Blogs

Day 14 of the Federal election campaign

The big ticket policy item has been a promise by Labor to give Australia's 2.6 million casual workers an easier pathway to full time employment. Employers, who always prefer workers to have less power, are "wary" and even "nervous". As Shorten said: "Too often, long-term casual work is used as a mechanism to pay workers less, deprive them of leave, and make them easier to sack". I guess this is what employers are wary and nervous about.

Day 13 of the election campaign and oh my goodness that #watergate issue has become quite a big deal! I present to you, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, in one of the amazing train-wreck interviews of all time.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/barnaby-joyce-respon...

Day 12 of the Federal election campaign and there was supposed to be a "true" yesterday for Easter Sunday. But guess who broke it? Well, the Prime Minister that's who, by bringing in the media entourage to see him in full glory at his fundamentalist church.

Then, when people mocked him, and his *cough* Bellamy Salute *cough* (but mostly the hypocrisy of calling oneself a Christian with his actions), he had a hissy fit. There is also the little matter of something in the Gospels.

Day 10 of the election campaign. Yes I did skip yesterday being a slow news day and all. Today the main stories relate to coal and water, and sometimes at the same time with the case of Adani, now it has been revealed that they who rejected scientific advice its groundwater modelling was "not fit for purpose". Adani have also refused to commit to corrective action if a new model showed the mine would have more extensive groundwater impacts.

The principle of the lesser of two evils is derived from Homer’s Odyssey. In the story Odysseus must sail through the Straits of Messina to get home. On either side of the straight are two monsters, Scylla, a six headed monster who chucks rocks at boats and Charybdis, a giant whirlpool.

Odysseus decides to sail past Scylla, losing six of his crew but avoiding Charybdis, who would have sucked down the ship killing everyone. The point is that Odysseus has to sail though the straight and therefore has to decide which of the two evils will cause the least harm.

Please support our new campaign in support of trade unionists in Jordan.

Last month, thousands of you sent a message to the Jordanian parliament urging members not to move forward with deeply flawed amendments to the labour law. Unfortunately, those amendments were adopted by the legislature and have been sent to King Abdullah II for his royal assent. We are now asking you to call on the King to reject this legislation and instead work with trade unions to adopt a labour law that fully respects international labour rights.

In Myanmar, hotel union leaders and members were released from prison on March 29 to an emotional welcome from family and union members after serving their full 30-day sentences. The six were arrested in December for attempting to lead a peaceful march to protest the brutal police destruction of their solidarity picket. Their release is great news, but the struggle for reinstatement and recognition of trade union rights in one of Myanmar's key tourism regions continues.

France Castro, a trade union activist from the Philippines, has been awarded the Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights 2019. She won the prize in recognition of her struggle throughout many years to organize teachers and to fight for basic workers' rights. According to the ITUC, the Philippines is among the ten worst countries in the world for workers and trade unionists.

Day 8 of the election and the LNP lose another candidate with Murray Angus, candidate for Corio, being disendorsed for breaking party rules. He had the boldness to suggesting that his Labor opponent, shadow defence spokesman Richard Marles, was a "good bloke" that unions aren't such a bad idea.

https://www.theage.com.au/federal-election-2019/liberal-party-disendorse...

On day 7 the hysterics of privilege hit. Much as been made about about Labor's plans to end a loophole in our tax system which allows for people who have paid no tax to receive a subsidy when they already have a high income. How is such a thing possible? Because under Howard and Costello the sensible system of dividend imputation (introduced by Labor in 1987 to end a "double-tax") was modified to allow for a fully franked system even when no income tax had been paid - and this includes superannuation payments for those over 60 which doesn't count as taxable income.