Work Choices Blamed For Everything

Anyone else noticing how the work choices industrial relations reforms are getting blamed for everything relating to jobs? Even if it is irrelevant in their case. Talk about trying to score political points. Here are two case studies from this week alone:

1. Chilli’s Restaurants – staff have been underpaid for a significant amount of time, which amounts to a sizable chunk of cash. This didn’t surprise me, as I know someone who works there and I thought her wages sounded low for her age. State MP John Della Bosca proclaimed this incident as a sign that Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA’s) don’t work. But hang on a minute, all it shows is that one employer has been unscrupulous in it’s dealings with staff, and now that it has been brought to the attention of the workplace ombudsmen the matter is being dealt with.
2. McArthur Express – the trucking company in Seven Hills went into voluntary administration and employees are understandably furious, as they are still owed $1.5 million in unpaid superannuation. But for some reason they are expecting the Federal Govt to bail them out despite McArthur Express being a private company. A Transport Workers Union (TWU) official stated on radio that Industrial Relations Minister, Joe Hockey, should come out of his “North Sydney office” so that he can see how “workchoices is affecting the people.” But hang one for another minute, workchoices has nothing to do with companies going under. What holds more relevance are the dodgy business practices that have become apparent during the administrators investigations.

They will be blaming Work choices for climate change next.

Voting On Character Not Policies

It was put to me in my previous post that I should be judging my Prime Ministerial candidate on policies and not his personality, his record and not his indiscretions. Maybe we all should.

So then, have a look at Howard’s record and his policies. The biggest controversy seems to be about industrial relations. The Business Coalition, which includes organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce, is a supporter of the workplace reforms. The Unions however are dead against it. But without businesses big and small we wouldn’t have employment. It’s not about exploiting workers for all they have, rather it is about managing staff and keeping those who best suit your business without having to worry about the rigmarole that used to be involved in letting an employee go.

This week John Howard said he would not complete his full term if elected. So what’s the big deal about that? A vote for Howard is a vote for Costello the Labor Party will bleat. So again, what’s the problem? look at his policies and look at his record. He brought this country out of amazing debt and turned it into a surplus. But I guess that doesn’t count for much these days. If you were to ask an average Joe on the street what they think about Peter Costello I bet they will say words to the effect of, “I don’t like him.” Ask why don’t they like him and what’s the chance that they actually have a legitimate reason. If they do have a response they are probably likely to spurt out, “I just don’t like him,” as if we were back in primary school and that passes as a response.

A lot of people think that with that announcement from John Howard that he has handed The Labor Party victory on a platter. How so if we are looking at policy?

Websites to check out:

• Kevin 07
• Federal Liberal Party
• Australian Government
• Same Old Labor
• Business Coalition for Workplace Reform

The Self Interviewer

Everyone will get a chance to see this in action. Next time Kevin Rudd is in an interview look out for him asking himself some questions. Of course he has all the answers to these questions, as he doesn’t tend to challenge himself with his questioning. Usually yes/no questions that are meant to clarify his position on issues put to him by the media.

He's so good at it that here is an 'interview' conducted on the 7.30 Report. Sure it's edited but you still see how he asks himself so many questions. Kerry O'Brien is in there somewhere.



Apparently he is avoiding being interviewed by broadcasters Alan Jones and Ray Hadley. Who needs them when you can ask your own questioning? However, if you can’t hack some hard questions from broadcasters then I how well does he expect he will cope in the top job. The polls might suggest that everyone likes him but situations can change very quickly.

Think of how much John Howard had copped over the last few years. The polls were once high for him as well.

Happy APEC Day

Like a lot of people I got the day off. So lets join in thanks to Presidents Bush and Putin amongst other national leaders for coming to our fair city. For without them this public holiday would not be possible.

The city has become like a deserted town so that all the chin wagging can be done with a minimum of fuss. If only the protesters could take the day off. I’m not sure they even know what they are protesting against sometimes.

Instead of being crammed onto morning trains heading to the city, residents are crammed onto the F3 to get out of the city and to make the most of the long weekend. Apparently business is up by 30% in some areas in comparison to the same time last year.

Regardless of the negative effects people are whinging about it was good to have another day off.

The Facebook Revolution

Where did this come from? Facebook has swept into my life, and the lives of many others, where other social network websites have failed (eg Bebo).

I don’t even remember how I got started now. I think it was through a friend who emailed me the suggestion that I join facebook. All of a sudden I’m finding friends and friends are finding me, I’m hooked.

Within weeks I’ve somehow gathered nearly 70 friends from a variety of backgrounds (eg school, church, footy).

For a little while I was addicted to searching for friends in other’s friend lists. It became a maze of friends of friends of friends of friends. I’ve largely forgotten who I’ve asked to be my friend and have a decision pending. I’ve weened off that practice though and have moved on to checking out some of the fun applications they have as part of your profile. There are so many applications, thousands in fact. Some seem ridiculous while other seem like they might be good. Unfortunately you can't really tell until you give it a go.