I have an article published in the latest issue of New Matilda on the broader implications for governance of the Barbara Bennett ads affair.
Spin-driven and symbolic politics are nothing new, writes Mark Bahnisch, but Barbara Bennett’s smiling endorsement of the Government’s workplace relations policies has taken public relations and campaigning tactics to a new playing field — the public service.
Please consider supporting New Matilda through a subscription - you can take out a free trial sub here. In the blogosphere, we’re in the habit of decrying the quality of political and social commentary in the newspapers, and taking aim at MSM op/edders, but independent online media such as Crikey and New Matilda often don’t get the support they deserve for actually providing a space for alternative news, analysis and commentary.
Yeah, I read that article and the solidarity link within.
You provide a valuable public information service with that article.
Well done.
When do we get to politicise someting worthwile, like the US alliance or the ADF?
Thanks, hannah, much appreciated!
Great article Mark. I have a piece from 2001 on the spin-doctoring in legislative titles, and how that was a sign of the erosion of the public service value of telling-it-like-it-is. Frankensteinian monstrosities like ‘WorkChoices’ are the apogee (’ComCare’ is another one - when I gave a Senate lecture on government advertising, I asked if anyone really believed ComCare was more caring than the old workers’ comp boards).
But Rudd is set to continue this: ‘Fair Work Australia’ is cringeworthy as a replacement for the AIRC. The Beattie govt has mastered it too.
Much of this can be traced to the US (of course). But also to home grown innovators like Sir Joh. Remember ‘Queensland Unlimited’ on t.v. (channel 10?) a paid for promo which featured different Ministers and beaches each week. Singapore may have been Joh’s model…
Interesting, Graeme! I’m aware of the US stuff, but I’d forgotten about that aspect of Joh’s practice.
Funnily enough, I realised today I actually know Barbara Bennett, or at least I knew her back when she was a student at ANU in the early 1980s. She’s married to a PR consultant who formerly worked for Hill & Knowlton, image consultants to tobacco and arms companies throughout the world and famously the inventors of the humidicrib atrocity stories told about Iraq during the first US-Iraq war. All rather sad, really - she was a charming young woman back then.
Slap me around and call me Susan.
I just thought I’d share that.
Just another Howard spin-doctor.
Sure hope, for her sake, that the New Matilda article is right about that golden parachute.
I reckon she’s not gonna last longer than about 30 minutes after the new Government is sworn in. She’ll be gone before Gillard’s downed the second glass of plonk.
Quite aside from the fact it’s dismantling a fundamental principle of the Westminster system, the use of a senior and pretty bland and uncharismatic bureaucrat in a very politically loaded ad doesn’t strike meas the best way to sell the “We’re from the Government and we’re here to help you with more regulations” message. And one that by most accounts is massively backfiring too.
Never mind alll the other issues - if the Coalition’s dumb enough to approve that campaign, then they’re too dumb to govern.
Sometimes some people get some things so exactly right -
I’m not talking about BB’s spruiking of WC’s but rather the Matilda commenter who pointed out her startling resemblence, beyond simple generic Blonde Bombshellness, to
MASH’s Hotlips Houlihan.
He she is at work: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/89/Margaret_Houlihan.jpg/200px-Margaret_Houlihan.jpg
Babs will now always be Margaret to me, and to you too I suspect.
That makes Jolly Green Joe Frank Burns, how fitting.
Treat yourself to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Burns for some great lines.
Thanks, Hal 9000. Many will thank you for the time you took putting that together and sharing it about.
One supposes they are stuck with Elizabeth Bennet or whatever her face is, since the alternative is being paraded before the public again for ripping off another young worker.
I guess my own epiphany came just seconds ago whilst reading that tabula rasa of a newspaper as to content, the Adelaide Advertiser.
Here much was being made of Dr Haneef, much it rehashing of old smears.
The one thing they did not include was the small incident reported in the “Age” concerning Judge Spender’s query as to whether a simcard could expire and if so, when. Seems Haneef’s lent to his second cousin, expired mid-2006.
Dead for twelve months before any gas cylinders going phut any where!
Only possible conclusion to draw would be to beleive Andrews correct in the end as to “character test”.
After all, only a silly nig nog would be silly enough to think you could detonate a “terrist” thingy using a long- dud sim?
