jadamo76 has a few posts about the former union members in the Liberal Party. He also points us in the direction of Peter Martin's post on the subject.
Hello to our workers union members:
Midnight Oil, if I've unintentionally messed with your copyright to "Forgotten Years", please excuse me as it is in a noble cause!
Original Post at 'Labor View from Broome'
Could even John Howard make these men look impotent?
Mr Hockey, whose Liberal Party has launched scathing election advertisements highlighting the 70 per cent of Labor frontbenchers with a union background, said it was incredible Labor intended to govern with such a high union representation.
"[The role of unions] is essentially over," Mr Hockey told ABC Radio today.
"That's because we have a system with a strong, independent umpire that is providing protections for workers.
"Because the unions do not cover 80 per cent of the workers out there, we find that people are turning to the Workplace Authority and the Workplace Ombudsman to obtain information and to get protection."
Mr Hockey said workers who were not union members could turn to the Workplace Ombudsman for advice, but the Labor Party wanted to dismantle that office.
He said Australians viewed unions as irrelevant and were choosing not to join them, a trend that started under former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke.
No, the reasons people aren't joining the unions is because they still have an old-fashioned view of them, and the government scare campaign over many years has wormed its way into the minds of the populace. The unions are not good at positive self-promotion.
"I don't think anyone would have thought that in 2007 it would be credible for Kevin Rudd to go to an election with 70 per cent of his frontbench made up of former union officials, and that would be a dramatic increase in the number of union officials that, say, Bob Hawke had," he said.
The ACTU has hit back at a Liberal Party campaign highlighting the union affiliations of Labor's frontbench team, saying it is insulting to working families.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow said a television advertisement released yesterday by the Liberals was wrong to suggest unions were anti-business.
The ad was also insulting to the millions of Australians whose job security and living standards were protected by unions.
"The job of all unions is to protect secure, well-paid employment for Australian working families," she said.
"To achieve this we need profitable businesses that value their workers. (my empahsis)
Workers who are valued are happy. Happy workers are more productive. This means that businesses achieve more.
Jeremy has figured out a new campaign approach for The Greens. It's pretty damn good and would certainly make people think about what the party really stands for rather than all the crap that other political parties (and "interested observers" who don't even vote) like to say they represent.
Check it out.
The media has become as awed of the ritual of the campaign as they were of the Budget in May when Costello announced the last round of tax cuts. If they are surprised that such a major launch is announced now rather than later in the campaign when it might make more electoral sense, then it is because they under-estimate the urgency of the Liberals' morale that a strong start of a big round of tax cuts are intended to address. However if the media is taking the Liberals campaign start too much at face value, they are making the same mistake with Labor's start on Workchoices. Labor has its internal needs too.
Full post at The Piping Shrike
Posted by Andrew Elder at 11:30 AM
We've come a long, long way together
Through the hard times and the good
I have to celebrate you baby
I have to praise you like I should
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you like I should
- Fatboy Slim Praise You
Wider than the generation gap is the credibility gap of the Howard government, and those of its boosters who have not turned dingo like Albrechtsen.
Full post at Politically Homeless
At his Press Conference with Costello yesterday, John Howard explained why Work Choices will keep interest rates low and contain inflationary pressure:
...one reason why we’re not concerned is that we have an industrial relations system that in fact contains wage pressure.That can only mean that under Work Choices wages will be lower than under the Rudd alternative. Yet he has been telling us for months that it is delivering real wage increases. He can’t have it both ways.
Coalition announces new tax package (The Australian, Press conference transcript, 15 October 2007)
Back in May when the politically astute Treasurer handed down his twelfth budget, he included tax cuts totaling $31.5bn over four years. Commentators saw it as a political triumph and forcing Rudd onto the back foot. Rudd's response was to run a telly ad on his personal conservative values and talk in Parliament about something to do with putting more lathes in schools. In the end, the polls barely moved.
Full Post at The Piping Shrike
This post by comicstriphero pretty well sums up my own feelings about the impending federal election.
Despite all my fretful, paranoid self-chastisement upon each and every optimistic thought.
Despite the hours spent going back over old news articles and blog posts from October 2004, in an attempt to re-live the sting and despair.
Despite the analysis of the ‘softness’ of the current polls, which should really have brought me back down to earth.
I admit it.
I have gotten my hopes up.
