The official IR reform thread! (1 Viewer)

[Generator]

Sacked men in IR ads

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We will abolish AWAs: Beazley

Labor's position on the matter is now clear.

 

[littlewing69]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Hahahha... federal Labor government. You guys crack me up.

 

[Silver Persian]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Im not exactly up to date on this whole IR thing, but if I were a labour leader I would be keeping AWA's and putting more restrictions on them, rather than abolishing them...but I suppose that's not such a snappy policy line, is it?

 

[Tom Ruprecht]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Labor would be more effective under the leadership of someone like Kevin Rudd.

Although personally, I have a fondness for Julia Gillard.

 

[_dhj_]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Labor would be more effective under the leadership of someone like Kevin Rudd.

Although personally, I have a fondness for Julia Gillard.

Rudd has no leadership qualities.

Gillard has some ability but I don't think the Australia is ready for her.

 

[Iron]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Hmm. Mmmm.
Fucking Unions.

 

[MissSavage29]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Rudd has no leadership qualities.

Gillard has some ability but I don't think the Australia is ready for her.

its such a shame that i really really like Gillard - shes smart and proven that she will not back down from some of the more dominant personalities in government.

unfortuinly i think it will be some time before the labour party are ready to put up a leader who actually has a chance of going well - and then yeah its a matter of convicing Australia that she's good enough

 

[turtleface]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Rudd has no leadership qualities.

Gillard has some ability but I don't think the Australia is ready for her.

I'll say one thing about Rudd, and thats that he can speak chinese better than half the asians I know. The other day he was on chinese television and he was just full on in discussion on foreign policy with all these asian hardcores, and it almost seemed as if his voice was dubbed over because it was that good. Amazing lol...100% fluent


Edit:
RE: below post, sorry man lol!

 

[Generator]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

That the above exchange is taking place within this thread is my fault, but if you would all like to continue with it, could you please take it to this thread?

 

[littlewing69]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

I'll say one thing about Rudd, and thats that he can speak chinese better than half the asians I know. The other day he was on chinese television and he was just full on in discussion on foreign policy with all these asian hardcores, and it almost seemed as if his voice was dubbed over because it was that good. Amazing lol...100% fluent

Speaking fluent Mandarin is quite an intellectual feat for whitey. I'm impressed. The same goes for Engrish for Asians, of course.

 

[banco55]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

I'll say one thing about Rudd, and thats that he can speak chinese better than half the asians I know. The other day he was on chinese television and he was just full on in discussion on foreign policy with all these asian hardcores, and it almost seemed as if his voice was dubbed over because it was that good. Amazing lol...100% fluent


Edit:
RE: below post, sorry man lol!

He was one of the top china hands for DFAT so not surprising.

 

[Rafy]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Beazley bombs at economics
Matthew Stevens
June 13, 2006

TO understand why business despairs of its relationship with federal Labor, just ponder Kim Beazley's commitment to scrap individual agreements and restore the primacy of unions in the Australian workplace.

Beazley's political investment in de-innovating workplace reform by scrapping Australian Workplace Agreements represents another shattering blow in the alternative government's attempts to rebuild its credibility as an economic manager.

[...]
Back in 2004, when former Labor leader Mark Latham was in his prime and was threatening to reinflate the allowable matters for award negotiations, research by Access Economic found that the decade of workplace reforms, which culminated with the rise of the individual agreements, had directly generated 315,000 jobs.

The removal of the AWAs from the pool of options, which includes awards, collective agreements and common law contracts, will reduce our national competitiveness by numbing the capacity to change work practices.

And it sends a signal that Labor has its eyes fixed on the rear vision mirror and not on the workplace challenges ahead. [...]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19453788-601,00.html

Editorial: Beazley's backflip
The Labor leader's populist move on AWAs is poor policy...

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19450175-601,00.html

Labor risks all
Beazley's backflip on AWAs will undermine the ALP's quest to be seen as economically responsible[...]
KIM Beazley's flight to populism continues. He has taken a bold gamble with his decision to ban Australian Workplace Agreements if Labor wins office.

The decision will bolster his leadership in the short term and strengthens Labor's attempts to differentiate its policy arsenal from the Government's. [...] But it will undermine Labor's quest to be seen as economically responsible, dedicated to keeping interest rates low and the economy ticking over nicely.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19449298-601,00.html

Beazley backs wrong horse
Peter Switzer
June 13, 2006

LABOR has pulled off a trifecta of anti-small business plays in the past week, culminating in Kim Beazley promising to kill Australian Workplace Agreements.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19451418-601,00.html

IR move a risk for Labor
Brad Norington
June 13, 2006

DEPENDING how he handles it, Kim Beazley's decision to make industrial relations a centrepiece of Labor's election strategy could be the making or breaking of his last run at becoming prime minister.

It will give him the momentum he has wanted for months to build a strong support base with voters by establishing clear differentiation between Labor and John Howard's Coalition.

Alternatively, the firm stand Beazley has taken - by promising unequivocally to scrap Howard's individual workplace agreements - will turn out to be an aberration.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19453516-601,00.html

..

 

[Generator]

Re: Labor: 'We will abolish AWAs'

Kevin Andrews was on ABC Radio earlier today trying to 'defend' the reforms. I'll post the link later today (Edit: Beazley promises to axe AWAs and Beazley has 'caved in' to unions over AWAs: Kevin Andrews), but for now I'll leave you with the following (in addition to the links posted Rafy) -


Beazley claims party support over AWA pledge
Beazley's jobs vow secures his own
Unions get ready for next stage of battle
Pay docked for attending safety meeting
Economic jury still out on workplace agreements
Flexibility, protection possible, says Labor
A hard hat for a hard job

 

[Generator]

AWAs erode job conditions: Fed Opposition
Do AWAs boost productivity?