The other thing that occurs this late last night is the realisation that all bets are off. The opposition will only survive if there is sufficient public resistance to that fear campaign the Tories will let loose concerning W…….s and the economy. The worst is yet to come…
Well, in this day and age I’m not sure about the ins and outs of bureaucrats spruiking for the government, but I think Danny has it exactly right - BB is Hotlips.
The campaign has all the earmarks of something that’s been flung together at short notice, and Bennett is not the person you want as your spokes to convince people that the Law That Dare Not Speak Its Name is actually just a warm fuzzy teddy-bear aching to cover people in lerve.
She comes across as a weird anal-retentive.
God knows what prompted her to think that taking on this role would be such a great career move.
Barbara Benntett’s career is, of course, nothing like Alma Rosé’s career.
Poor Alma had no no real choice about whether or not she should accept the gig.
(However, oddly, both Alma and Barbara were in the business of lulling the wood ducks into a false sense of security.)
We have a new lexicon, No longer Gorden Bennett, it’s now Barbara Bennett.
It doesn’t have the same ring, I wonder if she votes Labor?
There is a hint of Kiwi in her accent.Is it possible that this is the root cause of her folly? Doesn’t really want to call Australia home but wants to use the place as a source of income until it is time to retire.
but rather the Matilda commenter who pointed out her startling resemblence, beyond simple generic Blonde Bombshellness, to
MASH’s Hotlips Houlihan
yes, let’s get hung up on talking about her appearance like every other prominent woman in the country… Not that I support Bennett in any way, but, get over it.
The convention of Public Service anonymity is key to the concept of ministerial responsibility. The role of the public servant has always been a conduit to explain and implement legislation, not defend it which is up to the minister. The ads featuring Ms Bennett slip over the line. It also puts a face on the legislation, hers – not his. Now many of us have a knee jerk reaction to her supposedly caring appearance when it pops up on the screen and that cleverly disassociates the reaction from when we see Joe Hockey.
This move is one away from political neutrality and back to the old days of political patronage.
(wow I feel like I’m doing my political science degree all over again!)
She is being interviewed by Peter Mares on Radio National’s THE NATIONAL INTEREST program this Sunday at midday.
Thanks for the heads up.
And I agree with Helen - we can do without a focus on her appearance, thanks, folks.
Howard and His crooks have politicized everything he can lay his hands on,we will regret electing this man for a very long time
I didn’t read it that way, Mark. It was more a comment on her attitude.
Fair enough, Christine.
I think her appearance is important, in this case. The government spin doctors have obviously chosen a relatively young, blonde, attractive woman with a soothing (read the subliminal, universal tory motto: “trust us, we’ll take care of you”) voice. Does anyone doubt her looks weren’t the primary reson for going with her? It’s insulting, sexist political propaganda, and it will gain them tens of thousands of votes, from the type of people who get all their political information from commercials, and there are many.
I don’t think so, Brett, because those very same people have aready been convinced by the message in the ACTU commercials.
‘zactly CK, I would have thought the sign on the desk of the linked photo, and the overt injunction to go beyond sgbb’ness, were uber-clues … it’s about servility cf service, as in public.
In hindsight, one prolly would have to be familiar with Margaret/Frank dynamic for that to have been obvious. Apols to M&H, and any others, for offending sensibilities. Same goes to those who have yet to have a go at me for using the colour Green in vain as well.
Speaking of Frank/Joe, and by way of attempted expiation, enclosed please find (for your possible side splitting), the definitive collection of Frank lines, very Marxist.
http://tvsothertenpercent.tripod.com/mash/frank.html
Some are sight gags, you’ll have to be able to picture the scene for these type to be funny or you can try it yourself sometime, they work a treat for me:
“Trapper: Hi, Frank. Frank: That doesn’t scare me a bit”.
Is this hole deep enough yet?
That was kinda my point, Mark. A soothing, attractive motherly voice saying, “Don’t listen to the nasty people in those other ads. Close your eyes, don’t ask any questions and we’ll take care of you.” It may come down to who can afford the most ads, and since we are paying for the Bennett version, my money, quite literally, is on her, unfortunately.
The “soothing, motherly” bit is indeed pertinent.
Slightly off topic, but maybe not completely, I was interested to read this morning that Jane Halton, the public servant behind the Children Overboard debacle, is also behind the Mersey hospital takeover.
