In 2004, there was a 3.2% swing against Joe Hockey who has held this middle-class lower North shore seat since 1996. It will take a massive 10 percent for ex-ABC weatherman and commercial talk radio host Mike Bailey to oust the Minister for Work Choices this time around.
North Sydney is a federation seat and its most illustrious, infamous and notable member was Billy Hughes who held the seat from 1922 – 1949. One of its most famous residents was Henry Lawson whose funeral was attended by then PM Billy Hughes and his colleague, and relative by marriage, Jack Lang the NSW Premier. In fact, the ALP actually held the state seat of North Sydney for twenty years in the forties and fifties.
But any trace of working class heritage, however, has all but gone heralded by the forced exit of the North Sydney Bears from the National Rugby League competition.
Times have changed dramatically, the population profile for Hockey’s seat these days is heavily dominated by high income couples with no kids who take advantage of its leafy lifestyle on the inner urban fringe all serviced by some of the best public transport Sydney has to offer with trains, buses and ferries all servicing the area.
North Sydney is a corporate CBD dominated by the usual array of IT, telecommunications and financial services outfits – the very epicentres of modern middle class life. In fact, MLC (now owned by NAB) in Miller Street was proudly opened by R G Menzies in the sixties only to be converted into a ‘corporate campus’ with espresso machines and funky breakout rooms 40 years later.
Today, this river of middle classdom stretches north through Hockey’s electorate to take in Crows Nest, St Leonards and Artarmon to the west and east of this river are some suburbs which reek of Sydney’s traditional WASP upper middle calss Woolwich, Hunters Hill, Castlecrag and Cremorne Point- they reek of private schools, inherited money, sensible investments and lives lived safely and sedately.
Except that many of these people feel as alienated by Howard’s embrace of the redneck view of the world as the ALP left and the greens. The republican vote was high here. The reconciliation movement got great support here and many are embittered by Iraq, children overboard – well you know the list.
I suspect the work choices legislation is also unpopular here because there are lots of parents concerned about their kids and lots of nurses but it isn’t having the impact here that it is having as an issue in western sydney and on the central coast.
The ALP’s hopes in North Sydney have not been helped by the NSW Government’s handling of the Royal North Shore Hospital fiasco over recent weeks and especially the suggestion that funding for the public hospital has been run down because people in this area are wealthy enough to pay for private care. Class warfare, what next?
Nevertheless, Mike Bailey is proving to be very popular at a grass roots level. He doesn’t have the high profile media skills of Maxine McKew but he is an enthusiastic campaigner who seems to genuinely love the process of meeting people. He has also been good at attracting high profile ALP luminaries with Julia Gillard opening his campaign office and Bob Hawke launching his campaign last week.
The local ALP is nothing if not dedicated. Bailey’s fund raising efforts are known to sell out and to pull in some much-needed cash.
I suspect Bailey will also benefit from the McKew factor in neighbouring Bennelong. This part of Australia’s electoral map is getting a lot more media and political attention than it has ever had before.
A long way to go and its an uphill task for Bailey and the ALP but they are having some real fun at Hockey’s expense a long the way.
Joe was banging on this morning about Labor politicians not knowing what it’s like to run a business and having to pay the bills blah blah and then I had a look at his website and:
then again he has bought a farm so his kids can know where food comes from.
Bernie Banton had a good go at Hockey today.
I wonder if that will have an effect, Banton is very respected in that no one can fail to understand his plight, and he’s absolutely right about the role of unions in his case.
“then again he has bought a farm so his kids can know where food comes from.”
Also very handy for making massive tax deductions.
Yes, Phil, the Unions did a power of work for victims of asbestos. No one is denying that and Shrek clearly stated there is still a safety net role for some unions in some industries today.
Once again the fact is that less than 20% of Australian workers are union members, with a significantly lower proportion in private sector at about 15%. Unions are as irrelevant as organised religion.
The fact that Gillard confirmed today that the current strike action by Victorian Nurses will be unlawful under the proposed IR regime under a Filthy Government makes one wonder why a Union supporter would vote for the ALP.
“Unions are as irrelevant as organised religion.”
