Two dustbins barely enough to contain WorkChoices™

There was no doubting that on a good day, the former leader of the ALP, Kim Beazley, could produce a stirring speech.

Kevin Rudd has recycled one of Kim’s gems regarding the WorkChoices legislation announcing that he will,

“Consign these laws to the dustbin of history. If you vote for a Labor government, we will get rid of them (the new workplace laws) forever and for good,” – Kevin Rudd

Kevin’s previously ‘soft’ stance on WorkChoices legislation is believed to have been changed by recent studies reporting that,

“Women and casual and part-time workers on AWAs get, on average, up to $4 an hour less than workers on collective agreements.” – Source.

A Queensland study of 300 upper to middle managers, 88% felt there should be protection against unfair dismissal. It is interesting to consider whether these managers are protecting their own jobs or those of their subordinates. I would suggest it’s a bit of both.

Professor David Peetz is an academic, whose industrial relations research is certainly worth considering, except of course unless you are everybody’s simple uncle J Ho. Thankfully, Kevin Rudd is a considerably more astute politician than the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations.

I am not convinced that two dustbins are enough to contain the refuse that is WorkChoices legislation. I could certainly hear the phrase “consign these (WorkChoices) laws to the dustbin of history” again and again before this year’s election.

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7 Responses to “Two dustbins barely enough to contain WorkChoices™”

  1. Dave C Says:

    Reading that transcript of J Ho, it occurred to me that a lot of argument is hidden behind the ambiguity of the term “job”.

    There are “jobs” which are support life – one’s with fair conditions, and respect for the people who carry them out. And there are “jobs” which don’t. There the one’s which drain your blood and exploit you senseless.

    The unfortunate thing is, when J Ho says work choices creates more “jobs” you don’t whether it’s the former or the latter kind. You hope it’s the former, but my guess is that it’s the latter.

    I’m guessing that the arguments needs a third concept thrown in there, to help clear things up. For example, making the government refer to “worth-while jobs” or “jobs worth having” would help a lot.

    Other than that, I think we should put the Work Choices legislation in the recycle bin of history. Turn it into something useful, like kitty litter or toilet paper.

  2. Graham Bell Says:

    Suki:
    There’s a bit of a problem. Where are you going to get the dustbins?

    Can’t make them …. our manufacturing industries have been rust-belted …. even if we could make them, WorkChoices and other airy-fairy schemes have sent real productivity into a dive so you are going to have to queue up for dustbins like everyone else …… you could try importing them but those damned foreigners insist on getting paid and paid increasingly well…… as their standard of living skyrockets while ours plumments, those dustbins are getting more and more unaffordable.

    Of course, the cheapest option is to pretend we still have WorkChoices but tell everyone very quietly to use any system that actually works. It would save having to hunt for dustbins, wouldn’t it? šŸ™‚

  3. Graham Bell Says:

    [p.s. sorry I haven’t popped in for several days]

  4. Colours Says:

    Having in recent days assisted a friend who has no idea what AWAs or enterprise agreements etc are, for her new job, I was appalled at the amount of reading that goes into an AWA. I mean, I knew an AWA can contain a lot of reading (and boring reading at that, too), but it was brought home to me, when my friend, who left school in Year 9 and has no idea of legal rights or terminology, struggled to make sense of it all. I realised very vividly, then, that thousands of Australians and migrants from NESB must be struggling to make sense of the mumbo jumbo when confronted with an AWA (let alone not being told they have a “choice” between an AWA or other agreement).

    WorkChoices? NoChoices. The adage is true.

  5. Suki Says:

    Welcome back Graham.

    OR, we could get all those Sole Parents and Disability Support Pensioners away from their beanbags and their daytime TV and into the skill-shortage, struggling plastic factories up and down this this great brown land.

    Plastic of course being the most eco-friendly product this government could invest in. šŸ˜‰

  6. weezil Says:

    The only choice to make is whether to vote Green and pref Labor or just vote Labor. SerfChoices has got to go.

  7. Graham Bell Says:

    Colours:
    Hello again.

    Wonder whatever happened to the 19th Century? It seems to have been careless misplaced. Never mind, it only had all that stuff about child labour, slavery and exploitation; workplace safety, controlled working hours and dependable pay …. and if you are running a grossly profitable business, you don’t want any of those sorts of restrictions, do you?

    You are absolutely right about the manifest injustice in AWAs.

    Australia needed industrial relations reform for the 21st Century, not a return to the 18th Century with all its freebies and handouts to a lazy, squandering and incompetent aristocracy ….

    Weezil:
    Like your SerfChoices!

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