Sodomite – Anglican Parish of Gosford Church Outs Dutton

“This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.“ Ezekiel 16:49

The sin of Sodom is greatly misunderstood by those who usually choose to do so, it has nothing to do with homosexuality, it is all about hospitality, or more to the point lack there of, and particularly about the condition of the heart that leads to inhospitable behaviour.

Peter Dutton’s comments today are an astonishingly vivid example of this most grievous of sins. The lies, misinformation and blatant untruths are worthy of noting less than condemnation and ridicule.

“They’re economic refugees, they got on a boat, paid a people smuggler a lot of money, and somebody once said to me that we’ve got the world’s biggest collection of Armani jeans and handbags up on Nauru waiting for people to collect it when they depart,” Dutton told 2GB radio. 

Dutton claimed many of those who ended up in the island camps had not come from war-ravaged areas but were instead seeking economic advantage. They had received “an enormous amount of support” from Australian taxpayers for a long time.

Yes Mr Dutton we have spent billions of taxpayer dollars incarceration innocent people where they have been raped, beaten, tortured and murdered. You seem to think they should somehow be grateful to us. This is the psyche of the sociopath and abuser.

Could the Minister for Immigration be so willfully ignorant that he is unaware that many refugees, especially Iranians are from the middle class? These are the people most at risk of persecution in an oppressive regime. 

Such regimes cannot allow the educated populace any freedom at all lest they begin to make trouble. Yes they can afford to pay people smugglers; yes they have mobile phones and even Armani sunglasses, everyone with a modicum of understanding knows that this is more likely to support their refugee claims than to diminish them.

Unless, of course, you are a sodomite; someone who has no compassion, no capacity to love the stranger, the persecuted, the outcast or the homeless.

The biblical judgment on the Sodomites was of biblical proportions. This is because such a society cannot, in the long term survive. Because of its lack of compassion it will eventually turn in on itself and be destroyed from within.

I do truly hope Peter Dutton is not representative of the average Australian, if he is we are all doomed.

Because Dutton is a true Sodomite.

Fr Rod.

ACOSS Network urges a Yes Vote for Marriage Equality

ACOSS –  29 September 2017

ACOSS Network urges a Yes Vote for Marriage Equality

The National COSS Network has today collectively renewed our call for the Australian community to deliver a Yes vote in support of marriage equality. We bring this joint statement at this point as a final push to encourage a yes vote and to urge people to post their votes.

The COSS CEOs said: “Each day, people directly affected by the denial of the human right to marry the person you love, are forced to keep sharing their intimate stories of pain, distress, love and hope. We will continue to do so as we build the unstoppable force for change.

“Our firm support for marriage equality is based on our strong  commitment to equality and non-discrimination as a human right.

“We thank the tireless efforts of the groundswell of politicians and people campaigning in support of this essential change. We applaud all those across Australian society who continue to speak up and reach out in support of marriage equality.

“Across Australia, people campaigning for marriage equality are acting in love and support for their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, children, friends, neighbours, communities, those we work along side and the decency of Australian society. 

• We also urge people considering a No vote to spend time listening to people directly affected by being denied the ability to get married under Australian Federal Law. We encourage people to hear how important marriage equality is to people directly affected, their families, children and communities. 
• As long as loving same sex relationships are invalidated through the failure to permit marriage equality under Federal Law, people affected remain virtual second class citizens. 
• As long as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people continue to suffer discrimination in the workplace, in our schools and in the streets through bullying, harassment and violence, those affected remain on the margins of society. 
• As long as our diverse community continues to experience higher rates of suicide, elevated rates of mental health issues and poorer health outcomes, we will be prevented from reaching our full potential as individuals and as a society.
• The time for change is now.

“We urge the Australian public to vote Yes and support equality for all regardless on their sexuality or gender identity.” 

Contact:  Australian Council of Social Service, 0419 626 155

CPSU – STAFFING FIGURES CONFIRM SAVAGE CUTS

COMMONWEALTH STAFFING FIGURES CONFIRM SAVAGE CUTS
SEP 26, 2017

The CPSU says new staffing figures for Commonwealth agencies show the Turnbull Government has continued to slash quality jobs, doing further damage to the quality and reliability of essential public services.

The Australian Public Service Commission has published its 2016-17 Statistical Bulletin, showing the number of people employed by Commonwealth agencies fell by 2.8% to 152,095 in the year to June.

More than 3,600 jobs were cut across the Commonwealth.

CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood said: “The Coalition caused enormous damage with massive job cuts during its first years in Government. Slashing more than 3,600 Commonwealth jobs is another huge blow to the quality and reliability of Commonwealth services.”

• “The Turnbull Government and their lackey the Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd might be celebrating these figures but ordinary Australians certainly aren’t. Thousands of people have been sacked and these cuts are also the reason why more than 42 million calls to Centrelink went unanswered last financial year and for other disasters including robo-debt and the Census debacle.”
• “The Government’s ideological obsession with the size of the Commonwealth public sector is doing enormous damage, with thousands of permanent staff gone from places such as DHS, the Courts, CSIRO and Immigration and Border Force. In other places they’re trying to paper over the cracks by employing people through labour hire firms.”
• “The APS Statistical Bulletin counts permanent and non-ongoing employees of Commonwealth agencies but it does not count people employed indirectly through labour hire companies. Today’s figures also take no account of the billions of dollars the Turnbull Government throws at multinational consulting firms like EY, Deloitte, PwC and KPMG. It’s a number that keeps on growing as service standards keep falling.”
• “We don’t know how many people are employed through labour hire arrangements but what we do know is that these contracts cost the tax payer more as labour hire firms profit at the expense of their workers. That extra cost also delivers less, because labour hire staff are generally paid less, provided with inadequate training and have no job security.”
• “The reality is that the size of the Commonwealth public sector should have grown along with Australia’s population, providing essential public services as well as quality secure jobs for communities around the country, particularly in regional areas. Australians deserve to be able to access services like Medicare through staff who have the right training and resources to help.”

For the Many not the Few

Jeremy Corbyn at Labour Party Conference

Mr Corbyn was met with a rapturous standing ovation in the Brighton Centre, for his first conference speech since the his party gained seats at the election and stripped Ms May of her Commons majority.

He slammed the Tories for still believing in “the same dogmatic mantra” which he summed up as “deregulate, privatise, cut taxes for the wealthy, weaken rights at work, delivering profits for a few, and debt for the many”

He added: “It’s as if we’re stuck in a political and economic time-warp.”

Mr Corbyn then went on to set out his vision of “socialism for the 21st century” – drawing in nationalised utilities, new fines for business and taxes for the wealthy.

He said: “Our economy no longer delivers secure housing secure well-paid jobs or rising living standards.

“There is a new common sense emerging about how the country should be run.

“That’s what we fought for in the election and that’s what’s needed to replace the broken model forged by Margaret Thatcher many years ago.”

ACTU President nominated to contest state pre-selection

27 September 2017

The ACTU congratulates our President Ged Kearney on being nominated to contest pre-selection for the Victorian Labor Party to contest the seat of Brunswick.

Ms Kearney has been a dedicated advocate for working people in her role with the ACTU and formerly with the Australian Nursing Midwifery Federation.

We are certain that Ms Kearney’s experience advocating for the wages, conditions and vital social policies that everyday working people rely on in Australia will hold her in good standing with the pre-selectors of Brunswick.

Ms Kearney has continually demonstrated her commitment to social justice here in Australia and internationally with her leadership vital to securing outcomes in numerous campaigns for workers and human rights more broadly.

The ACTU understands there will now be a democratic process and we wish Ms Kearney the best of luck.

