Solidarity

The only thing holding Greg Combet back from parliament was the prospect of an ugly fight over his replacement as secretary of the ACTU. The two contenders were Jeff Lawrence (from the Labor Left) and John Robertson (from the Right). Robertson appeared to have picked up some support, but when the biggest Right-wing union announced it would support Lawrence, it was game over.

Combet was angry about the way things had unfolded:

Mr Combet told The Australian last night that he did not remember using the word “arseholes” during an impassioned speech he gave but did concede he was upset. “I certainly spoke strongly,” he said. “I have been very concerned about a campaign conducted by John Robertson supporters that has had the capacity to bring Labor Party factionalism into the ACTU that has not existed for decades.”

Preselection for the seat of Charlton closes at 5pm on Friday, and Combet has said he will make an announcement around that time. He is expected to run for parliament but remain at the ACTU until the election. This might go some way to alleviating concerns that he is abandoning the Your Rights at Work campaign at a crucial time.

The key point in this is that Labor is obviously quite unconcerned by the Coalition’s ridiculous bogey-man campaign against unions. The Herald Sun, for instance, warned that it would “play into the hands of the Howard Government, which is on the attack over Labor’s union links.” If Labor’s polling showed that was a genuine concern among voters, they would have asked Combet to stay put. Instead, Kevin Rudd has encouraged him to run, made sure he would have the seat of his choice, and promised him a seat on the front bench.

The fact is that voters aren’t scared of unions, and they like Labor’s policy. While The Australian runs daily profiles of people provided to them by the business lobby, the Courier-Mail went and visited random businesses and found:

Workers in Queensland’s most marginal electorate yesterday dismissed business concerns about federal Labor’s proposed industrial relations overhaul as “scaremongering”.

Instead many welcomed Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd’s plan to axe individual workplace contracts and restore penalty rates and overtime.