Senate Passes I.R. Laws

[Matilda]

Just through on the ABC, as of 6.38 pm tonight.

"The Government rammed through the bill, gagging debate."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1522588.htm


It passed with 35 ayes, 33 noes. I'm not sure if Sen. Fielding
crossed the floor or not, as by my count, the ALP, Dems, and Greens
have 36, and the Libs and Nats 39, with one Family First, so it
looks as though not everybody was there for the vote.

Thanks Barnaby. Hope you get tossed out on your little pink ear
next time around.

Welcome to the Brave New World.

[gemini_liberal]

1. As I have said before

Barnaby Joyce isn't a hero, just somebody who wants attention.

Any National can basically be silenced by giving excessive amounts of pork (funds, not the flesh of a pig) to the rural areas and put a few bigoted laws through. Remember: members of this party are extreme conservatives; they are not your allies!

[foreigncorrespondent]

2. Nice to see...

...Coward showing his Christmas spirit. </sarcasm>

[no safe haven]

3. At the moment Beazley and Gillard

....are promising to rip up the IR legislation when they get into office. But can they? Will they? Labor/Greens/Democrats need a majority in the Senate, and unless that happens, we’re stuck with it, it will never be overturned. Like we're stuck with GST.

And will Beazley, if elected, indeed rip this up? It’s two years away and the IR changes will have been in full swing for two years. Will it be possible, given the deep levels of associated administrative change? How can you go back to state-run IRCs after they have been disbanded and replaced by a federal department?

Or are Beazley and Gillard just mouthing off, promising to ‘maintain the rage’ for another two years as a platform for a possible Labor win in 2007?

Once again – or still - my hopes lie with Sharan Burrow and Greg Combet to come up with a campaign of industrial action, a bold-face defiance of the IR legislation. Perhaps even a High Court challenge.

Thoughts?

[foreigncorrespondent]

4. Well it really is too early to tell.

We need to sit and wait and see what those on the left propose for changes once they get into power.

Personally, I feel their ideas will be more suited to the every day worker, which will make it a welcome site in two years time, from the shit we have had to put up with, thanks to Coward and his band of thugs.

[no safe haven]

6. You’re probably right

It will have to be a wait-and-see proposition - how badly off will workers be, and what’s needed to bring back equity into the workplace. I tend to believe the multinationals will embrace these IR laws to the letter, particularly in regards to conditions and awards. Outfits like James Hardie, Rio Tinto and many many more.

I had heard of a meat processing plant in north Qld that was hiring newly skilled workers from overseas (Brazil) as part of its expansion and letting go the old union workforce. It’s the perfect example of what we’ll be experiencing in the years to come. If you want a reference, I can to go searching for it. It’s somewhere.

This legislation goes hand in hand with the new immigration laws to bring in skilled migrants, the revamping of apprenticeships (namely, apprentices get lower rates and have to pay for their own TAFE courses), and the ultimate destruction of unions.

It’s going to take years and years to come back from this godawful nightmare ho-Ward has created.

[Matilda]

5. I think Labor will have to do something pretty drastic,

because this is not just about virtually destroying the trade union
movement, but with it a major source of Labor Party funds.
Corporations never give to Labor as much as they give to the
Coalition parties, so where will their funding come from?

I think this is why Beazley is making such a firm stand on this
issue - he has no choice.

[no safe haven]

7. Excellent point

I hadn’t thought about that aspect of it. Of course it makes sense. In a way, it makes me feel a bit better – even though Beazley has bought into the corporatist world to some extent, he nonetheless needs the $$ from organised labour to remain in the game. Money always wins out in the end. Good. Hope he works hard for his party’s money.

[Matilda]

8. I suspect that is Howard's end game.

To destroy Labor as a viable party. Maybe I'm giving him too much
credit, but I'd put nothing past him.

[Matilda]

9. I just learned today that employers won't even have to pay weekly

or even fortnightly any more.

In fact, in theory they could pay you once every six months. Or
a year. There will be no regulations in place, and nothing workers
can do about it. So if a company is a bit shaky they could tell
their staff they'll be paid at the end of three months - and at
the end of that time say sorry, there's no money, tough luck. Or
put the wages on to the short-term money market, and keep the profit.
There'll be nothing to stop them.

And while Barnaby Joyce is crowing that he "saved Christmas" - a
worker can't be sacked for refusing to work Christmas Day - in fact,
he could be sacked a week later for no reason. And if he does
work, he won't necessarily be paid a penalty rate. It would be
up to the workers to stick together and refuse to work without a
penalty payment - but that's now illegal and they could all be sued.

The more I learn about these laws, the worse they get.

[foreigncorrespondent]

10. As I said a while ago...

...watch the bread lines grow!!!

If they allow companies to not pay their workers, then how on earth do they expect their workers to survive months without pay? How do we pay our bills, feed our families?

I can just see the rise in people claiming hardship through centrelink over the coming months. This is going to bite the Coward on the ass big time.

[Matilda]

11. It's really hard to understand why Howard wants to punish the workers.

Because that's what he's doing - and the rest of the Liberal toadies,
how do they justify this sort of thing, even to themselves? Even
the few backbenchers who made a bit of a show of standing up to
Howard, in the end their preselection was more important, and none
had the guts to cross the floor.

And it won't be Centrelink paying out - that's going to be hard as
well. It'll be the charities who'll have to try to make up the
shortfall.

[no safe haven]

12. Back to the days of the 'deserving poor'

Cap in hand, so to speak, begging for any scraps thrown our way. That'll teach people to be poor and unemployed and/or disabled. :sarcasm:

I think Coward's great vision for this country came from watching Oliver just once too often (not the musical).

[Matilda]

13. I read something last week about Howard that said some people believed

that his father was a member of the New Guard. Nobody knows
for sure, and if Howard knows, he's not saying, but it might go a
long way to explaining his thinking.

They were out and out fascists, with total loyalty to the British
Monarch as a major credo, together with an absolute hatred of the
trade unions - apparently there used to be street battles between
unionists and New Guard.

So maybe Johnny isn't a relic of the fifties after all, but a relic
of the thirties. No doubt if he'd been old enough to fight in
the Spanish Civil War, he'd have fought for Franco.