AFL-CIO – Celebrate our Health Care victory

The defeat of the Graham-Cassidy health care bill proves what we’ve known all along: when working people join together, we can win. Sharing this graphic now is a great way to celebrate our victory and confirm your resolve to keep fighting for every American to have access to decent health care.

Dale Hansen Unplugged – US Anthem Protests

Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen is a fixture of the sports media scene, and his "Unplugged" segment on ABC affiliate WFAA has never shied away from the sometimes-insidious politics of the sports world.

On Monday, Hansen nailed it again, defending the #TakeAKnee protests that swept the NFL last weekend in a clip that's quickly becoming required viewing on Twitter.

Most notably, he refuted the notion that a protest during the national anthem is inherently disrespectful to veterans. (Hansen served in Vietnam.)

"My best friend in high school was killed in Vietnam," Hansen said. "Carroll Meir will be 18 years old forever. And he did not die so that you can decide who is a patriot and who loves America more."

Hansen also took several shots at Trump, including at the president's decision to call players who protest "sons of bitches" despite "[saying] nothing for days" about the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.

"If you don't think white privilege is a fact, then you don't understand America," he said.

MUA – World Maritime Day

World Maritime Day A Timely Reminder Of The Sacrifice Made By Australia’s Merchant Fleet

Posted by Mua communications on September 26, 2017

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) says World Maritime Day provides a timely reminder to reflect on the great sacrifices made by merchant seafarers who worked aboard cargo ships during wartime, as the Turnbull Government loads up again to try to destroy the coastal shipping industry.

MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin said one in eight Australian Merchant Seafarers died in the Second World War and the Australian merchant fleet continues to play an important role.

“The gallant efforts of Australian merchant seafarers to ensure that the supply chains remained open during the fight against European fascism and Japanese militarism will never be forgotten,” Crumlin said.

“The same must be said of the wharfies working the docks in those extremely dangerous times - when Darwin was bombed in 1942 by Japanese fighter bombers, there were waterside workers killed on the job, and every single one of them knew they were prime targets of the air strikes.

“At the present time, global uncertainty is rising, whether you consider the Korean Peninsula, South China Sea or Middle East yet the Turnbull Government is actively trying to decimate the merchant fleet and expose our borders to some of the worst shipping on the planet.

Crumlin said that without strong cabotage rules, that the Turnbull Government currently wants to water down, Australian seafarers would have to compete with cheap, exploited foreign labour on Flag of Convenience (FOC) vessels, the owners of which pay no tax and often flout safety laws.

• “Australian workers cannot compete with slave labour and systemic tax avoidance under the FOC system. Exploited crew on Flag of Convenience vessels earn as little as $1.25 an hour, often have inferior training and are often unaware of our fragile coastal environment,” Crumlin said.
• “A strong, viable domestic shipping fleet makes absolute sense from a national security, fuel security, and environmental standpoint yet instead of enhancing a vital national industry with a long and proud tradition, the Turnbull Government wants to send the jobs offshore.”

MUA Sydney Branch Assistant Secretary Joe Deakin said: “When we do reflect on the Seafarers who went to their watery graves after their vessels were either torpedoed or mined, we do it with a great deal of remorse. 

• “But at the same time we have a tremendous feeling of gratitude. They didn’t have a battery of weapons aboard their vessels to defend themselves, all they had was a human resolve to keep the fighting front supply routes operating at maximum capacity. 
• “The Merchant Seafarers who were lucky enough to survive the Second World War, weren’t given the key to the city by the local Mayor when they arrived back home, nor were they given ticker tape parades in the streets like the armed forces personal were treated too.
• “The fact that these heroic people played an enormous part in ensuring that the allied forces were fed, and the weapons were kept up to the fighting fronts, wasn’t acknowledged until decades later.
• “Everything that these wonderful Australian Seafaring pioneers fought and died for, is being sunk to the bottom of the Sea by the Turnbull Government.”

The MUA has launched its latest campaign Save Australian Shipping – Take Back Our Coast. MPs and Senators have already started to sign up and put their face to the campaign.  You can view the website at: www.saveaustralianshipping.com.au

ETU – Unions Power unions have been forced to lift a ban on training overseas consultants

Power unions have been forced to lift a ban on training overseas consultants hired by electricity distributor Ausgrid to replace 35 workers from Newcastle and Sydney after the Fair Work Commission threatened to issue orders against them.

Members of the United Services Union and Electrical Trades Union had been refusing to take part in training India-based IT contractors that will replace more than a third of the workforce in Ausgrid’s Geographic Information System section.

The electricity distributor launched legal action against the unions in the Fair Work Commission, with the matter heard yesterday by FWC deputy president Peter Sams.

Deputy President Sams issued a recommendation to the unions, saying he would issue binding orders against them unless the training ban was immediately lifted.

ETU secretary Dave McKinley said the outcome of the case was clear evidence that Australia’s industrial laws were stacked against the interests of working people.

• “What was made clear was that — under Australia’s current workplace laws — it is unlawful for someone to take an ethical stand and refuse to train overseas contractors who have been hired to take the jobs of their colleagues,” Mr McKinley said.
• “Not only does the Fair Work Act fail to protect quality local jobs, it actually prevents people from following their conscience — effectively forcing them to be part of the process of replacing friends and colleagues.
• “We have agreed to lift our bans — under legal duress — but we are still looking at all available avenues to save these 35 jobs from being sent to India under the deal between Ausgrid management and Tata Consultancy Services.”

USU general secretary Graeme Kelly said it was now up to the new private owners of Ausgrid — AustralianSuper and IFM Investors — to intervene to save the jobs.

• “These funds claim to ethically invest the retirement savings of Australian workers, yet they are allowing managers at a company they majority-own to slash jobs by outsourcing them to India,” Mr Kelly said.
• “These investors should demonstrate their commitment to Australian jobs by ensuring these specialist positions remain in this country.
• “They should also commit to abiding by the spirit of the job protections that were put in place by the NSW Parliament to prevent power privatisation from being a tool to simply slash jobs and services.
• “We are also calling on the NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin to take action to ensure the state’s electricity network is operated by skilled local workers."

Pryor Cartoon – Oxford 1954

Don't Mess With the West – Sat 21 Oct 2017 – Penrith

'F--- you!': George Clooney hits back at Trump's criticism of 'Hollywood elites'

Actor George Clooney has slammed US President Donald Trump's criticism of Hollywood's stars as "liberal elites", calling the claim "ridiculous" coming from a real estate magnate born into wealth.

"Here's the thing: I grew up in Kentucky. I sold insurance door-to-door. I sold ladies' shoes. I worked at an all-night liquor store. I would buy suits that were too big and too long and cut the bottom of the pants off to make ties so I'd have a tie to go on job interviews," Clooney, 56, told the Daily Beast.

"The idea that I'm somehow the 'Hollywood elite' and this guy who takes a shit in a gold toilet is somehow the man of the people is laughable," he said.

The actor - who was promoting Suburbicon, his upcoming satire on race relations starring Matt Damon - said liberals in the entertainment industry, whom Trump regularly chastises as "coastal elites", largely hail from America's Midwest heartland and moved to Hollywood for their careers.

Clooney also didn't hold back on Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon - largely deemed responsible for the administration's appeal to the alt-right - calling him a "pussy".

"Steve Bannon is a little wannabe writer who would do anything in the world to have had a script made in Hollywood," Clooney said, referring to Bannon's notorious forays into the film world.

"Here's the truth: if Steve Bannon had Hollywood say, 'Oh, this is a really good script,' and they had made his movie, he'd still be in Hollywood writing his f---in' movies and kissing my ass to be in one of his f---in' films," Clooney said.