*Face goes red*, now I see there’s already a new thread up mentioning that (”It’s all happening in Tasmania”). Oh the bewildering speed of the intertubes.
outspoken female
You need to move into the mutlimedia 21st century. Babs appearance is but another “text,” that subverts the patriarchal neoliberal neocolonial neoconservative fundamentalist privileging of the printed word over the spoken word and visual performativity of the post-modern bureaucrat.
I think you will find that aporia reflects another insidious campaign of ‘Othering’ and thus we see this as challenging the space traditionally controlled by the cultural imperialists who control the printed text. Bennett is contesting the gender economy of radioactive space inan attempt to redirect the de-privileging of audio-visual space.
I hope this helps.
It’ the ‘Lawah!’
For satire to work, it has to be funny.
JG, with all the respect that’s due to you, you’re only unintentionally so.
Well actually, no. It did, however provide some amusement, and I’m sure that there’s a teacher of English out there who could use your post as an example of how not to communicate.
You know… it seems a kinda dumb career move to advertise against the guys who are more than likely gonna be your next employers.
I think that was the point, adrian. JG thinks he’s scoring points off of teh evil postmodernists.
Adam Gall/Kim
OMG! It seems you have also been brainwahsed by the neoconservative poststructuralist Backlash! The most important issue in this election is the insidious re-valorisation of printed text at the expense of the visual. Can’t you see how this is inextricably linked with the gestapo tactics in the Northern Territory. It is OBVIOUS that these aboriginal communities are post-print!! In their embrace of audio-visual textual strategies, Howard’s authoritarianism wins!
Namoi Wolf alerted us all to this alarming reactionary strategy of dragging us back to the pre-visual dark ages in order to undo all the gains of feminism. Can’t you people see this even in this thread? Ms. Bennett is reduced to a sub-par text as she has been constructed within a subversive audio-visual discourse! By attacking her corporeality the reactionaries are thus mounting a counter-revolution!
It just saddens me so, that so few see this. If we are to achieve our main goal, which of course is sick-pay for casual CultiStudies tutors, Babs Bennett MUST win. The trope of “independent public service” rather than acknowledging the obvious aporia is packaged and transmitted as a misogynist meme through vectors containg orthogonal subspaces of post 9/11 Islamophobic recourses to discourse!
A random po/mo essay generator could do better than that. Give it a rest, JG. This thread isn’t about you and your obsessions but about Barbara Bennett and the implications of the pr-isation of the public service.
I don’t know, I was quite enjoying the above. Minus five points for reusing ‘aporia’ though on the second try. A cut-and-paste error, I suppose.
By the way, has anyone actually tried mounting a counter-revolution? Surely you have to stop it and put it on a kickstand so that you can get on?
(By the way, try out the Random Adjective Noun combiner for some real late-80s book title generation). Just add colon and subtitle.
Liam
Repeating the a priori point about aporia, indeed aporiAE, is vital if we are to help Kim and Adam see what the real issues here are.
Nice Liam.
Mine has now been tagged “One of the pricipal aims of Imperial Britain”
Ask Bob Denard: four successful counter-revolutions* in the one country.
Mounting isn’t the problem; it’s staying on that’s the bitch, as in so many activities.
*including one counter-counter-revolution - reinstalling a bloke he’d previously deposed.
This is kinda fun. Who knows which is the most CultiStudi uni going? I might enrole. What a hoot!
I saw a movie like that. Wasn’t pretty.
Nope. Agree with Brett.
It is a sort of immanently reassuring yet “control-reassurance for brain-challenged Hansonist mortgage belters, Brady Bunch/Shirley Jones den-mother alpha female soporific. “New W………s”, yummmm, like a vegamite shit chocolate sandwich”.
Yukkk!
Absolutely agree with Mark that the blonde bit is constructed as a barbecue stopper to transmit the disease through public fixation.
And all the “transgressional/outrageous” stuff from Dr Haneef and hospitals through to using a Sitcom bureaucrat for W………s lies is cold blooded premeditated and probably originates with Crosby Textor as tactically redirecting an cold spotlight spotlight and robbing ALP of comfort space.
Heh. Was it an asterisk, anthony?
WTF? The last 10 comments sound like someone’s been passing around the Bong again.
Might have been Asterix and the Aquaduct of Colonix, Liam. But most likely a Dario Anrgento.
Anyhoo…
I’m quite liking the likability escalation in the IR wars. I thought Joe Hockey was supposed to be the cuddly one in all this.
