THE DONKEY VOTE

With all the hoo hah about the interest rates, everyone has forgotten about the IR Debate which is on today in Canberra.

Industrial Relations is certainly the #1 issue of concern to me above all else.

Labor has faired very well in all the debates to date and I’m confident Julia Gillard will not let us down. The Coalition have targeted her as our weakest link for the last 12 months and haven’t cracked her yet, even under all the pressure and scrutiny they place her under.

I’m sure Joe Hockey will trot out the “If Work Choices changes I’ll resign” card. But as Sheldon said it is easy to say that when you are facing being removed from government.

I don’t believe anything the government says, especially after we went to the 2004 election and the Coalition didn’t tell us about their sweeping IR reform, they snuck it in the back door and forced it on us. That act and the contents of the legislation itself repulses me and evapourated any time or trust I actually had for the Coalition.

I really hate WorkChoices and I personally know at least seven people who have been negatively effected by it. They are all working in the non skilled, semi skilled work industry and in some cases have part time jobs with multiple employers. And they are losing out on conditions and wages but their multiple employers are also starting to over step the mark and step on the toes of the person’s other work committments.

This is fucked. I haven’t said that word on the blog before, but WorkChoices is fucked.

I’ve had a gutful of hearing about how much our employment is growing, how much of it is real jobs? Real security? Full time jobs are plummeting and the job species known as permanent part time seems to be extinct.

The overwhelming amount of jobs advertised are pure rubbish.

Temporary work with labour force companies, or as I love to call them parasites or slave traders.

Doesn’t anyone have an internal H.R officier or department anymore?

Everyone loves to say how every one is under pressure financially and first home buyers can’t get into the market. Well how are they supposed to when most of the work on offer is garbage and unstable. How are people supposed to have quality of life or plan a life when they are either casuals, on call or have a damn AWA hanging over their head.

Then you have people on as temp casuals withslave tra….labor hire and the company won’t put them on internal books for years and even when they do they are still casuals, even though they have been working full time hours on a regular roster.

What happened to old school employment, careers. That’s like an enriching relationship, the employment situation these days is like a cheap hooker.

I’m disappointed with the ACTU. I expected a ground swell of grass roots campaigning hitting it’s stride right about now gaining so much momentium by Nov 24 it would be like a bush fire.

But there are no nationwide grassroots campaigns and no mass rallies.

Why was it okay to have rallies two years ago when we couldn’t get anything done about it but not now when we can boot the bastards out of office and install a government that will abolish WorkChoices and put a fair system in place?

I also think the ACTU should have done a YouTube campaign where ordinary people make videos about their own or their friends AWAs that are putting them at disadvantage. I certainly could have made a good handful, of course the ACTU could sign off on the video when they also see a copy of the AWA.

I will certainly be glued to the tele to watch the IR Debate and I am hoping we can land some big blows on the Coalition. Julia needs to not only deal with facts and policy but also the human side and be passionate about it. Attack WorkChoices for stabbing the Australian spirit in the heart….or the way it was done, IN THE BACK!

I’m sorry for using harsh language before, I try to avoid it. But it so well articulates how I feel about WorkChoices. And I think Labor politicans have to tread the fine line between business and workers. It would be nice to see the occasional shadow minister wind up with moral outrage and anger over it.

We also need I.R to be at the forefront of the campaign, it isn’t an also ran issue. It needs to be at the heart of the labor campaign and passionately propelled.

And what about the outrageous situation where John Howard is refusing to publically release research into the impact of WorkChoices, dismissing any need for further research or knowledge of anything but basic statistical indicators. What an outrage.

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Nice to see the Sydney Morning Herald stole my awesome headline from yesterday.

But I had it first!

The rate that stops a nation in its tracks

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