The new nuclear race: Why North Korea isn’t the real story

New Scientist 20 September 2017

Nuclear missile artwork – Javier Muñoz

The sabre-rattling between Pyongyang and Washington is masking a dangerous destabilisation in deterrence – making nuclear war by accident a real possibility

By Debora MacKenzie

AS YOU read this, about a dozen submarines are lurking in the world’s oceans, equipped to launch nuclear missiles. Four are American; the rest might be British, French, Russian, Chinese, Indian or perhaps Israeli. Some of them are packing massive heat, equivalent to thousands of times the bomb that obliterated Hiroshima. All are being very, very quiet.

Why? In a word, deterrence. In the event of a nuclear strike or massive conventional attack on the sub’s owner or its allies, that nation can unleash horrendous retaliation – so no one dares attack in the first place.

Deterrence is credited with preventing nuclear conflict since the beginning of the cold war, but it is under increasing stress. Most obviously, North Korea has entered the game. It says it is developing nuclear weapons precisely to deter a US nuclear strike, but with the rhetoric getting out of hand, nuclear conflict could become more likely rather than less.

The new nuclear race:

Is there a nuclear war in our future? We round-up the latest news and opinion on the world’s nuclear superpowers, and look at how we can prevent disaster

But beyond that headline news lies a less well-known, but potentially more disturbing, story. A series of seemingly minor technological upgrades have been destabilising the foundations of deterrence, sparking a new nuclear arms race with unforeseeable consequences. “The danger of an accident leading to nuclear war is as high now as it was during periods of peak crisis during the cold war,” says Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

ACTU – ChAFTA: Secret Government Trade Deals Exposed

ChAFTA: Secret government trade deals see migrant workers exploited and leave Australians behind

21 September 2017

An ACTU submission to a review of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) being conducted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) shows that secretive agreements have opened the door to more exploitation of migrant workers.

The submission outlines issues with the agreement ranging from the deeply flawed negotiation process to legalised underpayment of workers and the threat of law suits from multinationals against our government.

Australian unions believe that free trade agreements should raise living standards for all parties, not encourage worker exploitation to line the pockets of big businesses. The ACTU advocates for the removal of labour mobility clauses from trade deals and a well-developed permanent migration system to stamp out exploitation and rising inequality.

 Chinese investment and temporary migration rose dramatically between 2014- 2016. While the ACTU is pro trade, there is no information available about how much of this is covered by these secret arrangements, or how many workers are being brought in under these conditions.

ChAFTA undermines local jobs by removing requirements for labour market testing and making it easy for corporations to bring exploited, underpaid workers into Australia under secret deals where workers have no right to bargain for wages and can be paid as little as $10 an hour.

Quotes attributable to ACTU President Ged Kearney:

• “The exploitation which ChAFTA allows shows absolute contempt for working people and demonstrates why trade agreements should be exposed to open and democratic scrutiny.”
• “This trade deal has effectively legalised underpayment for migrant workers. Apparently the Turnbull Government does not believe that migrant workers deserve the pay and rights which all workers in this country should be able to rely on.”
• “ChAFTA allows for secret deals between the Department of Immigration and Chinese firms, under which workers have no right to bargain for wages and can be paid as little as $10 an hour.”
• “We have seen stories of migrant workers being paid well below the minimum wage and being pushed through vital safety briefings which they had no way of understanding. The Turnbull Government is endorsing the exploitation of migrant labour that ultimately means Australians needing work cannot get jobs.”
• “In order for workers to benefit from the increased investment that free trade agreements bring, it is essential that all workers in Australia be paid the industry wage and have all the protections and rights that Australian unions have fought for and won.”
• “The Turnbull Government is allowing this agreement to place massive downward pressure on wages and trading away jobs at a time when unemployment, and especially youth unemployment, is at crisis levels.”

"Australians expect its government to make deals that raise the living standards of all Australians, creating local jobs for local workers, and to ensure migrant workers are not traded like pawns on a chess board."

ACTU launches Change the Rules campaign in Western Australia

21 September 2017


Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Secretary Sally McManus will be in Perth tonight for the first state-based meeting for the Change the Rules Campaign to address inequality and give power back to working people.

Ms McManus will brief almost 200 working people who will be charged with taking the message out to union members, to bring together the entire Australian union movement to change the rules for working people.

The Change the Rules campaign, which Ms McManus will outline in meetings across Australia over the coming months, will bring back fairness to Australian workplaces and ensure working people are not held to ransom by unfair laws.

In Western Australia (WA), wage growth is at a record low. Youth unemployment is at 13.9% and household incomes are falling.

At the same time, 40 per cent of all Australians face insecure work.

The end of the mining boom has seen a handful of elites become super wealthy; while working people have seen their wages fall and have to contend with both above average unemployment and rampant youth unemployment.

Workers across WA have had their pay and conditions stripped by unfair laws that allow corporations to terminate enterprise bargaining agreements (EBA), keep wages low, cut penalty rates, and support mass casualisation and wage theft.

Maintenance workers at Griffith Coal had their EBA axed in 2016 and had their pay slashed by more than 40%, while staff at Murdoch University will have their pay cut next week after the university spent almost $3 million on legal fees so it could reduce their wages.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

• “The pendulum had swung too far toward big business and Australia needs a pay rise.”
• “We need to change the rules at work so working people can’t be held to ransom by bad employers who will use loopholes to cancel agreements, cut pay and slash conditions.”
• “The West has suffered under Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash. She has made a career out of cutting workers’ wages and making work less secure. Her legacy will be Australia’s lowest wage growth and the highest number of people in insecure work.”
• “The campaign starts here. We will brief union members on how they can help stop working peoples’ pay and conditions being destroyed by unfair laws and bad employers.”
• “While Gina Rinehart and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest have become some of the world’s richest people, jobs have dried up, housing has lost value, and people are struggling to keep up.”
• “Our campaign is going to reverse the unfair workplace rules and help working people regain the power they have lost through years of neo-liberal policies that have only helped big business.”
• “It’s not right that hundreds of workers in Collie had their EBA terminated and were forced to work for radically reduced wages and conditions. The Fair Work Commission decision threatened the entire community and prompted hundreds of submissions from workers and their families to a Senate inquiry into Corporate Avoidance of the Fair Work Act.”

“And it’s not fair that Murdoch University will be free to cut 3,000 staff members wages by as much as 39% next week, after it asked for its workforce’s EBA to be terminated. This alarming decision comes after years of bargaining where the university has spent millions in order to cuts its staffs’ wages.”



“Union members will be meeting across the country — in town hall meetings and workplaces — so they can change the rules and make their work fair and decent. We can only do this if working people get involved. We are inviting any worker who wants to be a part of this campaign to join us.”

Parenting Payment Scheme a Human Rights Abuse

A Melbourne single mother has lodged a complaint with the United Nations, labelling changes to Australia’s parenting payment scheme discrimination and a human rights abuse.

Mother-of-three Juanita McLaren and the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children have lodged a complaint, officially known as a communication, with the UN over cuts and changes to the parenting payment.

The complaint asks the UN to determine whether Australia has violated its international human rights obligations. Supporters hope the complaint will hold the government accountable for its cuts.

The decision to complain to the UN was not made lightly, McLaren said. But she said she could no longer be silent and allow what she called blatant discrimination against single parents, most likely to be women, to go unnoticed.

“It is outrageous the way in which my personal agency and financial security was effectively controlled by the government as some sort of punitive measure because I was a single mum,” she said. “I am seen as an unemployed worker before I am seen as a mother and, because my parenting doesn’t have a dollar value, it is seen as completely some sort of lark.”

McLaren’s life changed when she was left to raise three children alone. It changed again when changes to the welfare system in 2006 by the Coalition government moved people off the parenting payment when their youngest child turned eight, forcing them on to Newstart.

