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To be fair, that in no way states or implies that they are going to some how "get rid trade unions". Such a move would be illegal given australia's law protecting our rights of association etc
Sadly Timmy you are completely wrong in this regard. On the first point… Peter Costello, Joe Hockey, Peter Reith, Nick Minchin, Peter Hendy, Gerry Harvey and many other government ministers and industry captains have all stated both their intentions to persue further changes to Industrial Law and a stated philosophy to abolish Unions and the right to both belong to a union and to participate in any collective action.
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What he is alluding to is people have no need for a union to negotiate their pay and conditions anymore, and that the days of forced unionism are over. if you still want a union to negotiate on your behave there's nothing preventing that.
Unionism has not been compulsory in Australia for many years and was essentially killed of by Hawke and Keating under the “Accord” It was formally legislated in 1996 and any employee has always had the right to elect to pay the fee to a registered charity rather than the union
http://www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/pubs/bd/2 ... 2bd108.pdfRecent changes to both industrial laws mean that it now illegal for a union representative to enter upon any workplace, it is illegal for employees to take part in any industrial action, that any employee or group of employees no longer have the
choice to negoitiate a collective agreement even if the majority of workers may by secret ballot decide that is what they wish to do.
As of July this year ALL Federal and State awards are null and void…. There is some discussion as to the legality of the States attempts to protect State Awards under State laws which will ultimately require High Court descision
The recent changes to sedition laws and anti-terrorism laws now mean that it is illegal for people to gather
for any purpose in groups of three or more…. Or, for that matter, to criticise the government in anyway.
All the recent changes to the above laws are in direct contravention of International Treaties and Laws which Australia has previously proposed, ascribed to, ratified, and at times vigourously defended prior to the latest Liberal government.
Australians
no longer have the right to free association or (with recent changes to the “Freedom of Information” laws and the governments use of “bill notes” ) the right to obtain information. And indeed the
freedom of the press to obtain information, protect their sources, criticise government policy or ministers etc… particularly if deemed to be “against the national interest” is under grave threat
Sadly I’m not making this up Timmy and I encourage you to research these things.
This current government is in breach of many International laws regarding Industrial Law, Immigration & Refugee Laws, Human Rights Conventions, Military Laws and Rules of Engagement, rules regarding the use of torture, treatment of prisoners, coercion, extraction of information and confessions under duress etc etc…
But even more importantly the very basic tenements of “common law”, the right to representation, the right to access to evidence, the right to free and open trial by peers the presumption of innocence etc… arre under threat.
The very basis of democratic and legal principles.
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Personally, i'm on an AWA right now and i've never been paid more or had more benefits, so the scare mongering that i'll some how be worse off just rings hollow to me.…
The other thing about IR laws that rings hollow are these ads about people getting their pays cut. I'm sure you can find some select examples of this happening. but on the whole, we have never been better off and i think deep down everyone knows it.
Timmy I’m delighted that you work for an enlightened employer that has been prepared to reward your work and provide additional benefits.
And indeed there has been over decades a few employers that have willingly done so voluntarily through additional benefits, remuneration, profit share, share allocations etc…
Employers have
ALWAYS had the right and opportunity to do so, and the more enlightened have done so.
Most of those that did, did so voluntarily, by “Common Law” contracts as is the case with most “salaried” workers.
If the concept of rewarding people for their efforts was at the forefront of an employers mindset, (individually or collectively) then the mechanisms to do so have been in place for decades.
I have never, however, seen a single case of a collective “employer” organisation arguing in the Industrial Courts for an increase to employee wages… the reality is that every single application has been opposed.
Nor has there, other than in the mining sector, where huge demand for workers required the incentive to do so, been an example of any significant employer or groups of employers rushing to their workers offering extra remuneration and benefits.
There has never been an impediment to them doing so, and if there was such an overwealming reason to do so they could have done so under “Common Law” contracts without the need of any AWA legislation.
I for one didn’t see a mad stampede by employers rushing to workers waving their wallets and offering greater wages and conditions.
The reality Timmy, is that, (according to recent information extracted (belligerently) from offical government sources under the “Freedom of Information Act”) over 50% of the recent AWA’s required to be applied under the “revised” fairness provisions have failed to do so even after several requests for revision…. There are over 144,000 AWAs still waiting to be checked and that independent analysis of those AWAs approved before (and therefore exempt from) the “fairness” test have been found to have failed the test and to have resulted in reduced pay and conditions in over 90% of the cases.
I do not pretend that there has not been abuses of power, intimidation and even illegal actions taken by SOME union officals over the last 50 years…. or indeed that there hasn't been abuses of power, intimidation and even illegal actions by SOME employers.
