Australia's IR Laws are Among The World's Worst: ILO Complaint

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has listed Australia's IR laws for an immediate hearing alongside cases from Libya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Guatemala and other countries that are known as the world's worst violators of labour rights.

Speaking from the ILO's main annual conference in Geneva, Switzerland, ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:

"Australia's IR laws breach fundamental human rights by infringing on the right of working people to join a union and to bargain collectively.

ILO members are very concerned that as an advanced nation, Australia is increasingly out of step with its international obligations and has placed the Howard Government's laws on a list of labour rights violations cases for immediate examination on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

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IR Laws begin to haunt Howard

Workers are now easier to sack. It is now easier to hire people on any rate an employer chooses. It is harder to get a union onto a worksite. It is harder to secure objective, enforceable scrutiny of workplace arrangements. Elements of the less structured form of industrial negotiation that characterised the late 19th century workplace are being reintroduced.

It is no good for the Government to pretend otherwise and that is why the Prime Minister is no longer bothering to try. The laws were designed to produce the results that have been attracting news, such as the woman employed by Spotlight.

What makes this situation unusual in the life of the Government is that it cannot be tricked up, either by the Labor Party or by the Government itself. The Spotlight story will be repeated over and over again. These repetitions might not make the national media but people will learn of them. WorkChoices is not like the Snowy privatisation. It cannot be reversed with a single announcement.

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Community opposition stops Snowy privatisation

Community opposition to the Snowy sale saw the end of its privatisation

"If NSW Premier Iemma had succeeded, he may well have been encouraged to take on the bigger task of following Victoria and South Australia in privatising the rest of the NSW power industry. But the collapse of the deal shuts down the privatisation window in NSW this year, and the Premier will have to find some other way to raise the money the privatisation was to have provided.

Gloomy investment bankers were speculating yesterday that the Snowy Hydro sale debacle would also blunt the appetite in NSW for full privatisation of the power industry, despite the fact that it could restore the state's finances."

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The Federal Opposition has welcomed the Commonwealth's decision to pull out of the sale of Snowy Hydro, saying similar moves should now be made with Telstra and Medibank Private.

Labor says state governments are being forced to privatise public utilities because of a lack of Commonwealth investment in infrastructure.

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Let the people have a say on Snowy Hydro

letter to Sydney Morning Herald 2 june 2006

Handing control of this central pillar of our water and power supply to those whose interests cannot be guaranteed to reflect our own, at a time of climate, water and energy uncertainty such as we have never seen, is imprudent at best and could so easily end in bitter regret.

That the sale is proceeding, apace, with so little public understanding is wrong.

Such an action demands rigorous and transparent analysis by people of vision, with unquestionable objectivity, undistracted by unrealistic time limits, short-term budgetary considerations or vested interests.

We ask you to suspend the process to give pause for that analysis and time for free and open debate of this manifestly non-partisan issue in all parliaments of the nation.

Water is far too fundamental and precious a resource to be put in jeopardy with so little forethought.

A wise and sensitive response to the widespread and growing public anxiety about this sale would attest to the strength of our democratic system and serve to enhance the unwritten compact between parliament and people that has allowed this country to work so very well.

Our warrant for this appeal is that we are all so very fortunate as to have been born into, or welcomed by, this wonderful place we call home.

Lyn Allison, Peter Andren, Jeff Angel, J.D. Anthony, Faith Bandler, Ian Barker, Paul Barratt, Andrew Bartlett, John Bell, Jonathan Biggins, Cate Blanchett, Alison Broinowski, Richard Broinowski, Geraldine Brooks, Julian Burnside, Andrew Buttfield, John Button, Mick Dodson, Marcus Einfeld, Bob Ellicott, Bob Ellis, Bernie Fraser, Malcolm Fraser, Ian Frazer, Vin Good, John Hatton, Bill Hayden, Donald Hazelwood, Craig Ingram, Richard Leplastrier, Ian Lowe, Peter Macdonald, Ted Mack, Siobhan McHugh, David Malouf, Robert Manne, Alistair Mant, John Menadue, Jack Mundey, Glenn Murcutt, Les Murray, Douglas I. Nicholas, Gordon J. Samuels, Russell Savage, Peter Sculthorpe, Rachel Siewert, Lady Southey, Paul Stephenson, Natasha Stott Despoja, Sheila Swain, Henri Szeps, Max Talbot, Tom Uren, Richard Wallace, Bob Wilson, Tony Windsor.

Newington College: Agreement On Staffing

Newington College has agreed not to declare senior staff positions vacant at the end of the year and will continue to negotiate collective arrangements covering the salary and conditions of teaching staff, the Independent Education Union announced today.

Under the agreement, most staff will remain in their current positions and any changes to areas of responsibility and remuneration resulting from the restructure will be appropriately compensated, with all salaries maintained.

IEU General Secretary Dick Shearman said the College would continue to negotiate collective arrangements covering the salary and conditions of teaching staff at the expiry of the current state award.

"This is an essential feature of this agreement in the current industrial climate," he said.

This maintains the previous arrangement rather than the school's initial proposal to introduce up to four weeks compulsory attendance.

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