That was compounded by the Labor government decision in 2012 to scrap the grandfather provisions, which saw a further 100,000 people forcibly moved on to Newstart.

The differences are stark – McLaren’s payment went from $748.10 per fortnight to $579.30. Where previously she could earn an additional $237.80 during the payments period before her supplement was affected, she could now earn only $104.

The gross income threshold was also slashed, from $2,088.85 to $1,576, while she lost the concession card. The cuts were exacerbated by other changes to the welfare scheme, including the scrapping of the schoolkids bonus, freezing the family tax benefit and forcing parents to wait a week between paid work and applying for benefits, which affects those able to obtain only contract work.

McLaren was forced to abandon the studies she had almost completed to better secure her long-term future employment and the work she was able to do was hampered by a lack of childcare options.

• “Why on earth is it eight years old?” McLaren asked, referring to the cutoff point for the parenting payment. “Why not wait until they are in high school? In year 7, when they are a bit more independent? The cutoff date for my youngest turning eight – that was it.
• “There was no negotiation. They turn eight, you get moved to Newstart, which you have to apply for yourself and then you get $100 less a fortnight. Just because that child was born on that date.”

Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the single mothers lobby group, said the move “condemned women who head up a single-parent family to a life of hardship as they contend with housing stress, deprivation, skip meals and forgo medical treatment”.

“Denying access to a parenting payment when a single parent’s youngest child turns eight years old is a violation of human rights, as defined by the core United Nations treaties including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,” she said.

Edwards said the group – which has found 40% of sole-parent households are living below the poverty line in Australia – had been inundated by distressed mothers who slide into greater financial hardship when they are forced from a modest parenting payment to an unemployment benefit.

We know of women who return ... to the hands of the abuser because of the lack of assistance
Terese Edwards, National Council of Single Mothers and their Children

“This includes women who have escaped domestic violence,” she said. “We know of women who return to place of abuse and to the hands of the abuser because of the lack of assistance.”

Australia signed and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women optional protocol in 2008.

Beth Goldblatt, an associate professor at the University Of Technology Sydney’s faculty of law, said lodging a complaint with the UN was an option available to Australian women “if they think their rights under the international convention have been violated”.

• “This becomes necessary when a person has tried every other means within the country to have their complaint considered,” Goldblatt said. “Juanita argues that single parents, most of whom are women, have consistently had their social security cut by consecutive governments in this country, leaving them and their children to face poverty in a country with the means to support people who are struggling.
• “She argues that this violates her rights to social security, family benefits and non-discrimination. She can show that the organisations supporting her cause have made representations to parliament and raised the issue on all available platforms without success.”

Goldblatt said that because Australia does not have a bill of rights it is not an option to approach the courts over the issue.

McLaren said she did not expect a sudden turnaround in attitude from the government – or even a solution.

“The government is not going to look at this and say ‘wow you are telling us something we didn’t know’ they know this stuff already,” she said. “If anything, I am hoping it will get [to] women who are so downtrodden or have belief that they do deserve to be treated like this because somehow they are not good enough, or they asked for their circumstances – because you do start to believe that.”

Climate – It’s always hot in Bidyadanga

It’s always hot in Bidyadanga but a few degrees can make a big difference in the remote Aboriginal community, about 190km south of Broome in Western Australia.

“It’s always hot – it’s the desert – but the difference between 33C and 36C can be quite oppressive,” said Shaun Burgess, a teacher in the community.

This winter, it mattered more than most – 2017 was Australia’s warmest on record for average maximum temperatures, which reached nearly 2C above the winter average and beat the previous record set in 2009 by 0.3C, according to a report released by the Climate Council on Tuesday.

In July alone 72 records were broken for the highest maximum temperature, including in Sydney, which set a record high of 26.5C.

Bidyadanga was one of those 72; on July 27 it reached 36.3C, the hottest day in Australia’s warmest July. It also broke its previous July record of 35.7C, set in 2016.

“It’s made it really difficult to do things like go camping or fishing with the students, which is something we’ve done a lot of in previous years,” Burgess said. “There’s been less of an opportunity to clear the mind, less of a reprieve, I guess.”

And the reprieves may be becoming rarer. Australia has set new seasonal highs for maximum temperatures 10 times so far this century and the Climate Council report found that more than 260 heat and low rainfall records were broken between June and August this year.

It was the fifth warmest winter on record for average temperatures, and the driest since 2002. Daytime temperature averages were above average for almost the entire country; more than 90% of Australia was in the highest 10% of historical observations. And as summer approaches, a third of the country is at above average risk from bushfire damage as a result of the hot, dry weather.

“Winter warm spells are lasting longer, occurring more often and becoming more intense,” the report said. “The likelihood of such warm winters occurring will continue to increase as global temperatures rise.”

The report used research by Andrew King, a climate extremes research fellow at the University of Melbourne, to argue that the “exceptionally” warm and dry winter was caused by climate change.

King used computer climate models to compare today’s human-impacted climate with simulations representing an alternative world that excluded human influences.

He found the record winter temperatures were 60 times more likely to have been caused by human-included climate change.

“Another way of putting that is if we hadn’t had climate change at all the chance of getting a winter like this would be much smaller,” he said. “It would be a very, very unlikely event.”

The Climate Council report warns that the increased incidence of runs of hot weather affects the agriculture and energy sectors. As summer approaches, large parts of the country are in increased bushfire danger.

Last week firefighters across Australia’s east coast were tested by record September temperatures as a total fire ban was issued in parts of New South Wales.

• “In the south these areas broadly include the Australian Capital Territory, south and east Victoria, eastern NSW, south and central Queensland, and southern and northern regions of South Australia,” it warns.
• “Further, the warm and dry winter conditions mean the southern fire season is likely to begin earlier than usual.”

The warmer-than-average temperatures were predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology in its winter outlook published in May.

It stated that, in addition to “natural drivers” such as the El Niño weather pattern, Australia’s climate was “being influenced by the long-term increasing trend in global air and ocean temperatures”.

PSA – NSW Government massive increase in consultants

PSA media release
Tuesday 19 September 2017

Govt spends tens of millions on consultants, tries to block pay rise for disability workers
The Public Service Association (PSA) has slammed the $10 million rise in the budget for consultants in one public sector agency alone while the Government cuts jobs and argues against a 2.5% pay rise for disability care workers.

Figures tabled in Parliament around the State Budget revealed the Department of Planning and Environment's 2017-18 budget for consultants is $11 million, a massive increase from $1.1 million in 2016-17.

Consultancy costs for the Department of Premier and Cabinet will leap to $10.8 million, from $3.5 million while TAFE has earmarked $5.9 million for consultants up from $1.4 million the previous year.

“The Treasurer can defend the expenditure on the basis the Government is undertaking “unprecedented and complicated reforms” but what he doesn’t say is that process involves the wholesale sell off of public services in NSW such as the Land Titles Registry, disability and Out of Home Care,” said Acting PSA General Secretary, Troy Wright.

• “The savage irony is that many of these Departments are spending money on consultants to manage the after-effects of employees being replaced with consultants.
• “Rather than properly equipping the NSW public sector to be the best it can be and utilizing the skills, experience and institutional knowledge it contains, the Berejiklian Government is simply hiring an additional parallel workforce and then complaining about the cost and cutting jobs and services.
• “This is a Government that forced this union into court to face an army of barristers in an attempt to block a 2.5% pay rise for people who tend to the daily needs of some of the most disadvantaged in our society.
• “This is a Government that cuts critical firefighting roles in the National Parks and Wildlife Service in the lead up to what the experts say will be horror fire season.
• “This is a Government that sells off the Land Titles Registry, the model for the world that has an enormous bearing on the state’s economy, to private overseas interests.