(and Argento of course)
I’d have expected it to be one of those indescribable Japanese comics, anthony, having seen a few of their covers. Not that I’d know what was inside—or want to find out.
Best to stay well clear of tentacle pron Comrade Heartfoundationtix.
The obvious solution is for the new government to enact legislation first up banning ex-pollies and ex-pubes from taking jobs in certain specified areas. THEN sack her…
Can’t not talk about her appearance!
(1) she is appearing every bloody time i turn on the telly!
(2) the ads are all about image and she’s headlining them because of her feisty visage.
I find the ads very aggressive and she comes across as a school marm with a ruler under the table. I assume that is the intention: Shrek Hockey playing the rhetoric, and PC Bennett the no-nonsense workplace inspector.
Speakinbg of Liberal Party ElectionGovt Information Ads, I’ve notice tonight there has been an increase in the TError Hotline ads, along with those Gap Year ads.Is Howard getting desperate or what ?
Haven’t seen Betty Bollocks in any of tonights broadcast propaganda.
The ads are still there and she still does the voice overs to the slapped-down post-it notes, but it seems they’ve decided to remove that magnificent visage from our screens.
Pity. You can’t truly have the bollocks without The Bollocks.
The debate would be elevated somewhat if folks quit the tawdry misogyny of attacking Babs’ appearance. Could even one of you address the substance of the announcements?
If Bennett looked like Amanda Vanstone/Sharan Burrow, with the kind of grating voice they both have, she’d be accused of being maternal.
She is gonna get pawned in a few months times…
You’ve undermined your own case by referring to her as Babs, johnny boy
Have you seen any Babs ads lately
has she been quitely put aside ?
Andrew E
Huh?
Mark
Your entire New Matilda piece is nothing more than cheap and sexist ad feminam speculations. First of all, the Public Service Commissioner found there is nothing wrong with her appearing in the TV announcement. Secondly, if she is allowed to write piecs on the Workplace Authority website, why is there a problem in her communicating through a more accessible medium, in this instance television? After all, how many workers with poor English or low levels of education are going to go to the website? And thirdly, Australians have been subject to histrionic, scare-mongering ads by the ACTU, AEU, and the ALP. The public does deserve to be presented with some balance and fact, rather than hyperbole and melodrama. Not only deserve, but has a right to.
In what way is it sexist, pray tell?
Let the Liberal Party pay for them, then, and make a political case without hiding behind the pretence that it’s a public service information campaign.
“I reckon she’s not gonna last longer than about 30 minutes after the new Government is sworn in.”
I imagine her letter of resignation will be drafted at home during the campaign and will be on the Minister’s desk first thing Monday morning in the event that the ALP win… (After a hard Sunday of shredding.)
Mark
Your own words:
Why not the professional attire of a lawyer or school principal or, er, er, a highly successful senior public servant for the past 25 years?
Presumably? Perhaps she also traded hers away, and perhaps countless thousands of Australians will chose NOT to trade theirs away. Either way, a total ad feminam red-herring.
Of course it “easy to imagaine.” Why? Because senior talented public service leaders are always being poached by the private sector.
This is the case with every single government that has existed since the dawn of time. Just to reassure yourself of this, I invite you to check on the post-political careers on the pre-Howard poillies from the Hawke and Keating years.
WTF??? Mark, newsflash. Mandarins exist to implement government policy, not their own, or their constituency of luvvies.
Once more pure ad feminam with a double hypocritical pike. Since when have you started quoting the “Government Gazette” as an authority on anything, especially anodyne character assessments?
And yet you have no trouble with such a replacement in your own salvos.
So, she’s just a TV star, is she? No more than a weathergirl I suppose?
Truly reprehensible. And I am appalled that the LP feminazis have let you get away with it. One more into the hypocrisy.
Actually, JG, Damien Murphy’s words are his and mine are mine. I know it does get confusing with the cut and paste sometimes…
As confusing as someone accusing you for being sexist while liberally using the word feminazi.
But they decidedly don’t exist to implement political campaigns. That is the question: Are these ads a neutral presentation of government policy, or are they substantially a political campaign?
That is a straw argument, you have inserted the “just” and the “no more than” and invented (projected?) the “weathergirl” comparison.
It is questionable whether “TV stardom” is an appropriate part of a senior public servant’s role. That question is independent of whatever other qualifications that person may have in their role as a senior public servant.