"Yeah baby! This thing is in the bag! Nothing could possibly go wrong now!"
I guess it might seem like there is nothing wrong with this...
Howard's announcement from yesterday:
"...the right leadership is the leadership that delivers the team that knows how to do the job. The right leadership is the leadership that has the experience to further expand the prosperity of the Australian economy and to ensure that everybody gets a fair share of it."
That made me snort. If he thinks that people are currently getting their fair share of it, then he's just having a nice old wank for the cameras.
"The right leadership is the leadership that is willing to take unpopular decisions in the short-term that have a long-term benefit for the Australian community."
Tell me, what unpopular short-term decisions have been made so far that have a long-term benefit? I cannot think of one myself.
This my favourite though:
"The right leadership is a group of men and women who will govern for all Australians and who will not be beholden to a narrow section of the Australian community."
While we know exactly what he thinks he's talking about (those scary, mean unions), lets just sit and think of all the people in the Australian community who have been repeatedly fucked over by the current government. Let's think of the LARGE section of the Australian community who has been.
But then we get right down to it, just in case you were too stupid to realise what he was getting at:
"...70% of whom are former trade union officials."
Hmmmm...wonder what card is going to be played ad nauseam over the next 6 weeks. Jesus christ. Everyone knows the ALP was founded on the backs of the workers! Of course former union officials are going to be high-ranking members! You have to be a member of a union to be in the ALP!
"Is it a government that is offering stability in it's key personnel..."
This from the man who has publicly stated that he will stand down partway through the term should he be re-elected! So, is the PM position not a key position?
He bangs on about balance? Robbing the country of the necessary checks and balances? How about a majority in the Senate Mr Howard? How about the fact that you have used your majority to force through legislation that would never have passed had there been a decent balance in the upper house? What about the concept of the Senate estimates committee? Forgotten about that, haven't we?
I can't talk anymore about his comments. It just makes me want to vomit.
On to Rudd:
"...new leadership with fresh ideas..."
Ideas that have yet to be announced. Far too much metooism in the ALP at the moment.
"...a goverment that's lost touch..."
They never had it to begin with.
He speaks of how the Liberals won't make changes. They will. That's the problem. The changes that they make are never for the better for the majority of people. So their problem isn't that things won't change, it is that things will continue to do so, to the detriment of the country.
What really shits me about both of them (Howard and Rudd) is that they only seem to think that families count in Australia. And by families they mean a married mum and dad and their kids. Not everyone wants kids. Not everyone can have kids. Hell, not everyone can get married!
Anyway, there are the speeches if you didn't get to see them yesterday. Please don't forget that there are other political parties in Australia. Certainly, the PM will end up being from one of the major two parties, but that does not mean that a vote for the Greens or the Democrats is a wasted vote, provided you vote correctly. That's the beauty of the preferential voting system.
Niall writes:
Greens candidate Boccabella got 33% of primary in the Brisbane by-election last night [sat]; although she probably captured a fair few little L liberals who didn't have any other options and probably some QLP semi-protest voters, this close to a federal election those sort of numbers suggests to me a solid greens platform in the wealthy centre of Brisbane, which I expect will transform into a wider acceptance of the Greens as a legitimate choice in the inner Brisbane seats both by voters but importantly by other parties. This result (which it must be pointed out was somewhat higher than some pollsters suggest could be possible) provides greater leverage for preference deals.
From these numbers, I was impressed at the Viking vote is larger than the ONP vote, even if this is an inner city seat - although admittedly due mostly, I suspect, to old Erik have place number one on the list, as despite my searching around I still can't find out who he is or what he stands for, aside from the fact he once worked as a historiographer (and because he was out polled by the informal). Anyhow, go Saxons!
Whales near Coral Bay
(Photo: Heather Milton)
When I was the Federal member, on two occasions I said I was in favour on the long-term storage of nuclear waste and my vote went up.It will be interesting to see if he is a candidate this time. Perhaps he’ll join Pauline Hanson again. I’m sure he could get some mileage out Sudanese refugees.
Federal uranium stoush (Kalgoorlie Miner 11 October 2007)
Our friend Niall sent us the link to this YouTube video, saying it's so good it even beats the Chaser's Stairway to Kevin, and he was right. Awesome video. If I get to have my 'Howard Loses' party I'll be playing the Led Zepplin song in honour of the occasion.