Doctors – Health implications of coal-fired power

The health implications of coal-fired power should be a main concern in Australia’s debate over energy generation, doctors have argued.

Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program, the chair of Doctors for the Environment New South Wales, Dr John Van Der Kallen, asked panellists why health was not a primary consideration in the discussion over the closure of coal-fired power stations such as the Liddell plant in the Hunter Valley “when we know that the pollution from these coal-fired power stations contributes to respiratory and cardiovascular illness, as well as premature death?”

Doctors for the Environment also oppose the proposed Adani coalmine in Queensland, which if built, will be the largest in Australia, and one of the largest in the world.

Enough tiptoeing around. Let’s make this clear: coal kills people

“It will significantly increase Australia’s contribution to international carbon emissions and threaten the health of millions of people in Australia and around the world.”
Emma Herd, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change, said health concerns over coal-fired power were driving movement to renewables in other parts of the world.

“You only have to look at China which is grappling with some really substantial and quite dangerous health impacts on the community in terms of not having heavily regulated the coal-fired power industry and not managing the health implications of coal-fired generation.”

Herd said governments and business needed to take into account the physical and environmental effects of different types of energy generation.

“Interestingly enough, it is this very driver of managing environmental pollution which is actually now the basis of so much of China’s actions in terms of being a world leader in investing in renewable energy, taking it to more than 50% of global investment in renewable energy in the last few years.”

Unions NSW – Stop Perrotet Fat Cat Consultant Plans

Posted on September 18, 2017

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet should immediately stop feeding fat cat consultants and redirect $11 million towards quality jobs in regional NSW.

That’s despite the fact regional centres are still suffering recession-like levels of unemployment.

According to the latest regional unemployment figures, Coffs Harbour has an unemployment rate of eight per cent, New England and North West 6.9 per cent, Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven 6.6 per cent and the Central Coast, six per cent.

That compares with 2.3 per cent on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and 2.6 per cent in the leafy Eastern Suburbs.

• “Regional NSW desperately needs more quality well paid jobs, yet Dominic Perrottet is more interested in featherbedding his consultant mates on the Northern Beaches and in the Eastern Suburbs," said Mark Morey, Secretary of Unions NSW.
• “If the Treasurer is seriously arguing that there is no expertise in the public sector it reflects very poorly on him and the NSW Government as economic managers.”
• “Here’s a novel idea: why not develop talent and expertise within the public sector. Even better, do it in regional NSW.
• “We should be proud of our regions and invest in them accordingly. Yet the Liberals treat them like an after thought.
• “Sydney’s big professional services firms don’t need $11 million. But the public sector does, especially in the regions. The NSW Government needs to put regional NSW first for a change."

Banks plans to rule and ruin superannuation

Proposed changes to Australia’s $2 trillion superannuation sector could see Australia’s largest banks come to dominate the industry, reducing consumer protections and affecting people’s retirement outcomes. The banks are putting pressure on the government to make changes to superannuation laws which could benefit the banks at the expense of ordinary people.

The crux of the issue concerns default superannuation funds – the funds employers choose for their employees if they don’t nominate one themselves. Eight in ten Australians go with the default super fund their employer chooses for them, making it hugely important that businesses are picking super funds based on their employees’ interests.

At the moment, the Fair Work Commission gives businesses a list of vetted super funds to choose from, ensuring only high-quality funds gain access to this slice of the super market and ensuring people are protected from less dependable dealers. The proposed changes would take the FWC out of the equation altogether, opening the default super fund market up entirely and leaving it at the mercy of the biggest, wealthiest players – the major banks.

If the owner of a cafe already banks with Big Bank #1, for example, they might be incentivised with offers of lower insurance premiums or free financial advice in exchange for picking a Big Bank #1-owned super fund as the default option for their staff. The problem is whilst directly offering incentives to change superannuation arrangements is illegal, bundling services and cost structures in such a manner is not.

Despite practices like these being illegal under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act, enforcing the law and punishing institutions who break it has proven extremely difficult. Studies have shown a steep rise in bundling and cross-selling of bank-owned default super funds in the last six years. A 2015 survey found that more than 25% of businesses surveyed have been approached by one of the Big Four banks to change their default funds, and nearly half of all small to medium-sized business had. Almost half the time, businesses reported they had been offered “benefits” as an inducement.

For workers, the danger is obvious. If their workplace moves to a bank-owned super fund because the owner has been lured by the promise of some free VIP tickets to the footy, workers might end up saddled with a super fund that is used to help generate corporate profits, which are returned as dividends to shareholders, not superannuation members.

Retail super funds like those owned by the Big Four have markedly underperformed over the last decade, providing returns nearly 2%, on average, lower than their industry fund counterparts. For a worker earning $50,000 a year with $50,000 in super savings, over ten years, that adds up to a loss of more than $13,000, on average.

Then there’s the uncomfortable matter of the scandals. It’s no secret that the major banks have been caught out in recent years for everything from denying dying people their life insurance payouts to losing thousands of customers’ life savings. A Senate inquiry into the Big Four last year found that “the culture of these institutions is often not one that has consumers at its centre”, and that “the sector collected up to $178 million from consumers that it was not entitled to” between mid-2008 and mid-2015.

Proposed changes could see workers losing out in the long run.

That mindset – treating customers as financial resources to be profited from rather than people with lives, families and needs – has historically been unable to gain much of a foothold in the superannuation sector, which enjoys market protections as a workplace entitlement. By introducing legislation that could see Australians’ retirement savings exposed to the profit-fuelled interests of banks, it’s the Australian people who stand to lose in the long run.

Underpinning all this uncertainty is the fact that the government has provided no compelling reason why the system needs to be changed at all. Australia’s super sector is regarded as one of the best in the world, and consumers highly regard the not-for-profit nature of much of the industry. It’s difficult to think of a better way to undermine that confidence than by reducing protections that could see the widely distrusted banking companies gain a greater foothold in an industry that has served the Australian people so well in it’s current iteration.

NSWTF – Stay strong, AEU presidents tell education ministers

Stay strong, AEU presidents tell education ministers

Submitted by nswtf on 15 September 2017

Federation President Maurie Mulheron has joined with other teacher union leaders to call on state education ministers to stand strong in voicing their concerns about the plan, as the Education Ministerial Council meets in Adelaide today to discuss the new schools funding plan that was legislated earlier this year.

“Under Minister Birmingham’s new funding model, NSW Public Schools will be $1.5 billion worse off over the next four years,” Mr Mulheron said. “Combined with the government’s refusal to fund the additional loadings for students with disabilities, this new plan utterly fails to address the educational disadvantage identified in the original Gonski review.”

“The original Gonski review defined a Schooling Resource Standard [SRS] that identified a per-student amount of funding needed to address educational disadvantage in Australia. This was meant to be funded by 2019. Under Birmingham’s new plan, 87 per cent of NSW Public Schools will not reach the SRS by 2023,” Mr Mulheron said.

Gathered outside the Adelaide meeting venue, AEU Federal and branch presidents met with the arriving education ministers, many of whom expressed their commitment to the original funding model.

“The commonwealth has ripped up the deal,” said South Australian minister Susan Close, while Victorian minister James Merlino described the new funding model as ‘unacceptable’.

Queensland minister Kate Jones made her intentions clear, saying “We’re not going to sign up”.

This meeting occurs in the wake of a recent OECD report that showed Australian education funding was actually in decline as a proportion of GDP, and is also below the OECD average.

“The OECD has recently reported a downward trend in Australia’s commitment to education spending as a proportion of GDP and compared to total spending on government services. It reports on these facts because it recognises that low resources hurt student outcomes,” AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said.

