Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Libs drop opposition to AWA demise

The Opposition's leadership team of Julie Bishop and Brendan Nelson have been rolled from within and have agreed to drop their demand that Labor retain individual Australian Workplace Agreements.

In its final denunciation of Work Choices, the Coalition's shadow ministry decided last night to let Labor abolish AWAs. The party room agreed this morning.

It comes as Newspoll shows support for Dr Nelson as preferred prime minister is at a record low 9 per cent compared with 70 per cent support for Kevin Rudd.

It is a significant defeat for Ms Bishop as she, with Dr Nelson's support, has argued the Coalition should use its Senate majority to block Labor's plan.

But with AWAs inextricably linked to Work Choices, others argued the Coalition was on a hiding to nothing by trying to differentiate between the two.

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