Australian Industrial Relations Law

Paul Hitt, Perth, Western Australia

Dear Editor

The construction and proposed implementation of the new Australian Federal Industrial Relation laws have been debated and when and if they are finally passed by the Senate will be a running sore for many years to come. Yet many people must be asking “have the employee verses the employer relationships really changed over the last 2,000 years?”

Kings, Emperors’ Dictators and others titled individuals or groups have always required slaves or workers to consolidate their power and financial base. We now live in a society in the main controlled by various forms of governments. Even though we the Australian people elect our Australian government to govern on our behalf; we cannot deny that our governments are influenced primarily by large companies or international corporations. These business bodies require large corporate profits to make their shareholders happy. Of course workers or in some cases slaves are still required to implement the decisions made by those “who must be obeyed”.

Exploitation of the people to achieve greater profits or power is nothing new. There are morally defunct extremists in all sectors of our society but these extremists are in the main counterbalanced by people with a strong moral foundation and a strong moral conscience.

As a blue collar worker I look back in wonder at the hardships that the early unionist endured. One of the defining moments in relation to the common people voicing their opinions against harsh government legislation took place on the 16th August 1819 in a St Peters Field adjoining a church in Manchester, England. The event that took place there is now known as The Peterloo Massacre. The protesters which included men and woman were ‘literally’ cut down by yeoman cavalry on the instruction of the Magistrates.
The crime committed by those people was that they were protesting against the “Corn Laws”. Many people lost their lives that day in the struggle against unjust legislation and the struggle for recognition and a fair deal still goes on today.

104 years later here in Australia we have seen the respite of sabres and the military being used by governments to quell the dissent of the working class. The Australian government now intends to use massive fines and the new proposed anti strike legislation to quell the masses.

Yours sincerely

Paul Hitt

Paul has sent us the following article from the "West Australian" dated 22/09/05 and written by Chris Johnson

"The Federal Government's proposed Industrial Legislation was stalling the work of Parliament, the opposition claimed yesterday after a weeks worth of sitting days was cancelled. In what appears to be another sign the Government has not got its act together over its new IR laws, the return of the House of Representatives was put of from October 4 to October 10. The week will be made up in the first week of November and another week will be added to the December sitting schedule for the House and the Senate.

Workplace Relations Minister Keith Andrews has repeatedly said he would table his legislation by the beginning of October and have it passed by the end of the year. He insisted yesterday he was still on track.

Government Leader of House business Tony Abbott admitted the changes were made to give MPs more time to consider the yet-to-be-seen Workplace relations Bills.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said "the Government was in contempt of the parliamentary process now that it had control of both Houses". "This is a Government in total control, out of control" he said. "This a Government that is totally contemptuous of the parliamentary process and running scared from a serious debate where they know they are doing the wrong thing by the community."

Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Stephen Smith said "Mr Andrews had come under fire from his own department for insisting that the legislation be drafted in a rush and he was now coming unstuck". "The Government has no excuse to cancel the sitting of the House of Representatives other than its inability to front up with its extreme industrial relations legislation," he said, so its arrogantly canceling a week of Parliament to avoid scrutiny on petrol, on Telstra and on industrial legislation."

Mr Smith said John Howard was desperate to get the legislation up before Christmas so he could go to the Liberal Party's Christmas celebrations and brag about getting both it and the legislation to fully privatise Telstra passed."

Note; Telstra is a communications company.

Paul’s article has reminded me of a paper I recently read at: Foreign Policy in Focus

This paper would be a good subject for further debate, (it does pose an interesting comparison of Old & New Labour). Both for those of us who have had our fill of neo liberalism and for those of us who have little understanding of economics, the opening paragraph of the paper is worthy of its inclusion below:

“(T)he ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slave of some defunct economist.” John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), p.383.

For more information regarding the changes in Australian Employment Law visit Labourstart-Australia

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