Mark
Actually, you quoted Damien’s words in agreement. So do you stand by these remarks and agree the entire article was nothing more tha cheap and sexist ad feminam speculations?
dj
There iws nothing “sexist” about the word “feminazi.”
No, but there’s maybe a bit of irony in your use of it given your recent conversion to feminism.
Mark
Oh please. I am no recent convert to “feminism.”
Mark
I really am curious how you can justify your attitude in this article?
I should think not. One must understand something before one can convert to it.
Pavlov’s Cat
I would wager I would be somewhat more clued in than you.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Why is this tedious person tolerated?
Laura
Do you spend your entire life in a bubble where your thinking is never questioned?
Poor old mini-J. Your knees must be getting awlfully tired from all that jerking.
Look, you may or may not like or agree with every post and comment here, and I certainly do or do not either, but at least the majority try to go beyond mindless and completely unoriginal abuse like “feminazi” or “HoWARd” when arguing their point. You could take a cue or two from the likes of Razor or BBB (or even SATP sometimes, and not even always during a year with Halley’s Comet in it) who come on here to enjoy arguing points contrary to the prevailing attitudes but with a willingness to engage and the ability to display thought and knowledge beyond just reflex power point style insults.
Like your namesake mini-J, it’s increasingly apparent you’re only here to try and feel better about yourself by abusing people you’d never do so in person and boasting about your great throbbing cranium.
We all enjoy a good “gotcha” moment from time to time but there’s far more to a balanced online diet than just that. Especially when your “gotchas’ are just cheap knockoffs of what was cheap junk food to begin with.
C’mon, it’s clear you’re not entirely unread or an utterly barren ground for humour. Chill. Relax and goof off on some of the lighter threads. Surprise, inform and entertain us with your sleeping habits.
All pique and no play makes J. a dull boy.
Nabakov
I am hardly “abusing” anybody. I am engaging with folks on their own terms. If you think there is something psychologically demented about challenging Mark’s article on Barbara Bennet then you do have some things to work through. And you are off your rocker if you think I would not, and do not, do exactly the same in other face-to-face situations.
For goodness sake, this is a political blog with people taking pot shots at others 24/7. Why has not even ONE of you commented on Mark’s article? Given the bile your little clique will dish out to Babs Bennett, Janet Albrechtsen, Ali, etc. you are hardly ones to be throwing stones, now.
John,
as Nabakov just eloquently stated, your comments are not only mean spirited and obviously intended to be offensive, they are also boring, vain, predictable, and usually so far off the mark in terms of putative content that they contain nothing of substance other than the textual equivalent of a gob of phlegm.
Grow up.
You must find personal interactions pleasant, then.
I’ll point out what the comments policy states:
I’m not interested in discussing John Greenfield but Barbara Bennett and the issues related to her role in the tv ads, and I’d ask others to do the same.
Laura
Clearly the answer to my question is Yes.
Whatever, go back on topic or get over yourself, please.
Mark
In have been dead-on topic the entire thread. Look to others for avoidance and topic-diverting.
John, don’t bother asking me stupid questions, I won’t be answering them nor responding to you in any other way in future.
No I don’t think there’s anything psychologically demented about challenging anyone’s views here. However I do wonder about the psychological state of anyone that predominately uses cheap and nasty second-hand neologisms as a substitute for actual debate. No you’re not here and yes there are few that materialise here from the far left as well behaving the same way. But I haven’t for long while seen anyone get quite so consistently personal and content free with it as you have. At least Jack Strocchi does try to set his abuse up first with some dialectic tactics and topspin.
As I’ve discussed elsewhere (I can’t be arsed finding the Troppo Armadillo link) you can draw an interesting analogy between a well patronised blog and a well patronised pub. They both have their regulars, traditions, in-jokes and general house vibe and they both welcome newcomers who get all that while still being good value shitstirrers.
Now consider John, the two following scenerios.
Scenerio A.
You’re having a drink at your local and some new bloke turns up and soon gets into a heated debate with some of the regulars. But come closing time, it’s:
“No mate, you’re completely fucking wrong and I’ll prove it if you come back tomorrow night. Have a good night.”
“No, you’re the one that’s got it arse up. See you tomorrow night and looking forward to that proof if you can find it. Yeah, cheers.”
Scenerio B.