Within that trend of declining investment, Ms Haythorpe said, disadvantage was heightened for public schools, many of which would remain below the school resourcing standard even after ten years of the Turnbull plan, while many schools in the wealthy private system would remain well above it.

• “We expect that States and Territories will come under strong pressure from the Federal education minister to sign a multilateral agreement or lose Federal funding in 2018.”
• “This is nothing short of funding blackmail, where consultation to identify what is actually best for the thousands of children in our public schools is replaced by coercion to ram through a deal in no-one’s interests except those of the Federal Government.”

The meeting follows the announcement this week of a rushed four-week timeline for submissions to the latest Gonski review process that will reduce transparency and scrutiny.

“States and territories know the impacts of this plan – putting the brakes on Federal investment in public schools puts the brakes on the future of children in schools open to everyone, schools that cater to families already facing the challenges of broader inequality,” Haythorpe concluded.

ACTU – Hand-picked Nigel Hadgkiss Resigns

Turnbull and Cash’s hand-picked, ideological cop, Nigel Hadgkiss, resigns
13 September 2017

Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) boss Nigel Hadgkiss has resigned after he admitted to spending two years breaking the law in pursuit of the anti-worker ideological agenda his political masters paid him over $420,000 a year to enact.

The ABCC boss has admitted breaching section 503 of the Fair Work Act over a two year period by recklessly misrepresenting the rights of union officials. 

Mr Hadgkiss’s resignation is a win for workers.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

• “Mr Hadgkiss obeyed the dictates of his political masters, Prime Minister Turnbull and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, through ongoing attacks against working people and in the end he not only stepped over the line he set up camp there for two years.”
• “As head of the ABCC, he oversaw a draconian and authoritarian body that breached Australia’s international obligations, persecuted workers and stripped away the right of silence from ordinary hard working Australians. “
• “Mr Hadgkiss was an important part of the Turnbull Government’s anti-worker agenda. He was the Turnbull Government’s hand-picked, ideological cop who was given enormous licence to go after working people.”
• “Working people will rightly enjoy the professional demise of a person who has made no secret of his agenda to reduce their working conditions.”
• “Mr Hadgkiss was Minister Cash’s champion in her fight against working people.   That the Minister today, of all days, praised Mr Hadgkiss for “restoring the rule of law”, while systematically acting unlawfully for two years, demonstrates that the minister not only has a radical anti-worker agenda but that this resignation is entirely about limiting further damage to a government in chaos.”
• “The Turnbull Government should take this opportunity to disband the ABCC and restore Australia to being a “one law for all” nation.

The CFMEU has welcomed the resignation of the head of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, Nigel Hadgkiss.

• The union yesterday called for his resignation after it succeeded in the Federal Court in having the head of the Turnbull Government’s ABCC admit to a reckless breach of the laws he oversees.
• Hadgkiss admitted to a contravention of section 503 of the Fair Work Act in relation to the ABCC’s publication of incorrect information about right of entry rules.
• “Nigel Hadgkiss is anti-workers and his departure will be welcomed by our members.
• “However, the real villain here is the Turnbull Government’s ABCC laws, which remain in place.
• “These laws strip away basic protections from construction workers and are only there for the benefit of big builders and property developers. Since the laws were in place, safety on construction sites has worsened.”

MEAA – Media diversity and jobs to be lost under ‘reforms’

Legislation expected to be passed today to remove the two-out-of-three ownership rule will mean an inevitable loss of diversity in the Australian media, says the union for Australian journalists and media workers.

Throughout this long debate, mergers and acquisitions have been talked about as the inevitable consequence of removing ownership rules. That means fewer owners and it also means fewer journalists after the job losses that follow mergers.

Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance chief executive officer Paul Murphy commended the Nick Xenophon Team for attempting to get the Turnbull Government to adopt positive initiatives and policy changes to genuinely foster increased diversity in our media landscape.

“Any initiative to support new investment in journalism is welcome, but it should not come at the price of existing safeguards being removed,” Mr Murphy said.

MEAA will be looking closely at the details of the jobs and innovation package, in particular to ensure that the wages and working conditions of any trainees in the program are appropriately safeguarded.

“This is a poor day for media diversity,” Mr Murphy said. “The last important protection – the two-out-of-three rule – has been abandoned and there is nothing in its place.

“Australia, which already has one of the highest concentrations of media ownership in the world, is now saying that a plurality of media voices doesn’t matter.  And history shows that once diversity is lost, you cannot get it back.

“The structural challenges faced by the Australian media sector will only be slightly stalled by these reforms. As companies amalgamate, more media jobs will be lost and with their loss, public scrutiny will be further reduced.

“Meanwhile the Government’s grubby deal with One Nation is beneath contempt. Facilitating baseless attacks on our public broadcasters is disgraceful and we will be lobbying Senators to reject any legislation when it is presented.”

Through the Senate Inquiry into the Future of Public Interest Journalism, MEAA will continue to press for meaningful reform to genuinely encourage and promote a diverse and robust media landscape.

UK – 320,000 demand Theresa May ditch plans to bypass parliament

Last night, we struck a blow to Theresa May’s plan to give herself the power to rewrite UK laws behind closed doors after Brexit.

A staggering 320,000 of us signed the petition to demand Theresa May ditch her plans to bypass parliament. Thousands more of us emailed our MPs and called on them to speak up in the debate. And MPs listened - politicians from all parties stood up to criticise the plan to sidestep parliament. [2]

The plan has moved to the next stage. But there’s a huge catch for Theresa May. Lots of her own MPs have publicly stated they’ll only give final approval if big changes are made.

That means MPs voting down Theresa May's plan at a later stage, unless there are solid guarantees for important laws to be debated and voted on properly in parliament. [4] This morning, Theresa May will be looking at the number of MPs she needs to get her plan voted through - and it doesn’t look good.

This doesn't mean we've won just yet. There’s going to be a big fight ahead to force Theresa May to ditch her plan. It’s going to take all of us to make sure we don’t swap murky backroom deals in Brussels for more of the same in Westminster. But for today, let’s congratulate ourselves for getting this far.

ACTU – Michaelia Cash must sack ABCC boss Nigel Hadgkiss

 12 September 2017

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is calling for Employment Minister Michaelia Cash to sack the law breaking Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) boss Nigel Hadgkiss.

Mr Hadgkiss has admitted to breaking the very laws he is employed to enforce and uphold.

The ABCC boss admitted breaching section 503 of the Fair Work Act by recklessly misrepresenting the rights of union officials during entry to premises to meet with workers.

Minister Cash is unrelenting in her attacks on working people and their unions, but now the chief enforcer of these laws has admitted to breaking them.

This comes on the top of daily revelations of employers breaking the law by stealing from their employees.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

• “The Turnbull Government has a chance to demonstrate they do not have double standards — one set of laws for themselves and another for the rest of us.”
• “Surely the person who has the highest responsibility, a greater responsibility, to abide by industrial laws is the person in charge of upholding them.”
• “If a police chief recklessly broke the law, which Nigel Hadgkiss has admitted to, their position would in untenable and there would be consequences.”
• “If a worker fails to follow workplace laws they can be sacked. Employment Minister Michaelia Cash is calling for the sacking of union leaders — what standard will she apply to her own employee who is in charge of upholding her laws?”
• “We are used to Minister Cash’s disinterest in the rampant lawlessness that now occurs across the country where many employers are getting away with stealing money from their workers.”
• “We are also used to Minister Cash allowing the severe exploitation of temporary visa workers as she focuses resources on union-bashing.”
• “Australian’s are sick of one set of laws for them and another for us.”

