Comments on: Could WorkChoices affect the 2007 election?

By: vxudhy mxgzdarpv

vxudhy mxgzdarpv — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:52:11 +0000

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By: Jacques Chester

Jacques Chester — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 03:46:43 +0000

Australia’s water supplies are vast - you just need to put your people in the subtropical north.

By: Club Troppo » Wednesday’s Missing Link

Club Troppo » Wednesday’s Missing Link — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:03:16 +0000

[...] Andrew Norton thinks it’s overrated (see here, here and here).

By: Duanne

Duanne — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 07:54:52 +0000

Well said gypsy. Perhaps not entirely political correct, but I can see and understand where you are coming from.
Bringing workers from overseas are to be skilled people to boost areas where those skills are lacking, it is not for unskilled people to take aussie workers jobs or basic rights.
Water is of the greatest concern and the biggest crisis for all australians.
Federal and State governments by their actions, or should I say lack of action, betray the voters and citizens of australia.
Until the the water storages throughout the country are returned to healthy levels, Immigration should be ceased immediately.

By: gypsy

gypsy — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 07:24:45 +0000

There are a lot of issues, some for and some against the IR laws and work choice agreements.
Firstly work choice agreements benefit a minority of workers, not the majority.
The current IR laws will only create more divisions between the haves and have nots.
We keep being told that since the new IR laws came into affect there has been a vast improvement in unemployment statistics. Could this be due to lower wages for most, enabling businesses to hire more employees.
Single parents are being forced to return to work.
Bringing in workers from overseas also creates competition forcing Australian workers to lose basic benefits if they dont want to lose their job to a foriegn workers prepared to work longer hours for less money.
Australia, although a large Country does not have the water to sustain bringing more people into the country.
Imports by far exceed our exports.
Australias foriegn debts are increasing at an alarming rate.
I believe John Howard knew what he was doing when he was voted in, giving total power in both the upper and lower houses, this enabled his government to change or create laws to suit Globul corporate business.
Firstly he went about disarming the people
Introduced Anti terrorist laws, giving unprecedented powers to ASIO, Federal and State Police forces. If I recall correctly Adolph Hitler did the same. Perhaps John Howard has studdied and adopted policies from mein kampth.
Introduced his IR laws, which when all said and done hurts the mojority of workers.
I could go on further but feel it is pointless as the vast mojority of the people will never hear or understand it.
As for voting on elections, people usually follow one of the main parties and in most cases will vote the same way regardless if they are hurt in the long run. I am in the catorgree of being a swinging voter. On deciding my vote I take into account a number of things, issues, whats best for Australia and our people, then whats best for me.
Governments are voted into power by swinging voters. Unless there are some drastic changers for the better the liberal coalition party will not be getting my vote at the upcoming Federal elections later this year

By: Andrew Elder

Andrew Elder — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 02:06:54 +0000

I notice that the polling tends to be fairly high-level. See the list of marginal seats in this document: what percentages are concerned about WorkChoices in those seats to the extent where it will change their votes?

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of WorkChoices, there are broadly two types of employment arrangement: the generic and the particular. People who are valued by their employer will be able to negotiate an arrangement specific to them with additional benefits not available to others, while those with few specialised skills to offer and/or an employer which only requires generic attributes will be covered by generic attributes.

Over the past twenty years there has been a recognition that the generic model provided by the award system was inadequate. The need for a balance came with the “two-tiered” system of the mid-late 1980s, and various models have been attempted since to balance the generic and the particular. Gillard is surely playing to Labor’s base by signalling that generic conditions, and the perception of job security that came with it, can be revived by a future Labor government (surely she can’t be so silly as to believe it).

WorkChoices is too weak on the generic and too complex in the particular. We live in an age of “mass customisation” in producing goods and services, yet this seems impossible for (or beyond the imaginative capacities of) those who shape workplace regulations.

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:07:09 +0000

Andrew,

Could I suggest another option?

For me personally, it’s a vote for the least of the various evils. In my experience, over the last 10 years or so, the union movement has not been anything but a pain in the butt (from a professional perspective), so voting for the Labor party (given that they are essentially the union movements political arm) is not an option. Given that a government of either the Greens, Democrats or independants (or any combination thereof) should be avoided at all costs, that really only leaves the Coalition.

While I think they’ve had their time, there really isn’t another choice.

By: Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 21:16:00 +0000

Leopold - Thanks for pointing out that error - the 18% was the ‘lot worse off’ figure, with 33% overall saying they would be worse off. 14% say they will be better off, and 48% say ‘neither’. This question was asked of workers only.

By: Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:13:35 +0000

Leopold - I’m not sure; I was using my post from yesterday, for which I was working from the Newspoll tables, not the article. I could have made a transcription error (or only recorded the ‘very bad’ figure), so I have taken down the mention of 18% pending checking tomorrow. I don’t have the print version of yesterday’s paper with me. It’s not critical to the post, though it was the context of Fred’s comment.

By: Andrew Norton

Andrew Norton — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:01:12 +0000

True, terrorism does not affect many people. I guess it is its catastrophic nature that captures the imagination. The worst that can happen under WorkChoices is much less terrifying.