Does that mean we no longer have to be bothered by Cardinal Pell, the Jensen brothers, and every oher frock wearer who wants to put in their two cents worth?
Yeah but Razor, why is Hockey highlighting the irrelevance of unions? If Howard is going to run all these ’70% of them are trade unionists’ ads, doesn’t the party line have to be: “The trade union movement is wounded, but not dead. They might look irrelevant now, but look harder. They’re just waiting for an ALP government to get in, and then… well, just you wait!” Maybe that’s what Hockey was on about, but I didn’t get that impression from some of the press reports.
BBB
Razor, the weird thing about the Govt’s approach regarding unions is they are simultaneously saying that unions will run the show and that they are dead. I think it an odd and muddled message.
It’s a muddled message that is also perfectly constructed: they are popularising a stereotype very successfully. The stereotypical is always riddled with contradictions, it is difficult to defend in the face of intellectual rigour and it needs to be constantly reasserted. For all this, the stereotypical can become very effective.
Razor wrote:
I agree. But if you’re arguing that a unionist should vote for the real Liberals instead of the fake ones, then you may wish to reconsider. The fake Liberals are still a marginally better proposition than the real ones.
It would seem to me that the problem for the Government on work choices is that even if you aren’t in a union the only thing you know about them is that they are the ones fighting work choices and exposing the iniquities of it. And people know that union negotiated enterprise agreements have better conditions and higher pay when compared with AWAs. It is the same in the mining areas of WA.So I think many people see it as a positive that there are so many people from trade unions in the opposition ranks.
The thing I do wonder aout the ALP though is why it hasn’t wheeled out Combet. He is like Mr Deeedes goes to Washington. A totally credible performer.
PS I think that the seat of North Sydney was also held for many years by a bloke called Billy Jack whose main claim to fame was that he never said anything. he was known as Silent Billy Jack and I am not sure he ever asked a question and I am not sure he even made a maiden speech or a farewell speech.
Razor, I wonder if John Howard, Peter Costello and Joe Hockey think the various extreme religion/sects they court are irrelevant – and I’d be willing to bet their membership is nowhere near equal to the total of 20 per cent of workers.
I think we all know why these religion/sect get such a favourable response from the Libs – and it can’t be to get their votes because some of them forbid members from voting, which seems inimical to the Australian values one often hears Howard, Costello and Hockey prattling on about.
When you agree with someone like Hockey that unions are irrelevant, you join him in denigrating workers who remain in unions to protect, preserve and advance their interests.
Hockey’s statement also probably antagonises an overwhelming majority of the unionists’ extended families, a lot of whom would be voters It’s not smart politics because most Australians do know that union members are decent Australians. But, from what I have seen, I don’t think anyone could ever accuse Hockey of being an astute politician.
It’s sad to see people declaring any group of Australians as irrelevant – be they unionists, shareholders or employer associations. Your view seems to be that unless unions represent only 20 per cent of workers and 15 per cent of those in private industry they, and their members, are not worth considering.
And, you mock concern about Labor not supporting the nurses betrays a lack of knowledge about industrial affairs. Union supporters know that strikes in essential services have always been subject to more restrictions and are not popular.
It’s also a mistake to accept the glib view so beloved of ultra-conservatives that union supporters want to go on strike all the time. They have always lost pay when they go out on strike.
It’s truet union membership has been in decline since the early 1970s, due to various changes in the nature of the economy, including the declining importance of manufacturing. Service industries are much harder to organise by unions.
The decline was accelerated by the amalgamation of unions into remote large organisations that lacked the community of interest that bound many union members together when the organisations were smaller.
It has been hastened by the Howard legislation that places many obstacles in the way of unions trying to negotiate for workers.
Phil – what about the nuance! Can’t you see the nuance?
I think it is a reasonable question to ask the electorate: Don’t you think it a risk to elect a Cabinet which has a 70% Union Bosses representation. (I might be wrong but I thought you had to be a Union Member to be an ALP member – and if that is the case wouldn’t 100% of the Cabinet be union members?) Isn’t it reasonable to expect that Ex-Union Officals will be biased in decision making to support unions. Unions aren’t exactly business friendly. It is business who take the financial risks, invest the capital, pay the wages (that pays taxes), pay the taxes and drive the economic growth that is required to be able to fund all the things that are expected from Government. Is the future prosperity of Australia worth risking with Union Bosses?
