From War of the Wharves pp. 78-79
Mr Reith, his Prime Minister & the Treasurer
The Federal Court decision destroyed the government's credibility in the dispute. Equally, it legitimised the MUA's claim that it was the victim of an unlawful conspiracy, built respect for the labour leaders and relieved pressure on the pickets.
Henceforth, the government had to pursue its strategy while simultaneously fending off mounting evidence that it had been deeply involved in perpetrating the conflict. In the lead-up to the conflict, the government had invested heavily in polls, focus groups and political marketing as part of its campaign to demonise the MUA.
After the midnight assault, John Howard, Peter Reith and Chris Corrigan deluged the media with spiels tailored to counter sympathy for the union. They sought licence for the shocking attack by claiming the MUA had tried to destroy Patrick, and they stimulated antipathy among other workers with exaggerated claims about "elite" wharfie wages and working conditions obtained by "thuggish union bosses"
To combat the colourful and, at times, heroic working class history of Australia's maritime unions, Howard conjured "heart-breaking stories of farmers and small business men and women sent broke, having to sack people because of the behaviour on the wharves".
Reith worked up a World War II tale about his father being stranded in Borneo without tank support because of waterside industrial bans. The quality media gave the government editorial support, right-wing commentators and neo-liberal columnists pilloried unions as "dinosaurs", and most tabloids and commercial talk-back radio stations simply operated as arms of the government's propaganda machine.
Business groups supported the sackings, and warned of more mass dismissals as cargo piled up on the docks. The NFF remained active. Farmers regularly threatened to crash the pickets, and the day before the first Federal Court decision 40 of them blockaded Bob Carr in a country airport for two hours demanding strongarm police action.
Regardless, throughout the conflict no reputable polling company found that the government ever got even as much as 50 per cent of public opinion to support the way it involved itself in the dispute, A Morgan poll taken straight after the sacking showed 46 per cent to 45 per cent disapproved of the government supporting Patrick.
A week later, in a poll taken straight after the incident between the police and the terrified girls on the Port Botany picket line, Morgan found 47 per cent to 42 per cent supported the government. This was as good as it got. A Herald-AC Neilson poll taken on 17-19 April, the weekend when the pressure on the pickets was most intense, found 52 per cent to 33 per cent disapproved of the way the government had handled the dispute.
After the first Federal Court finding, Morgan found the government's broad political support had dropped by 5 per cent, leaving it trailing the Labor opposition by 9 per cent. The poll also found only 8 per cent wanted Patrick to continue employing non-union labour and the pickets removed by police.
As the strategy imploded, the most dramatic loser was Peter Keanston Reith, the 47-year-old, plump, balding and over-confident Victorian lawyer who once boasted: "I was born to plot". Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business and the Member for Flinders, before the conflict Reith had been touted as one of two future leadership contenders, the other being the Treasurer, Peter Costello.
Known on the pickets as the "Grim Reither", his repetitive, relentlessly pugnacious and tendentious debating style wore thin, irritating and irrelevant in defeat. Commentators quickly busied themselves calculating Reith's diminished future, particularly as it compared with the Treasurer, whose budget responsibilities allowed him a safe distance from the conflict.
Ominously, the last Member for Flinders who tried to destroy Australia's maritime unions and its industrial relations system was Prime Minister Stanley Bruce. At the ensuing federal election in October 1929, Bruce lost his seat to the secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council.
Mr Reith, his Prime Minister & the Treasurer
The Federal Court decision destroyed the government's credibility in the dispute. Equally, it legitimised the MUA's claim that it was the victim of an unlawful conspiracy, built respect for the labour leaders and relieved pressure on the pickets.
Henceforth, the government had to pursue its strategy while simultaneously fending off mounting evidence that it had been deeply involved in perpetrating the conflict. In the lead-up to the conflict, the government had invested heavily in polls, focus groups and political marketing as part of its campaign to demonise the MUA.
After the midnight assault, John Howard, Peter Reith and Chris Corrigan deluged the media with spiels tailored to counter sympathy for the union. They sought licence for the shocking attack by claiming the MUA had tried to destroy Patrick, and they stimulated antipathy among other workers with exaggerated claims about "elite" wharfie wages and working conditions obtained by "thuggish union bosses"
To combat the colourful and, at times, heroic working class history of Australia's maritime unions, Howard conjured "heart-breaking stories of farmers and small business men and women sent broke, having to sack people because of the behaviour on the wharves".
Reith worked up a World War II tale about his father being stranded in Borneo without tank support because of waterside industrial bans. The quality media gave the government editorial support, right-wing commentators and neo-liberal columnists pilloried unions as "dinosaurs", and most tabloids and commercial talk-back radio stations simply operated as arms of the government's propaganda machine.
Business groups supported the sackings, and warned of more mass dismissals as cargo piled up on the docks. The NFF remained active. Farmers regularly threatened to crash the pickets, and the day before the first Federal Court decision 40 of them blockaded Bob Carr in a country airport for two hours demanding strongarm police action.
Regardless, throughout the conflict no reputable polling company found that the government ever got even as much as 50 per cent of public opinion to support the way it involved itself in the dispute, A Morgan poll taken straight after the sacking showed 46 per cent to 45 per cent disapproved of the government supporting Patrick.
A week later, in a poll taken straight after the incident between the police and the terrified girls on the Port Botany picket line, Morgan found 47 per cent to 42 per cent supported the government. This was as good as it got. A Herald-AC Neilson poll taken on 17-19 April, the weekend when the pressure on the pickets was most intense, found 52 per cent to 33 per cent disapproved of the way the government had handled the dispute.
After the first Federal Court finding, Morgan found the government's broad political support had dropped by 5 per cent, leaving it trailing the Labor opposition by 9 per cent. The poll also found only 8 per cent wanted Patrick to continue employing non-union labour and the pickets removed by police.
As the strategy imploded, the most dramatic loser was Peter Keanston Reith, the 47-year-old, plump, balding and over-confident Victorian lawyer who once boasted: "I was born to plot". Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business and the Member for Flinders, before the conflict Reith had been touted as one of two future leadership contenders, the other being the Treasurer, Peter Costello.
Known on the pickets as the "Grim Reither", his repetitive, relentlessly pugnacious and tendentious debating style wore thin, irritating and irrelevant in defeat. Commentators quickly busied themselves calculating Reith's diminished future, particularly as it compared with the Treasurer, whose budget responsibilities allowed him a safe distance from the conflict.
Ominously, the last Member for Flinders who tried to destroy Australia's maritime unions and its industrial relations system was Prime Minister Stanley Bruce. At the ensuing federal election in October 1929, Bruce lost his seat to the secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council.
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