ACTU – Response to Barnaby Joyce interview

11 September 2017

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's claims on radio this morning regarding the Secretary of the ACTU Sally McManus are a fabrication.

The attack reveals a desperate man, in a chaotic government, forced to make things up and blame other people for his own failure to address the challenges facing regional Australia.

The number one issue in regional Australia is jobs.

The National Party have sat on its hands while entry level jobs for young people have been taken by temporary visa holders, issued by their government.

Deputy Prime Minister Joyce has championed the live beef export industry, which has cost Australian workers jobs processing meat.

The Government has replaced real jobs with $4 per hour wages, cut penalty rates, forced people into compulsory work for the dole programs, and cut taxes for big business. 

These policies take money out of regional communities and put it in the pockets of big businesses, headquartered in Melbourne and Sydney, and their offshore shareholders.

Mr Joyce has supported privatisation and stood for the interests of big power companies who are making eye-watering profits off the back of regional Australians who are paying inflated power bills.

At the last election, Mr Joyce proudly turned the sod and heralded the benefits of a new wind farm in his electorate, which created local jobs. This morning, he was denying other communities the opportunity, backing comments that attack renewable energy.

It is desperate stuff from a man desperate to distract from his own failures.

It’s no wonder that wages are at record low, big business’ profits are booming, and regional communities are finding it hard to get a secure job or a pay rise, when people like Mr Joyce continue to advocate the interests of big power companies and multinational business at the expense of his constituents.

Unions are fighting for jobs and jobs security for Australian workers every day, too bad Barnaby Joyce doesn’t do the same.”

AMWU – Win on Personal Protective Equipment in WA

A win over payment of a tool allowance turned out to be the catalyst for another win on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for UGL boilermaker/welders at Alcoa alumina refineries in Western Australia.

UGL is the maintenance contractor at Alcoa’s three Western Australian alumina refineries at Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup.

The members are entitled to a tool allowance under their EBA – but they realised it hadn’t been paid. Working with the branch, they managed to convince their employer that they were being shortchanged.

“In some ways it’s a small thing, but it was an entitlement these workers had a right to but weren’t getting.  By standing together they reminded the company that it wasn’t being paid, and got it fixed,” said AMWU State Secretary Steve McCartney.

Shortly after they’d secured the tool allowance win, one of the members saw an AMWU Facebook post, reminding workers of the dangers of diesel fumes.

The post formed part of the union’s ongoing work to ensure that workers know their rights around crucial OHS issues across a range of industries.

“From seeing the Facebook post, the members realised that they probably didn’t have the right safety equipment,” said Organiser Simon Rushworth.

“With the tool allowance win under their belts, they were empowered to get better helmets for working in Confined Space Entry conditions.”

The members had always thought that the onus was on them to supply their own ventilated helmets, but some digging from the Union found that obligation was actually on the employer.

Organiser Simon Rushworth said UGL was now supplying boilermakers/welders with new, state-of-the art welding helmets with Adflo PAPR (Powered Air Purifying Respirator) systems.

“Welding in tight spaces comes with serious health and safety risks,” Simon said.

“In particular, boilermaker/welders at Alcoa were concerned about the potential to breath in carcinogenic fumes, as UGL was only providing them with P2 dust masks.

“When AMWU Health and Safety Representatives looked into it, they discovered that our members were being exposed to dangerous gases, and the PPE gear they were being provided with was inadequate.

“In fact, UGL was failing to meet Alcoa’s own site requirements by not providing respirator helmets.”

AMWU members at the three Alcoa refineries then kicked into action, demanding that UGL meet its workplace health and safety obligations for CSE conditions.

“The members were determined to keep UGL accountable and to protect their own health and safety,” Simon said.

“In the end we achieved a great result, with workers now having access to both a better tool allowance and better PPE gear on the job.”

Stephen Cleary – Genesis of award winning Sweet Counryl

Stephen Cleary's account of the genesis of Sweet Country

Let me tell you a story.

Tonight, SWEET COUNTRY, directed by Warwick Thornton and written by Steven McGregor and David Tranter, won the Jury prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

In 2012 Penny Macdonald fought tooth and nail against indifference from the Northern Territory government to get a tiny bit of funding for a writer's initiative in Alice Springs. She and I had worked it out, we called it IGNITE. The NT government at the time saw little value in the concept, but Penny stuck at it. So we got some money. And Screen Australia joined in with a small but critical contribution.

We found some writers and started.

One writer was David Tranter. But he didn't write. He drew. And every day he would come into the NT Film office in Alice with an A3 pad and drawings of an event in the past of his family. And I would ask questions, and he would explain, and each picture was one scene in his mind. And when we had talked enough, I wrote it into the laptop and read it back to him, and we'd talk again, and I'd change it until he was happy with it. That way we got about twenty scenes written. Then we looked at them, and saw what other scenes we would need to join these twenty scenes. And we did that, too.

And David would go away and come back with more drawings. I drank a lot of tea. David smoked a lot of cigarettes outside. And eventually there was a story, start to finish. And I went home to France and other projects, and David went off to work, because neither of us was making enough to live off from what we were doing.

Months later we met in Alice again. And did the whole thing again, And again. And again. And finally David had a script he was happy to show. And Steven McGregor and Warwick Thornton and David Jowsey took it, with David, from there and from that birth they made the story into what it is today.The credit is theirs.

I'm writing this because the way Sweet Country was born is important. David Tranter did not physically write, but he was the writer. How many people who cannot, or don't want to, write in the way "the industry" expects, get to tell their stories? Get to have their stories even considered? How often does "the industry" take the risk of going out on a limb in out of the way places to find startling stories that break open the world in a new way for audiences? And I'm not talking about Australia, I'm talking about everywhere.

A big organization, with lots of calls on its time and lots of balls in the air at once cannot do this kind of work. It's unconventional, it's superficially hard to justify and it requires real trust in the practitioners you ask to do it, and if you micro manage it, it will collapse. You cannot design an application process that will bring projects like these to you. And these are exactly the kinds of projects the world wants to see, far more than the ones that tick boxes.

So I take no credit for the film Sweet Country, but I do take credit for the process that helped to birth it, and I demand credit for Penny MacDonald, whose continual faith that the Territory had and has stories and storytellers worth going to bat for, repeatedly, should be saluted.

Oh and what happened to the IGNITE programme? It was discontinued, because people didn't see the point of it, a year or so before the production spend of Sweet Country brought investment into the Territory that paid for the cost of it over fifty times.

Bittersweet country, you might say.

Much Angst About Liddell

The chairman of federal parliament’s environment and energy committee says a fresh approach is needed on energy policy, including a new federal loan mechanism to upgrade the coal fleet and a “lock in” mechanism for the clean energy target.

Ahead of a much telegraphed meeting in Canberra on Monday between the Turnbull government and the head of AGL, Andy Vesey, about extending the operating life of the Liddell power station, the Nationals MP Andrew Broad told Guardian Australia he believed the ageing New South Wales plant was “about stuffed”.

Broad is the chairman of parliament’s multi-partisan standing committee on environment and energy, and that committee has been pursuing an extensive inquiry into modernising Australia’s electricity grid, which will report soon.

Broad said rather than pursuing a piecemeal approach, the key development required to lower power prices for consumers was certainty and that could be achieved by implementing a consistent energy policy that could survive multiple parliaments.

“If you are going to attract investment, then you have to create certainty,” he said.

Broad said the government would be wise to consider a policy which included:

Restricting gas exports for two to three years to bring prices down;

A “lock in mechanism” for the clean energy target recommended by the chief scientist, Alan Finkel, where power provision arrangements would be contracted out for eight years at a time, effectively preventing governments from changing the parameters of the scheme;

A new federal loan mechanism that power generators could access to reconfigure the coal fleet in order to increase efficiency and lower greenhouse emissions;
And active federal investments in new transmission infrastructure to bolt renewables more effectively into the grid.