Well said johnl.
Razor crapping on about nuance is akin to Howard crapping on about trust. Same old, same old.
Incidentally as a member of a union, I resent Hockey’s slurs and insinuations. I am proud to be a member of the Law of Society…
Razor, to mouth the words of our PM, it’s all about a balanced sensible position, in the past we had union interference that was unbalanced just as now we have a situation where workers are by hook and crook being systematically denied their rights, we need to redress that balance, the 70% of lawyers (a great union BTW even though they aren’t called that) on the Coalition front bench have had it their way for far too long.
I had the pleasure of attending Mike Bailey’s campaign launch last Monday night. Great crowd, great speakers!
Introducing the keynote speaker Bob Hawke (and the candidate) was long-time President of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance Patricia Amphlett.
Apart from her long and determined advocacy on behalf of Vietnam Vets (she was entertaining the troops when the battle of Long Tan erupted around her), she has served on the board of the Australian War Memorial as well as working tirelessly for the rights of her members.
Joe Hockey reckons she’s a Union Thug!
He also thinks Greg Combet is a Union Thug – imagine him having the nerve to look after people suffering from asbestosis!
Isn’t it time to get rid of the Lying Rodent and his band of bullies?
What on earth is the Law of Society?
BBB
OT: What about O’Connor in Corio? Last time around, my side scored just under 6%, the Libs got 40%, and Labor got 46%.
This indicates that Gavan O’Connor’s not got a hope in hell of winning, as you’d figure he won’t pass Marles. But if the Libs run (very, very) dead, and he pips them, with good preferences he’s in. I rate his chances at about one in ten.
I would like to add some more to the analysis, that is the reaction I have picked up from many skilled up workers to Workchoice (WC). This group who standout in this seat have the most to gain from WC and it has been heartening to become aware of a significant section of this group who are emphatically opposed to this obnoxious policy. And hopefully vote for the weatherman.
I am witnessing (like the growing swing in this seat) a type of intellectual awakening, a solidarity if you like with the lower skilled, that truly wonderful aspect of our national psyche to support the underdog.
WC seems to be a catalyst for an increasing awareness of many other related issues that I would include not limited to
Education as a privilege for the rich, WC and the social conditions outlined by Comitatus [1] (the uncertain and random life which the wage- earner under WC is forced to lead – the sort of life which is certainly not enabling for fruitfully following a course of study) will lead to more lower skilled and their dependants being excluded from higher education.
Combine this with the already established trend of a system which increasingly requires students to mortgage their future.
Many skilled workers are willing to make the sacrifices for society in order to foster improvements and nourish the best and most able students who will improve it still more they know these sacrifices bring benefits to the whole of society, not just to one category of people or one class.
It seems that many skilled workers are not blind to the fact that a worker is above all a human deserving dignity and respect who should not be denied the possibility of exploring the widest realms of the spirit, by being enslaved from his earliest youth to a unfair and dictatorial industrial relations regime
(Some of this is paraphrased from Antonio Gramsci 1916 Men or machines)
SUPPORT THE WORKERS
[1] http://possumcomitatus.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/the-long-view/#comments
BBB, please forgive my innocent typo and move the word ‘of’ one word to the right.
I could say that you could have figured that out for yourself, but that would be churlish of me.
I’m a business owner and a union member and just can’t cope with the self-loathing any longer.
Come dance with me Raz, we can swing to the right and the left as we please and pick up on good times.
adrian said:
Ask and you shall receive, adrian. You’re forgiven. After all, typos happen to the best of us every now and again (they’ll be one or two in this very comment, no doubt). Now we can be doubly sure that it happens to the very worst.
johnl, I’m not sure that saying that unions are irrelevant is necessarily denigrating workers who are union members. Plenty of union members are simply mislead by their unions about what unionism can achieve. That’s not their fault.
