THE June 30 rally at City Hall showed how angry many Tasmanians are about the proposed Industrial Relations campaign. These people have every right to be angry: the facts about the changes speak for themselves.
Abolishing unfair dismissal for employers with less than 100 staff effectively means that the Howard Government thinks unfair dismissal is OK, probably even commendable if it improves ‘efficiency.’
In another example of the Howard regime’s Orwellian rhetoric a ‘fair pay commission’ will replace the Industrial Relations Commission. There seems little doubt that this measure will result in lower pay. It seems that ‘fair pay’ is meant to be a flexible term, which means a different thing to a CEO than to an ordinary worker.
This means that poverty will no longer be confined to unemployed or underemployed people. It will become possible to work five or seven days a week and still be poor, as in the United States.
Yet one of the most disgraceful elements of this issue in Hobart is the failure of the State Government to throw its whole-hearted support behind those who were concerned enough to attend the rally.
Paul Lennon and most of his State Labor party colleagues were conspicuously absent from the rally, although Lennon sent a message half-heartedly opposing the changes as a token gesture. Although Bryan Green was heckled in Devonport, at least he showed up.
Full credit should be given to those politicians that did show up, however. These included Brian Harradine, Peg Putt, Nick Sherry and Harry Quick. At least they cared enough to make an effort to show concern about possibly one of the most worrying political developments in living memory.
Furthermore, despite an initial promise that State Government employees would be able to attend the rally on paid time, as was the case in Western Australia, Lennon’s Government changed its mind and was worried enough to phone trade unions to make sure that their websites didn’t suggest that Government employees would be paid to attend.
Baffling
What can we gather from this? We do know that Paul Lennon was recently seen shaking hands with possibly the worst and most right wing Prime Minister in Australia’s history, whilst making a token gesture to save Tasmania’s wilderness as long as not a single logger loses his or her job regardless of whether any trees are actually left to chop down or not. Perhaps Paul has decided not to ruffle John Howard’s feathers as a means to an end known only to him.
Similarly baffling is the State Liberals’ support for John Howard’s radical Industrial Relations changes (to refer to them as ‘reforms’ would be to give them a dignity they don’t deserve). Isn’t the Liberal Party supposed to defend state’s rights?
Wasn’t even Menzies a staunch supporter of state’s rights?
Why do none of our Liberal Party representatives in Tasmania have the courage of such Senators as the Nationals’ Barnaby Joyce in Queensland and the Liberals’ David Johnston and Alan Eggleston in Western Australia in promising (however credibly) to defend State’s rights? Rene Hidding sent a message to the rally enthusiastically endorsing the supposed changes.
To try to find out why, I wrote to our very own Senator Eric Abetz. He told me that I was being used as part of the ACTU’s ‘marketing’ strategy (Public Relations would be the correct term incidentally). He told me that ‘One of the certainties of political life is that any reform to workplace relations will be preceded by a shrill and hysterical campaign by the ACTU and the Australian Labour Party.’
Success
Frankly, I am not convinced. Also, he also made no attempt to address my state’s rights concerns. Surely this is one area that even the most hardline conservative should be worried about.
The Hobart rally was a success for anyone who is against the changes. The City Hall was packed with angry people. These were not just trade unionists (or ‘union heavies’ as one of the local TV stations helpfully referred to them); they were people from all backgrounds and ages.
Trade unions were prominent in the rally because they are the only ones who are organised enough to campaign against the changes. However, everyone will be affected by these changes, and definitely not for the better.
For this reason, I gladly stood beneath a trade union flag and even nearly shed a tear when the choir sang Solidarity forever. Everyone has to become motivated politically when issues like this emerge: particularly young people, many of whom seem to think that politics is somehow uncool.
The Government taking control of the Senate should start to make people wake up to the realities of what is going on in Canberra. Democracy seems to be hanging on a thread, even to the extent that ASIO can arrest you whenever it feels like it and the Federal Government is talking about banning strikes.
John Howard’s promise not to behave autocratically with control of the Senate amounts to the cat promising not to eat the cream. Yet that tantalising one Senator majority raises some interesting prospects.
I think that from now on we as Australians have to make those Coailition politicians work very hard to earn their money, and lobby them by whatever legitimate means possible. They ignore a lot of angry people at their peril.
Jamie Rosewell “has been helping out the State Community and Public Sector Union in Hobart with its campaign against the IR changes as a paid employee for the last month or so. I also have University qualifications in Law, Journalism and Political Science. This article is far from impartial, but I am too pissed of to care.
