WorkChoices

Gillard’s attack on Abbott’s great big new tax, and his gender fail

Larvatus Prodeo - July 26, 2010 - 10:29am

Bernard Keane picked something interesting out of last night’s debate (yes, it is possible – see previous LP discussion here and here):

Watch for Labor to ramp up its attack on the Liberals’ paid parental leave tax. Gillard’s most effective line last night was to talk about that tax driving up grocery prices. Labor will set out to “great big new tax” Abbott, but connect it directly to the issue both sides acknowledge as a key one.

It’s quite a neat play – and allows the PM to appeal to small business at the same time (and small business owners dissatisfied with the Fair Work Act might, bizarrely, be inclined to vote against the Coalition who say they won’t change it rather than its author). Read more »

WorkChoices Lives On in Fair Work Act

The Angle - July 22, 2010 - 9:32am

Nielsen, Workchoices and the Rudd Effect

Pollytics - July 24, 2010 - 2:45pm

Nielsen comes in today via the Fairfax broadsheets with the primaries running 42 (up 3)/ 41 (down 1) to Labor, washing out into a two party preferred of 54/46 the same way – a 2 point gain to Labor since July 8-10 when the last Nielsen was taken. The Greens are down 1 to 12 while the broad Others are down 1 to 5. This comes from a sample of 1400, giving us an MoE that maxes out around the 2.6% mark.

Looking closer at the vote estimates, taking them to a decimal point and breaking down into geography and gender, we get:

WorkChoices – it’s alive!

en Passant - July 19, 2010 - 9:23pm

WorkChoices is dead, buried, cremated.

Tony Abbott, leader of the Opposition, trying to inter a policy which destroyed the previous Coalition Government.

It isn’t. Labor’s Fair Work Act retains most of the worst elements of WorkChoices. While some call it WorkChoices Lite Labor’s industrial laws are, apart from some changes, WorkChoices disguised.

Here are some of the similarities.

WorkChoices outlawed what is called “pattern bargaining”. This is just spreading good agreements (real wage increases and better conditions for example) from one enterprise to others throughout the industry, backed up by industrial action if needed.

Labor’s version of WorkChoices too bans this type of bargaining. It does this because enterprise bargaining necessarily weakens workers ability to win better pay and conditions as compared to wider bargaining. In other words Labor kept Howard’s ban so bosses can screw workers more. Read more »