Cheers
BBB
Razor, you have a remarkable fixation on “Bosses”, “filth”, nurses and doctors, and you’ve even likened Rudd to a dominatrix. Don’t know what you got up to in the army on Saturday nights mate, but Doms are female in the real world.
If you have a phobia, best thing is to face it. Off you go now. If you need a referral to a quality Dom, I can probably arrange something.
You are wrong. If my memory of my last ALP membership renewal form is correct, there’s a section where you’re required to declare that you’re eligible for membership of a trade union, you are, in fact, a member of the relevant union.
Since I’m not eligible for membership of any trade union, I can – and do – retain my ALP membership and remain a non-union member. And if I were working in a job where I was eligible for union membership, I’d always have the option of lying my arse off in that section of the form – simply by saying that I didn’t have any trade union coverage. But I’m unlikely to ever do that – if I had the option of trade union coverage, I’d most likely take it. Unless the union were real crap.
Thanks for the update Gummo.
Good to see the ALP is committed to it’s roots by ensuring all members have a union link. How hard would it be to require you to put a union membership number on the form for checking? And, anybody can join the Missos – that’s what they are there for – anyone not covered by another union.
There you go again!. Mate. It’s envy that’s plain for all to see. It’s not really that hard is it, for you, sweet?
I wont say what I was going to say to both BBB and Razor as I would be arrested,or I would kick their teeth down their respective throats,but I hope they never have to watch someone die from Mesotheloma,because its not a pretty sight.
My wife died of it a few yrs ago all because she breathed some dust from a fence being cut, this bunch of Bastards Howard Costello and Co did not want to know about action against Hardies,the LIBERAL Govt in Perth wanted to put a statue up to the old murderer who ran the mine so you know where the liberals interest lies.
Also having worked in the building Ind I know we would be eating in the mud and being treated like shit,if we did not have a strong union.
Fair enough, John. There’s no doubt that unions can do a lot of good.
BBB
“Plenty of union members are simply mislead by their unions about what unionism can achieve. That’s not their fault.”
And here’s me thinking the “Union Movement” was responsible for the improvement of the workers lot and went some way to stop them being exploited, by fair and benevolent employers. Silly me! All those history books that contain chapter and verse the reasons the “Union Movement ” was instrumental in the very life style that exists today, was just a load of lefty propaganda.
BBB, does that include members of business union, lawyers’ unions, doctors’ union etc etc?
You really need to refine your definitions and try to avoid blindly swallowing government propaganda.
Hey I’m also a member of a Credit Union. Does that count as well?
Yep, for most of them. The market delivering economic growth is the main engine for improving living standards and is instrumental in the very lifestyle that exists today. The “Union Movement” is only marginal and sometimes it is, with its dog in the manger mentality, very destructive. Sometimes however, as with asbestos, it does good and heroically so.
People who haven’t been in unions, like BBB and Razor, and who are so angry at them, exude a sort of existential loneliness.
They’re like geese that’ve been blown off course, snow leopards trapped in a zoo, rats relegated to sewers.
It’s the stuff of great literature, really. Telling their story.
adrian, how can you write so many words and still not have a point? It’s stunning.
BBB
And BBB, your point is?
wpd, my point is: “I’m not sure that saying that unions are irrelevant is necessarily denigrating workers who are union members. Plenty of union members are simply mislead by their unions about what unionism can achieve. That’s not their fault.”
BBB
Just answer the question BBB, there’s a good boy. And then you might just be able to figure out the point if you try hard enough.
Yes, well said (again) jinmaro.
It’s about the same percentage as those that run a business. Both sides of politics have a core membership that is in the minority.
BBB will spontaneously self-combust very shortly, folks.
Thank the goddesses for our laws of nature. The only super-power.
How goes our non-union wonderlands?
Why must I step you through everything, adrian? I’m a charitable person, but even I have my limits. The point includes any union that represents employees. Only a simpleton would bother asking whether it includes lawyers’ unions and doctors’ unions, as if these don’t sometimes purport to represent the interests of employee lawyers and doctors.