AGL wants to shut down the Liddell plant in 2022 but has its own plans for the site, which include investigating a switch to gas peaking capacity in New South Wales, supplemented with renewables.

The Turnbull government wants to extend the life of the coal plant for an additional five years. The government says Vesey has signalled privately he is prepared to sell Liddell to a “responsible” owner.

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said “the solution to the energy crisis we’re facing right now isn’t talking about extending a coal-fired power plant in five years’ time.

“We need more generation in the system now. That means more gas, more renewables and more storage.”

Labor is yet to say whether it would support an extension of AGL’s operating life in the event the company sold the plant to another operator, or agreed to the government’s demands.

Monday’s talks come as the thinktank the Grattan Institute has called for preparatory work on what it calls a “capacity mechanism” to encourage new investment in generation.

The energy program director at the Grattan Institute, Tony Wood, says that option should only be adopted “if all other market reforms have been exhausted and supply is still under threat”.

Under a capacity mechanism, generators would be paid not only for the electricity they produce to meet current demand but for committing to provide power for years into the future.

The energy market operator or retailers could contract for sufficient electricity to meet future demand, to ensure new generation and storage is built in time.

“Australians have endured a decade of toxic political debates about climate change policy, South Australians suffered a state-wide blackout last year, consumers across the country are screaming about skyrocketing electricity bills and energy companies are shutting down big coal-fired power stations,” Wood said.

“It is understandable that governments feel the need to do something. But the danger is they will rush in and make things worse. What Australia needs now is perspective, not panic.”

Greenpeace – Queensland on the path to ending plastic pollution

Plastic pollution is choking and entangling our turtles, marine mammals and bird life. It fills up their stomachs, reducing the space for food, which often results in starvation.

This new law has the potential to reduce Queensland's plastic litter by half, if implemented with proper education and support.

• When individuals give up plastic and tell their friends why.
• When ocean lovers like you email our state and territory governments and tell them to step up.
• When we come together to watch and share wake-up calls like BLUE the Film.
• These are the moments that build to become a tidal wave of change. 

Thanks to you, Queensland has taken the next step on the path to ending plastic pollution. And with you, we will keep fighting for New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia to do the same.

NSWTF – History of Women Teachers' Rights – 1937-2017

ACTU exploiting migrant workers on 400 visas – Turnbull Government fails to protect Australian jobs

Big corporations exploiting migrant workers on 400 visas – Turnbull Government fails to protect Australian jobs

4 September 2017

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has today slammed the Turnbull Government for allowing big corporations to exploit migrant workers under the 400 visa program.

Media reports today that migrant workers have been brought in to work via the subclass visa, with some applications approved in as little as 24 hours, are deeply concerning.

It appears the Turnbull Government has turned a blind-eye to the fact that companies are bringing vulnerable workers into Australia on short-stay visas.  Malcolm Turnbull has failed to protect Australian jobs, and failed to protect migrant workers from exploitation.

The reports highlight extreme examples of worker exploitation, with Chinese laborers flown in to dismantle the former Mitsubishi car plant in the Adelaide Hills paid $1.90 an hour and Filipino metal fabricators paid $4.90an hour in NSW.

There are 50,000 400 sub-class visas granted every year.

Quotes attributable to ACTU President Ged Kearney

• “Temporary migrant workers on 400 sub class visas risk serious exploitation.  This category is supposed to be for skilled-workers, specialists with expertise that cannot be sourced in Australia.
• “Reports today suggest a concerning lack of scrutiny or oversight by the Turnbull Government, which allows unscrupulous employers to undermine local pay and conditions.
• “The Turnbull government should be ensuring that all our temporary migrant workers have access to the same pay and conditions that local works get.
• “The Turnbull government should be making life better for Australian workers by creating good steady jobs with solid pay and conditions, rather than undermining the Australian labour market by allowing exploitation of the visa system
• “We have skilled, experienced Australian workers who are overlooked by employers who are able to underpay migrant workers being brought in through this program.
• “What Malcolm Turnbull didn’t tell us when he abolished the 457 visa, was that he would continue to allow migrant workers to be exploited under the 400 program.
• “The rules are broken when employers are making big profits from the exploitation of migrant workers."

ACTU and MUA launch new campaign to save Australian Shipping

5 September 2017

The ACTU and MUA will today launch a new campaign on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra to save Australian shipping.

Under the Abbott/Turnbull Government’s watch, we now have zero Australian–crewed tankers and the number of Aussie-flagged vessels has continued to decline.

The only “reform” bill presented to the Parliament by this Government was for total deregulation of coastal shipping, with the Government’s own Regulatory Impact Statement showing 93 per cent of jobs in the sector would be lost.

MUA rank and file seafarers from The CSL Thevenard, The CSL Melbourne and MV Portland will be joined by 4 miners from the Oaky Creek Glencore Dispute and supportive MPs and Senators at today’s event.

A new website Save Australian Shipping – Take Back Our Coast, the name chosen by MUA members, will also be launched.

This site will be used as an information point to keep members updated and assist the union with grass roots activism throughout shipping, all the way until the next federal election.

The new website can be found at: www.saveaustralianshipping.com.au; Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/saveaustralianshipping/  and Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaveAusShipping

When: Tuesday September 5 at 11am

Where: Lawn out the front of Parliament House

Who: ACTU President Ged Kearney, ALP Transport spokesman Anthony Albanese, Katter Australia Party’s Bob Katter, MUA Assistant National Secretary Ian Bray, CFMEU National Secretary Michael O’Connor, ETU National Secretary Allen Hicks.

ACTU – Senate bill to protect right to silence for 11 million workers

The Australian Council of Trade Unions welcomes the Senate’s support for an ALP amendment to the Vulnerable Workers' bill that removes coercive powers that could have denied the right to silence for 11 million Australian workers.

Had the original Bill passed, it would have seen all working Australians lose the right to silence if government investigation into unprotected industrial action was initiated.

The measure could have adversely affected workers like those at Fairfax, who took unprotected industrial action when their employer announced widespread redundancies.

The coercive powers knocked back by the Senate were found in the fine print of the Vulnerable Workers Bill, a piece of legislation that was supposed to protect workers. This included a provision that if workers refused to give evidence against their work mates or their union, they could have been fined $126,000.

The Bill which was supposedly to form the government’s response to shocking revelations of wage theft from workers at 7/11, was watered down considerably after intense lobbying by former Turnbull Government Minister Bruce Billson, working as representative of the Franchise Council of Australia.

Quotes attributable to Ged Kearney, ACTU President:

• “We warmly welcome the decision by the Australian Labor Party and members of the cross bench Nick Xenaphon Team, the Greens, Jacqui Lambie and Derryn Hinch who have ensured that workers' civil liberties outside the construction and maritime industries are protected.
• “This was a desperate play by a government in crisis. We know when the Liberals are in trouble they do whatever they can to attack working people and their unions.
• “It’s a disgrace that the Turnbull Government would even attempt this trick by hiding these coercive powers inside a Bill that was supposed to protect workers.
• “Thankfully, the ALP and enough Senate cross bench stood up and defended the interests of working people.It is very disappointing that One Nation, the South Australian independent, Lucy Gichuhi and David Leyonhjelm refused to support the amendment protecting working people.

“Attacking unions makes inequality worse. We are campaigning to change the rules so workers have more secure jobs and higher pay.

“Right now there’s a crisis of inequality in Australia. People need more secure work and higher wages. It would be simply delightful for the government to try and address this issue rather than finding new and innovative ways to attack the rights of working people in order to give corporations more power."