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kryptonite...

kryptonite

A reluctant Tony Abbott has pledged, after Peter Reith's assault on his reticence to talk about industrial relations reform, that the opposition will take a ''strong and effective'' policy to the election. Abbott's office swore he wasn't saying anything new. Other participants in the debate - from Reith to the ACTU scaremongers - saw his comment on Tuesday as a significant development.

The reality is that the IR issue is on Abbott's plate and it will become very hot. He must take control of it, or it will badly burn the Coalition.

But doing so will be tricky. The opposition will have to define carefully the extent and nature of the changes it will propose, and stare down the inevitable ''back to WorkChoices'' accusations from the government.

That campaign would have come anyway, even if Abbott tried to insist in 2013, as he did last year, that he would make no alterations in his first term. Not that a do-nothing stance was ever going to be practical - Abbott simply could not have a blank page on IR in his policy book again.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/abbott-has-his-work-cut-out-on-ir-reform-20110630-1gsum.html#ixzz1QpdIpJxt
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Gus: me still thinks there was a conspiracy to lay groundwork to make us swallow the concept that Tony is a moderate man in terms of industrial relations... (He isn't). For example the fact that Tony asked Peter Reith to stand for the Liberal (conservative) presidency — I am still amazed they don't have a king to take the job over and turn this into a royalty — and that Peter was "very upset" that Tony voted against him and Tony's vote was made public, plus the fact that Peter Reith admits to still being a good friend of Tony are just a few of several indicators of conspiracy...

Tony's other achilles heel...

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has criticised Australian economists for supporting a carbon tax and a market-based emissions trading scheme as planned by the Federal Government.

But high-profile economist Saul Eslake has hit back, saying Mr Abbott's problem is that he cannot find an Australian economist who will support his "direct action" policy.

Speaking at a conference in Melbourne, Mr Abbott urged economists to "think again", saying they should go beyond the "allure of market-based mechanisms".

Mr Abbott cited Danish academic Bjorn Lomberg who, he said, had assembled a panel of international economists who do not think market-based mechanisms "are the way to go".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/01/3258962.htm?section=justin

 

Gus: quoting from Bjorn Lomborg is like using an office elastic band to propel a ten tonnes truck. Lomborg lives in pixie-land and has little traction except in his own mind... See http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/5212...

FairWorkChoices...????...

It seems that Reith is trying to carve out a space on the right of Tony Abbott on industrial relations. Abbott was a staunch supporter of the Liberal government's WorkChoices legislation, but the electoral defeat of the Liberal government sent a shock wave through even the right of the party.

Many Liberal parliamentarians do not want another costly debate over industrial relations. In any case, the Rudd and Gillard governments have only knocked the worst edges off WorkChoices in their equally euphemistically titled FairWork Act.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2779370.html

 

 

yep, peter, send in the dogs...

From Peter Reith, the master of public relation in industrial dispute

 

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However one dispute, whether Qantas or the waterfront, can be very important by demonstrating how recent legislation like the Fair Work Act can impact on behaviour more generally in Australian workplaces.

On Saturday night, in a special hearing before Fair Work Australia, Qantas acquiesced in termination of the Qantas dispute apparently on the grounds that arbitration is a better option. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been saying that a mere suspension of industrial action by both sides would advantage the union. Qantas wanted an end to the cloud of uncertainty discouraging customers from booking flights. As Fair Work Australia considered this issue, and as I wrote this column, there was no doubt that the dispute will embolden militant unions to take further industrial action. That has already happened against BHP, and recently Customs and Toyota and others have been under threat. I expect the unions could soon be ramping up their attack on the resources sector.

Then, early this morning Fair Work Australia ordered an end to all industrial action by both the airline and the unions. Qantas will be back in the air and its workers back on the ground as early as this afternoon.

As soon as I heard premiers Baillieu and O'Farrell calling for government intervention, I had the awful thought that Australia could soon be on the rocky road back to arbitration. Later that Saturday morning, I noted that Professor Judith Sloan had blogged a similar view. I shuddered when I realised that senior Liberals including Tony Abbott were publicly encouraging PM Gillard to intervene and thus take the first steps to compulsory arbitration. I had not realised how quickly matters would develop and by the afternoon, Qantas announced the lock out. By Sunday morning Tony Abbott was saying that the Government should use all of the powers under the Fair Work Act. The Act includes a power to arbitrate. The Coalition should be supporting Qantas but instead Abbott says he does not take sides. Hawke supported Ansett and Howard supported Patricks. Reagan opposed the air traffic controllers and Maggie Thatcher confronted the coal miners. Abbott said of the dispute that "it is not a policy problem, it is a competency problem". These comments are obviously inaccurate. Of course PM Gillard is incompetent, but Tony only said that because, as everyone knows, the Abbott Coalition no longer has a policy on industrial relations.

 

No Peter the Julia Government IS NOT INCOMPETENT and yes, Tonicchio will place his muzzle in any trough he can to eat oats...

as solid as a soggy plasterboard...

Peter Reith rabbles on...

I was on a panel with Jeff Lawrence, Secretary of the ACTU, last week to discuss industrial relations.

Jeff comes across as a genuine sort of bloke and we had a robust discussion. Even if we spent hours debating various points, Jeff would not be moved from his basic position on how the labour market should operate. But that is not to say that public discussion does not have an impact.

blah blah blah...

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What panel? Was it Q&A? Or was it "how to eliminate your granny using dogs without backlash from the police"?

The Honorable former minister Peter Reith was a big LIAR and a bloody VANDAL during the Rattus year and anything he says is CRAP, whatever paint colour he uses... His arguments are as solid as a soggy plasterboard..

heralding the return of individual floggings...

 

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten says former prime minister John Howard has inadvertently revealed the Coalition's plan to re-introduce parts of WorkChoices if it wins government.

The Financial Review has reported a speech to a Westpac forum earlier this month in which Mr Howard urged Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to return to the controversial individual employment contracts which were the key plank in the WorkChoices laws.

"I think we have to address this issue again," Mr Howard is quoted as saying.

"There is no reason why this country should not go back to the workplace system we had between 1996 and 2005, where you had individual contracts."

Mr Shorten says the former PM's comments prove the Coalition remains aligned with Mr Howard's policies.

"Mr Howard has, I think, revealed the intention of the Coalition government to sneak into power and then introduce big parts of WorkChoices," he said.

"Mr Howard is the thought leader of the Coalition. The Coalition think that the Howard years were the glory years of conservative politics, and there's no doubt in my mind that the Coalition will be seeking to introduce parts of WorkChoices."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-27/shorten-pounces-as-thought-leader-howard-backs-workchoices/4224984?WT.svl=news0

see toon at top...