You’re having a drink at your local and some new bloke turns up and initially joins in some of discussions. But after he’s got he’s got a few drinks him, he starts shouting “You’re all a pack of wankers!”
“Really? Why?’
“Fucken cunts the lot of you.”
“I think you may have had enough.”
“Bloody typical, you luvvie poufters.”
Now which scenerio do think best illustrates the behaviour here of someone like Razor, BBB or yourself?
And how would you behave if you were on the big end of such a scenerio?
FXH has perceptively observed that one of the problems with comments-enabled blogs is that they are a social media yet the nature of the medium does leave itself open to many contributions by those who aren’t adequately socialised.
That is people that have never had to deal in detail and/or at length with group situations focused on common goals despite often conflicting views, like for example running a business with double digit employees, particpating in school boards or Neighbourhood Watch, managing a family or being an active and useful member of a sporting club.
Or as that great Western Philosopher, Kenny Rodgers once said:
“You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealin’s done.”
“No you’re not here”
should read
“No you’re not alone here”
Damn leather kimono sleeves catching on the keyboard.
Do you think? I liked it better the first time.
John Howard’s emotional Sera Burnheart on the naughty things damaging his W……..s if the wicked Ruddites, cynically jerked by the evil union thug meat puppet masters, get their horny-handed mits on the levers should alert all to what’s at stake.
Yes , more of the sort of codswallop dished up by bums like Coonan, Abetz and Brough lately!
Fear and loathing feed off emotionalism so there is little doubt that, at the broader level the Grunfeldt ‘contrarians’ would love nothing better than to raise the hackles of intelligent people in order for the victim hood/entitlement subliminals to have the right medium in which to thrive.
But the Hansonists get first exposure because they watch free-to-air and read tabloids.
You’re not helping my “The Education of John Greenfield” moment here, paul walter.
But at least you haven’t personally abused your current or potential interlocuters here without cause. I suppose it’s a start for all concerned.
Nabakov, thanks for the kiddie-porn, loved the movie too. Or identical sibling was “other”( bad) Nabakov ?
Vladimir, am true paragon of rectitude when it comes to sticking to the issues and beaut bloke generally.
So, Greenfield’s responses are generated of a mother or (worse) blonde fixation? Can the writer add praises for timely interspersion of Rogers’ aphorism?
For subject suggest copious doses of castor oil and emetics in concert with long freezing showers, during hangover phase.
No, won’t releive subject of fixation but will be a good buzz for rest of folk involved.
People deserve consolation for reading that gov have spent 170 mil on sydney conference , on top of 190 mil for porn filters,40 mill to persecute Haneef near- billions for drawn out aborigine lobotomization/genocide and near-billions more for ads, inc Elizabeth Bennett.( Howard recast as bumbling Bennett senior, whither Bishop sisters? ). Joe Hockey’s celluloid D’arcy turned out a ripper-off of gulled juvenile labour, but we won’t mention unspeakable W……….s during prime time.
All of this to run the economy into such strife as to induce interest rates rises, for which only the indubitably profligate states could be remotely and exclusively held responsible ?
Devilish cunning, these socialists…
This has been the most entertaining thread, for which I must thank Nabakov and paul walter, and indirectly, John Greenfield.
A bit off topic, which seems to be a common intent here, but I don’t think I have seen the English language tortured as much since I went to Uni.
I remember long nights sitting with a dictionary and thesaurus trying to make some sort of sense out of convoluted Academic Texts.
If I have to read too many threads along these lines, I might have to rumble around in the boxes down stairs and dig them out again.
Barbara Bennett is a nice lady, she was my former CEO at her former job. But she has broken the APS values that are espoused within the public service of being apolitical. Will she face a reprimand, reduced pay, a fine, or termination? Or once a person gets to a higher level within the Public Service the APS values no longer apply? Everyone should be treated equally.
Regarding my last post, did Barbara get paid for acting in those ads or was it a favour for Joe???
OOps i forgot to ask, has the Govt now taken on the role of the business unions, supposedly protecting the rights of the employee but in fact protecting the employer at taxpayers expense? We can’t have happy workers, they must give up AL SL and PH for less than $2 an hour more! If you dont sign then is no offer of a job. What employer would have an employee who won’t toe the line on conditions. Every employer who willingly sacks or does not employ a person due to not signing (does this go to the workplace authority as an agreement has not been signed?)should be shamed on a new website. Someone out there has the knowledge on how to so this.