Pollies polish AWA arguments

 

[Generator]

It's good to see that the Aus is on the ball this time, but it's a shame that the paper is usually quiet whenever criticism of the Coalition's IR reform agenda is running hot...

Beazley to risk pay cuts
Unions demand the return of old laws
'Disaster' to scrap AWAs
East to west, private contracts are best

Beazley stands by workplace pledge
Spotlight exposed issue for leader

 

[Rafy]

Workplace pledge puts ALP under fire from big business
Phillip Coorey Political Correspondent
June 15, 2006

LABOR'S election pledge to restore relations with the big end of town was looking tattered yesterday as it engaged in a slanging match with a peak business organisation and received an angry letter from another...

SMH

.

 

[Generator]

Labor's Spotlight stunt exposed

Labor's Spotlight stunt exposed
Ewin Hannan
June 17, 2006
LABOR'S vocal claim that a worker at the centre of the celebrated 2c-an-hour Spotlight dispute would have been $90 a week worse off under an individual contract has been debunked by a prominent union official.

As Spotlight caved in and agreed to allow the worker to take unpaid leave and return on award conditions, union leader Joe de Bruyn said "people had taken a lot of liberties with the facts" during the dispute and there was "no way (the worker) would be losing $90 a week".

Coffs Harbour-based Annette Harris became a cause celebre for opponents of the Work Choices laws after the Melbourne-based textiles company, with outlets around the country, demanded -- in return for allowing her to take unpaid leave not available under her award -- that she resign and return to work on a contract.

The contract changed her employment status from part-time to casual and increased the minimum hourly award rate by 2c to $14.30 for all hours worked, removing penalty rates and other entitlements including shift loadings, rest breaks and annual leave loadings.

The Howard Government endorsed the deal but Labor leader Kim Beazley said it was Spotlight's move that prompted his pledge to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements if the ALP won government.

On May 26, Mr Beazley told Sydney's 2GB that he was in Sydney to campaign against the Spotlight AWA, in which "an ordinary worker on very low pay loses $90 a week".

"I am going out now to a Spotlight store and stand out in front of it and say they ought not to do, with their AWA, what it is they are doing to Annette Harris in Coffs Harbour. This is very bad news for Australian workers. (In a) normal working week she stands to lose $90 a week. A $10 tax cut doesn't cover that."

Opposition spokesman for industrial relations Stephen Smith and media outlets reported that Ms Harris would have lost about $90 a week.

But Mr de Bruyn, the national secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, said that while Ms Harris would have been worse off under the contract, the union had never claimed she would have lost $90 a week.

"People have taken a lot of liberties with the facts that have been thrown around, but we have certainly never said that," he told The Weekend Australian.

He said the union provided an analysis of the Spotlight agreement to Mr Smith, that showed the $90 loss only applied to full-time workers employed across five days, including penalty shifts on Saturday and Sunday.

"The Wednesday-to-Sunday worker comes out the worst because the person is full-time and getting penalty rates on Saturday and Sunday," he said.

"(Ms Harris) was only a part-timer. There is no way she would be losing $90 a week. It would have to be a very extreme position for her to be in.

"But there was no argument that she was losing money and the 2c per hour extra did not in any way compensate her for her loss of earnings and a range of conditions, including loss of a paid tea break."

Patrick McKendry, executive director of the National Retail Association, said Spotlight had told him that most of the shifts worked by Ms Harris in the past seven weeks did not attract penalty rates.

"The idea that she would lose $90 just doesn't stack because she just doesn't work the hours that would entitle her to those penalty payments," he said.

"It was a terrific story, it was an opportunity to beat up the proposition she was offered an AWA. They took the worst case scenario, but it didn't apply to this particular employee."

The dispute arose after Ms Harris, who has worked at the company's Coffs Harbour store for two years, applied to take unpaid leave together with four weeks' paid holiday.

Spotlight agreed, but only if she resigned and returned to work on a contract.

As well as losing a raft of entitlements, her employment status would have changed from part-time to casual.

Ms Harris, who used to be a longtime Liberal voter, refused, later attacking the Prime Minister and describing the workplace laws as "scary".

In the wake of the damaging publicity, Spotlight dropped the plan.

Mr de Bruyn said the company had subsequently agreed Ms Harris could take the unpaid leave and return as a part-time employee under her previous award conditions.

"John Howard has been trying to defend what the company is doing, but the company has actually caved in to us, agreed it wasn't fair and restored her to where she was previously," he said.

Mr de Bruyn said Ms Harris, who could not be contacted last night, was holidaying in outback Queensland.

That that particulr particule example has been exposed as a gross exaggeration doesn't change the fact that the figures and the possibility of such a wage loss still stand.

Risky Business
Wayne Swan: A lot of pain, no gain

Labor onside with workers: Beazley - more on the ALP's position.
Abattoir backs down

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AWAs must go, Beazley says

The PM was also, for a time, discussing the issue on the Sunday programme. I'll post the link some time soon - edit: http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/political_transcripts/article_2009.asp

 

[Generator]

Workers lose $27 a week

 

[gerhard]

only labor could fuck up an oppertunity this bad

 

[Generator]

only labor could fuck up an oppertunity this bad

How so?

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The Bulletin: Obfuscating on thin ice