Speaking of lawyers and doctors, they’re actually the worst of the lot. Their ‘societies’ and ‘associations’ don’t advance the interests of their employee members very well, and they indulge in professional protectionism to the detriment of the citizenry at large. You say you’re in one them? For shame…
BBB
adrian, we all know that BBB, who has to s-t-r-e-t-c-h his fake name out such a long way across the page and place a bang and a bingo and a boingo in there too, emulating a kangaroo, and other creatures with oomph, has a serious problem with hardness and making his mark.
We shouldn’t guffaw too much at that, though. ‘Twould be too cruel.
BBB and Razor, after all, are a legitimate demograpic that the drug cos have targeted and are working on. Looks like the Viagra hasn’t *quite* kicked in enough and may need way more fine tuning to be comfortable for these gents.
But, heh. A bit of compassion *is* in order here, folks.
But not ‘employers’. Please expalin?
Your point being?
That’s ‘explain’.
For f*ck’s sake, wpd. Because the sentence â??Iâ??m not sure that saying that [business] unions are irrelevant is necessarily denigrating workers who are union members. Plenty of union members are simply mislead by their unions about what unionism can achieve. Thatâ??s not their fault.â?? doesn’t make much sense, does it? Next!
BBB
and what union have you ever been a member of BBB?
“The â??Union Movementâ?? is only marginal and sometimes it is, with its dog in the manger mentality, very destructive. Sometimes however, as with asbestos, it does good and heroically so.”
For your information, the “Union Movement” is only marginal at this point in time is because it has become a victim of its own success. Economic growth on it’s own does not deliver better living conditions for workers, this myth has been propagated by the bourgeois, who have thrown their lot in with the ruling class and hence their total control of the forces of economics.But of course now we only have the “Rich and the Poor”
The working class have always had to fight for the so called trickle down effect in good and bad periods of growth.The fact that people are abandoning the “Union Movement” is because up until work choices a lot of its work had been done.People do not like tax, union fees were no longer considered an insurance policy and as human nature being what it is, they left.
That some unions have gone out of their way to use your”Dog in the Manger mentality” they are usually the “Agent Provocateurs” that have infested the movement since the industrial revolution.I mean lets face it even this Blog is full of them!
Excellent effort at parroting the tired old Marxist shibbeloths. Marx, however, specifically identified the bourgeoisie as the ruling class, ie the large owners of capital. One hundred and sixty years later so many people, whom Marx identified as part of the proletariat, but you have misidentified as bourgeois, have benefited from the economic growth that capitalism has brought that they identify with it and shudder at the alternative. Which is why, of course, Kevin Rudd cleaves to the macroeconomic policies of the Howard government. In the Maoist slogan “as close as teeth and lips.”
You have to wonder about men, and it is almost always men, who get orgasmic about abstract processes, or ones they see as non-human, such as “economic growth”, and who ignore the living human contribution to said “economic growth”, produced primarily and majorly by none other than the ingenuity, creativity and labour of workers, largely unrecognised, and under-rewarded. Fellow human beings, in fact. But who would know from their verbiage.
Marx wasn’t so interested in the alienation of the exploiters. But, it sure blows you away, just thinking ’bout it.
Well done jinmaro. You’ve scored a trifecta.
A comment that is at the same time sexist:
economically ignorant:
and totally ignorant of Marx’s writings:
You have outdone yourself, and that isn’t easy.
“Marx, however, specifically identified the bourgeoisie as the ruling class, ie the large owners of capital. One hundred and sixty years later so many people, whom Marx identified as part of the proletariat, but you have misidentified as bourgeois, have benefited from the economic growth that capitalism has brought that they identify with it and shudder at the alternative.”
What Marx has alleged to have said or not said is of no interest to me,and in fact Marx has no interest to me period. His theory’s have been judged in most quarters to have been so much bunkum.And it is you that has mentioned him in your burst not I.
I have mis=represented nothing Bourgeois in my context,and by dictionary is very much middle class.Please do some more research!
This will not and does not change the fact, that the “Union Movement” is like the Police, Armed Forces and other institutions some find distasteful a necessary evil.
The alternative(your words not mine) being what prey tell? That I have no where in my comments advocated communism as an alternative to the shower of shysters,liars,and other assorted rat bags,that now pass themselves off as a government.
