Pile-up in Western Sydney
This morning as I was driving to work I heard HoWARd say (in reference to the Paris riots) that he saw a direct correlation between highly regulated labour markets and high unemployment.
"We see the domestic misery of the French people at the present time, and, unlike the Labor Party, I am not going to blame the riots in Paris on the industrial relations system that France has – but I do point out that one of the reasons for a feeling of alienation and disadvantage is the persistence of high levels of unemployment in this country against a background of other European countries with less regulated labour markets that have experienced much lower levels of unemployment."
As I swerved back into my lane I waited for the second half of the analysis. I waited and waited, but no mention from HoWARd of the endemic racism, police violence and the policy of the French political establishment towards the rioters who are first and second generation French nationals predominantly from the North African and African immigrant community. Ok. Let’s follow HoWARd’s thinking on this. IR reform and the WorkChoices package is going to solve unemployment rates for Australia’s alienated and disadvantaged. How? Not by stripping worker’s rights.
As usual HoWARd gives us fear.
His message is if Australia doesn’t embrace his IR bill we’ll have riots in our cities. Australia does not have a large former African or North African group of residents so he can’t be referring to them. The United Kingdom and New Zealand comprise the largest group of New Australians, but I don’t think that he’s referring to them either. I think he is referring to Australians born here to parents whose first language isn’t white.
You know your leader is lying when he has to pile up such a wobbly stack of tenuously related data and play the race fear card.
Image from here
November 10th, 2005 at 11:49 pm
Oh Suki, you don’t think he’d engage in actual analysis do you?
November 11th, 2005 at 5:08 am
I weep for the state of our nation, our political system and mostly for myself.
How did we end up with such a horrible mess of lies, betrayals, racism and intimidation? Was it the 2 party system? Was it the media and the sound byte journalism? Was it the corporatisation of the nation? Are we drowning in the externalities of greed and avarice?
Is it us – that humans possess some deep imperfection or self hatred which drives us to destroy ourselves?
I don’t know.
November 11th, 2005 at 8:16 pm
David, Lord Acton said, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This is why we are a nation of laws. The rule of law theoretically protects us from the whims of the government of the day. Howard is getting away with rolling back civil rights protections against arbitrary and baseless detention which have taken hundreds of years to wrest from the whim of governments or monarchs.
The least we can do is not be fooled. Suki & I will call a spade a spade, but I don’t so much see a spade of a police-state happening in Australia as a backhoe. It’s time to be alarmed.
November 15th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
I don’t how good a driver you are mate, but Howard’s statement is spot on. There IS a direct correlation between highly regulated labour markets and high unemployment.
A quick sample.
Denmark: Regulation: Low Unemployment: Low
France: Regulation: High Unemployment: High
Australia: Regulation: Low Unemployment: Low
USA: Regulation: Low Unemployment: Low
Germany: Regulation: High Unemployment: High
I could go on and on. Please don’t let your ideology blind you from the obvious reality.
November 15th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Gary, there is also a correlation between drinking milk as a child and ending up a heroin addict. What’s your point in relation to my post?
November 15th, 2005 at 2:09 pm
Gary, does Westpac mind you pushing your ideology by commenting blogs on company time with their I/T equipment- or is that what they pay you for?
I am unsurprised that a banker will love Howard’s IR destruction. Business’ labor costs will drop like a rock when an employee costs about the same in Sydney as in Shanghai. It’s a BBQ stopper for the rest of us though, Mr Moneybags.
November 15th, 2005 at 9:45 pm
Sad, sad & very sad. *sigh* David perhaps you & I could share a box of tissues. Wouldn’t it be nice if our Prime Minister acted in the future interests of the whole nation?
Have a look also at what is happening with welfare reform. People on welfare will have little choice in future – take the low paid job or lose your benefit. And of course, Howard will claim he has lowered the unemployment rate again!
Time to join a union again me thinks….
November 17th, 2005 at 7:52 am
I love weezils reply to The Banker (hissssssssss), but in the banker’s defence I must say that he was only taking a break from sending letters to people like me who have not had a job in 8 years, asking me if I want a Platinum credit card upgrade and a HIGHER credit limit.
To HoWARd’s credit, he is clever enough to blame race riots on industry and fool the non-thinking listeners. I cannot stand radio – the morons I have heard on it make me want to open a vein when I realise they VOTE!