Anyone care to read the details of the US/Aust Free Trade Agreement?
Now note the irony of accepting Cuban refugees. Not many, but the symbolism of Florida sweat shops and working for nothing in order to “be free in a democracy” shouldn’t be lost. Swimming to work would be the last straw – but some might just do it to make an example of us lazy Aussies.

Now Mr Sheen is meeting with Rupert to ensure the fascist punditry is at least tempered in it’s acceptance of the coming Rudd (Howard Lite) regime of resolving Iraq, on our side of the ocean at least, and fine tuning the corporate-driven IR laws.
The only rollback is on the principles Labor once stood for. Even the baldy ostrich with a sore foot Midnight Oiler has been co-opted.
I feel giddy at the prospect of voting for more of the same – but at least the current little turd won’t be carping at me every time the news comes on.
Viva la Revolucion!

I must say from a less objective point of view Labor is walking a very fine line with their attitude that they will get ‘left’ preferences automatically – the temptation to donkey vote to teach them a lesson about not turning into British New Labor is growing. The dismay of the left (and I would think, the right in terms of the hardcore union-types) has received little to no attention in the coverage of this announcement.

I prefer to get a handle of the big picture for now, reflected in feature serial writings on my blog, namely ‘The Wet Economic Six Pack’.

Yes, that’s the term ‘wet’ as once used in the context of wet versus dry economic debate in the 1970s during Malcom Fraser’s time (which you can learn about by listening to last week’s Hindsight program on ABC Radio).

I wish to use the same term in a new, modern context because I dispute the idea that conservative economics (what I label ‘dry’) should be allowed to go unchallenged.

Consider what’s written by Scott Prasser in this morning’s edition of The Australian:

“Australia is on a one-way street of more deregulation, market-based reforms, greater global integration and less welfarism. The only issue is the pace of change, not the destination.

Notwithstanding its wailing about Howard’s “market fundamentalism”, Labor has no real alternatives.”

Yet some things do not change with time. With or without traditional ideological foundations, political parties still have to “position” themselves against opponents.

Consider Ed’s claim in yesterday’s Oz which suggests:

“Without its union affiliations, Labor would have to become a true social democrat party.”

This suggests a movement from “class struggle thinking” to a “rainbow coalition of thinking about society”, an outcome Labor MP Craig Emerson has warned his party against.

The right “positioning” for Labor falls in between the two extremes – a concept I call “personal development as the destination and relationship-building as the means of getting there”.

This should be the heart of the matter for a new “wet economics”:

“Management of Environment and Systems”.

Management of Environment (you find your relationships “out there” in the macro and micro environments) and Systems (developing a response to the forces in your environment).

It’s also “Management of…” because it is a problem-solving process on a personal level.

It should be noted that I’m using the language of “project management” as a substitute to the language of “pure economics”.

…From Justin.

Not at all. Unions negotitate the terms of a collective agreement. Anyone, union member or not, is then free to take advantage of it. That’s how things are at the moment. Of course, management may exert pressure on members and non-members to go for AWA’s instead, but that is a totally different issue.

One of the main reasons that union membership has dropped is that non-members are legally required to have access to the pay and perks of the collective agreement (i.e, are encouraged to freeload). As collective agreements expire and are replaced by emasculated travesties, and the relative nastiness of AWA’s becomes more widely experienced, people may take a more active interest in membership again, to fight to regain what they have allowed to slip away. The additional counselling/financial/legal/social services provided by unions are evidently not enough in themselves to make membership attractive, unfortunately.

It’s nonsensical.

Fair day’s work, fair day’s pay. Weekend work, weekend pay. Crazy, I know.