To use my favorite right wing nut job”Please explain”
That you bring Marx into any argument in the modern context shows me you are grasping at straws. Marx,Mao,Stalin,Lenin.Trotsky and all the other left wing nightmares you hold in your sub conscience are all gone and you can go back into your little world of illusion.
It’s about the same percentage as those that run a business. Both sides of politics have a core membership that is in the minority.
Its probably more accurate to measure what percentage of business owners are members of the various business organisations – not that they’re generally allowed to collectively act like unions do (eg price fixing) on behalf of their members as its considered to be anti competitive
Chris (a different one
Indeed!
Glad to oblige. You have about as much awareness of politics as she does.
The terms “bourgeois” and “bourgeoisie” in political discourse are code words for a Marxist analysis of history, economics and society.
That you use those terms indicates that you accept the Marxist paradigm or are ignorant of it and therefore of history, economics and social debate. From your last comment it seems that it is the latter.
Even jinmaro could have told you that.
Mere assertion ain’t ever convincing, is intellectually bereft and downright dullsville for almost everyone, GregM – with the exception, of course, of your allied Sergeant Plods (male, natch).
If this is the best the beastly Right wingnuts can do, well, what’s a gal to do? I’ve got far more enticing plans for this glorious evening. Flicking away gnats has exhausted its appeal.
Nighty night.
I shall remember that every time I see anything that you post, jinmaro, because isn’t that the sum total of all your contributions on this blog?
Except of course the risible special pleadings of victimhood.
Glad to oblige. You have about as much awareness of politics as she does.
Au contraire GregM she is much smarter than little ol me,however the thousands of right wing nut jobs that voted for her i’m not so sure about, well that’s a debate for another time any ways..
Look I know you have a fixation on Marx, and with that ,this exchange of information has now terminated, as I will get much more mental stimulation from my pet Galah.
Guys, just because this is a left-wing blog that doesn’t mean that all of the commenters here are. We still expect the same level of civility in conversations, and also hopefully the same level of thoughtfulness.
GregM is one of those commenters who is almost always polite and thoughtful, and he deserves the same in return.
I don’t have a fixation with Marx. It’s just that I’ve studied his writings and know what he was on about unlike people like you who make galahs of themselves, to use your psitticatorial reference, by parroting off by using outdated and discredited Marxist terms, about which you know nothing, as if they could meaningfully contribute to contemporary political discussion. So I am always glad to bring you and others like you up to speed with Marx’s writings.
My best regards to your pet galah. I’m sure that if only it could talk it would choose as its first task to talk some sense into you. Perhaps though, recognising what a Herculanean and futile task that would be, it chooses to remain silent.
Anna, thank you for that comment.
It makes me ashamed of my last one and makes me wish I could withdraw it.
Hey, I said almost – everyone gets a loophole.
If I may be allowed a meta, off-topic, enigmatic moment – trolling is a behaviour, not a state of being.
Apropos of Razor, I see nuanced people. All nuanced out.
I wouldn’t withdraw that line about the galah, GregM—it’s worthy of the scorn thread.
If we come back to Hockey….
Someone in the discussion raised the question of respect. This is one of the more pertinent comments. Pogge referred to “official disrespect”, which involves “wrongs [that] do not merely deprive their victims of the objects of their rights but attack those very rights themselves; they do not merely subvert what is right, but the idea of right and justice.”
It’s not just a question of the level of union membership. It’s also a question of how the level dropped that far. That process began in the 1980s and proceeded throughout the nineties It preceded this loathsome government with its Goebblesian mantras about workers. One of the factors, surely, is the structural adjustments in industry with the decline in manufacturing. But, only a charlatan or an innocent abroad would ascribe a single cause to the decline. Throughout the nineties surveys indicated large percentages of workers would belong if they had the opportunity. I’m afraid I’m not sure what the surveys say now.