But to denigrate and to attempt to demonise and “smear” all union officals and/or union members with an implication of thuggery or to imply some sort of illegal intention would be not only a denial of history but an absurdity… as absurd as suggesting that all employers and employer organisations were thieves, thugs and acting illegally.
Industrial and safety and occupational laws have been enacted and extended over the last 100 years to protect the innocent, those without the confidence or education to confront an employer directly, those who need protection from intimidation, those that may have been placed in dangerous situations etc…
In the same way and for the same reason that we have enacted laws relating to road rules, theft, fraud etc etc….. because you just can’t trust that everyone will behave in a manner that the majority of society deems to be acceptable.
To deny the role of Trade Unions in the attainment of the very wages, conditions and rights that we as parents and ultimately yourself and others of your generation have and continue to benefit from is to deny the basis of 100 years of history.
Without the struggles of enlightened individuals and organisations we would still have slavery, (a purely economic and employer proposition), child labour, unsafe work places and practises resulting in deaths and misery.
Industrial Laws have evolved for good and valid reasons over a period of hundreds of years and those reasons are still valid today. Sadly IMHO they are also at great risk.
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Also just something to consider on the topic of Iraq.
100% agreed we must withdraw at some point.
but is it something to even consider in the short term? i think not given how unstable it is there.
While i'm sure it's a very popular policy for labor to claim it'll withdraw right away, you have to question if they really will. There's no way we could withdraw and remain on such good terms with the USA who is our strongest allie. Not only that, withdrawing form Iraq before it's stable will mean it'll just fall into the hands of the warlord with the most guns putting everything back to square one.
I suspect, it just a case of "say the oppersite to the government" strategy.
The question that needs to be asked surely is just how much of the instability in Iraq is in fact due solely to our very presence and occupation of Iraq Timmy….
We have provided the rationale and endorsement of all that might oppose us on any pseudo religious or idealogical grounds by our hippocracy and our military actions.
As to whether or not our withdrawl would result in a diminishing of our relationship with the USA…. Well in the long term I doubt it. Many within the US are now questioning the involvement of the US in Iraq themselves.
And our primary concern should always be the not only the interests of ourselves as a nation, but of those nations within our region and the world at large.
We are (or at least were) an indendent sovereign nation, not a “pseudo” state of America.
We went to Iraq on the basis of a deliberate lie which has now become distorted to be a position of an attempt to bring a system of democracy to another sovereign nation which neither asked, endorsed or welcomed our desire to impose such a system on them.
In the second world war the Nazis attempted to subdue the will of the British people by bombing them into submission…. They failed…. The British attempted to subdue the will of the German people by the saturation bombing of German citizens…. They failed.
The allies attempted to subdue the will of the Japanese people by the saturation bombing and burning of Japanese cities… they failed…. Thankfully the Japanese military understood that the civilian toll due to further use of atomic weapons would result in ultimate internal revolt and surrendered to protect the remainder of the country, the military and their own postitions.
We attempted to win the “hearts and minds” of the Vietnamnese by bombing them into submission… and failed…..
We have attempted to win the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqis by bombing them into submission and occupying their country…. And have failed….
The US has spent over 1.5 trillion dollars attempting to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis and countless trillions trying to influence the Middle East by military force and armaments and has failed….
Perhaps those trillions of dollars and a hand of friendship offered as aid to build infrastructure, schools, economies etc might have been more effective.
We have fought many wars this century. Most based on political ideologies, industrial and economic greed and coercion or attempts to exert strategic influence on a region for our own economic gain… and the net effect has been the loss of MILLIONS of men, women and children…. Most of them civilian and innocent…. And the net result is that most of them have not benefited in any way shape or form.
My intention is not to flame you Timmy…. But to beg you and those of your generation to research and look at the past 100 hundred years of history… the good, the bad and the ugly…..
And to learn from it… to take and embrace what has benefited humanity and build upon it.
To recognise the bad and the ugly, and to act and ensure that we never again repeat the mistakes of the past….
“He who ignores history is destined to repeat it”
We have been a lucky country, and part of that luckiness is the fact that we are a “young” nation unbridled by centuries of negative history or religious and political grievances that fester within the hearts and minds of many other countries.
Some of our luckiness such as the bountifulness of our natural landscape and resources are under threat by drought, un-restrained development, economic plunder and environmental short sightedness.
I would hope Timmy that you and people of your generation and those that follow will continue to enjoy not only the bounties of this land but would take to the world an attitude and energy of renewal and renaissance that is unemcumberred by centuries of historical stupidity.
Perhaps, in the spirit of the ‘70s, it really is time to give peace a chance and to embrace a different and holistic attitude to the world and humanity that might allow us all to live that way.
Backyard Aquaponics
