Solidarity

You’ll remember that around the time WorkChoices was introduced, the Prime Minister refused to say that nobody would be worse off. He tried to argue that this was because it is unwise to make general guarantees of that sort, but his opponents said it was because he knew workers would suffer under the new laws.

And now two cabinet ministers have confirmed that Howard knew, in interviews given to the PM’s biographers. Julia Gillard describes it as “[a] leak right from the heart of the Howard Government verifying that the fact WorkChoices was going to hurt working families was discussed.”

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the book’s claims that the legislation was knocked back by cabinet three times for being too harsh, but that ideology and electioneering meant it was pushed through anyway:

“Even the final product raised concerns around the table that too many workers would be worse off, despite ministers ideologically supporting the legislation.”

But the Prime Minister pressed ahead, putting those concerns aside. The book says one cabinet minister recalled Mr Andrews telling Mr Howard and cabinet “that there was no getting around some workers losing out”. But timing took precedence, it says.

It’s hard to argue with Julia Gillard’s reaction to this revelation:

“The Howard government will never again be able to claim that it didn’t understand or didn’t expect the unfairness that came with WorkChoices,” Ms Gillard told ABC radio.

“It knew it was going to happen, it knew Australian working families were going to lose pay and conditions and it decided to inflict these extreme laws on the Australian community anyway.”