ‘far-right-wing nutso activists’.” She went along to his seminar, along with some very important people: Filing in to see him [...]
This Wednesday, it’s time to take a stand for workers’ rights. Join the National Day of Protest and show your opposition to the WorkChoices agenda. Details of local rallies and events follow.
The Independent Contractors Bill went before parliament yesterday, and the Minister for IR gave his second reading speech: Today, in introducing the Independent Contractors Bill and the Workplace Relations Amendment (Independent Contractors) Bill, I remind the House that [E]veryone’s life opportunities are diminished by…restrictions on the freedom to work. The Minister has used this quotation [...]
When finance minister Nick Minchin spoke to the hardline H R Nicholls Society earlier this year, he spoke frankly about the Howard Government’s industrial relations package. Minchin told his friends that although “the Australian people don’t agree at all with anything we’re doing on this”, there was “still a long way to go”. He hoped [...]
The Australian‘s campaign of IR lies continues today, with an utterly disgraceful article. Here’s how it starts: Workers lose $27 a week Cath Hart and Ewin Hannan WORKERS following Kim Beazley’s advice to reject Australian Workplace Agreements lost $27 a week after a stationery company offering the contracts abandoned its plans for further change. How [...]
Unions around the country want to take advantage of sympathetic Labor State governments to discourage companies from using WorkChoices. The Federal Government has used its control over project funding to force contractors, especially in the construction industry, to sign up to its anti-union, anti-worker agenda. The unions say it’s time for the State governments to [...]
Today’s Crikey daily email reckons the media — especially the Murdoch press, and very especially The Australian — is severely biased against Labor on industrial relations. First, Richard Farmer sums up the recent reporting: On Monday Kim Beazley was “to axe AWAs in backflip”. On Tuesday that had become “Unions push ALP for more”. Wednesday [...]
More evidence has emerged that AWAs are bad for working Australians. The Government’s favoured industrial relations law firm, Freehills, analysed pay rises across different contract arrangements, and found that workers on AWAs are getting dudded: Labor yesterday seized on the figures, compiled by law firm Freehills in February. They show workers on union collective agreements [...]
The ACTU has launched its next round of television advertisements. This ad features real people who have suffered the effects of WorkChoices. Running these ads is not cheap, and the ACTU is seeking donations to keep the ads on the air as long as possible. As I publish this post, they’ve reached almost $10 000 of [...]
Media coverage of Kim Beazley’s plan to protect wages and conditions by abolishing AWAs has not improved. In fact, it seems to be getting worse, as Tim Dunlop shows in this demolition of a report in The Australian: So a lead article, under the headline, “Beazley to risk pay cutsâ€?, offers the “beliefsâ€?, the “warningsâ€? [...]
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