But, what the Howard government has done [and one of the reasons why it is so loathsome] is to attempt to ensure the decline continued on its way. If I was Howard or Costello or Andrews or Hockey [each a nightmarish scenario], I would have to ask, why haven’t we been more successful at burying the unions? “Work Choices” attacks the rights of workers to organise collectively [yet these same ideologues support collective bagaining for small business, recognising that negotiating power IS the issue] by individualising contracts, isolating workers from their unions and putting in place impediments to union organising by making it difficult for unions to get into workplaces. NEVER – from Reith onwards – has a government minister come out and supported collective bargaining until they amended the Trade Practices Act to allow collective action by smal businesses in dealing with the big end of town.
Selectively promoting collective principles for business while denigrating unions of workers and their leaders, having placed every impediment in the way of unions recruiting and servicing their members, thumbing their noses at the international labour standards written into the ILO Conventions – that is official disrespect.
It is ultimately a question of ethics: how ethical is it to promote myths about the bargaining power of the individual worker? How ethical is it to reject international standards of behaviour in the workplace? How ethical is it to attack the integrity of union leaders simply because they are union leaders? How ethical is it to attack the integrity of academic researchers who come up with findings they can’t swallow?
The fact is that this is a nasty bunch of people running this country [and I won't get started here on other areas of human rights], who have no respect for workers, and who subvert workers’ rights.
[Ref: Pogge T.W. (1995), â??How should human rights be conceived?â?? in P. Hayden, (2001), ed., The philosophy of human rights, Paragon House, St Paul, pp. 187-210]
Being somewhat familiar with the area of North Sydney I can’t see any way Workchoices will influence the result.
This is one area chock full of aspiring acquisiters.
Sure their kids may find the summer job weird and having to hang out with people from outside the area – they are like westies man, but with pocketmoney equal to their salary I doubt it’s a problem.
The influence of Maxine – doubt it – the same could be said for the electorate of MacKellar – Bronnie to the rescue anyone ?
I don’t have any figures but would hazard a guess that union membership in this electorate is one of the lowest in Australia.
The Royal North Shore Hospital is still one of the best funded hospitals in Sydney and don’t forget that (what 100 ‘ away?) there is North Shore Private Hospital for those who want things done asap.
In my view Workchoices will degrade Hockey’s standing in his electorate, even among well-heeled constituents.
Hockey’s schtick is the aw-shucks “I wouldn’t do that to you” affected honesty, which he possibly even believes himself. But continuing controversy over Workchoices, including respected studies that contradict Hockey’s assurances, will cause those constituents to see Hockey in a new, less flattering light.
Although some business people endorse any duplicity that advances their own cause, most middle class professional people are uncomfortable about such approaches.
Also, in respect of the IT industry segment of the constituency, that segment is likely to consist of younger workers, highly cynical about the way their industry treats them, thanks to offfshoring, contracting, the recent recession and the dishonest spin they’ve seen from their industry. To the extent they care about the election, they would have more affinity with a television worker (Bailey) than a smarmy lawyer.
Apparently Hockey and Mike Bailey are going to have a mini debate this arvo on Sky at 4:15.
GregM said:
How does this square with observations that real median incomes in the US have barely increased in the last 30 years? Paul Krugman shows that despite strong economic growth in America over the last four years average workers are no better off.
That article is behind a paywall, so here are the money quotes:
I think Unions play a pretty important role in ensuring an equitable redistribution of the benefits of economic growth (as do progressive taxation scales). The low union membership quoted above belies the influence union negotiated awards have had on the broader economy, generally bringing along alot of other non-unionised workers.
Workchoices has sought to sever this connection, deny award entitlements to non-unionised workers and generally disrupt industry wide pay increases. Howard has boasted in the last few days that tax cuts will not be inflationary because Workchoices suppresses “upward wage pressures”. This is not very subtle code for “increased profits will not necessarily go to workers”.
I think they (the gummint and their supporters) should be very careful what they wish for.
I’ve heard that a few times, but I wonder how accurate those statistics really are. Perhaps people are just answering that they’d like to join a union at the time of the survey but it in reality it really doesn’t matter to them at all. Its not hard to join a union if you want to.
But the IT industry has got to be one of the least unionised work forces – not only in Australia but world wide. Attempts to introduce defacto unionism like compulsory ACS membership have generally met with a pretty hostile response. Most of the IT people I know are on individual contracts and quite happy to negotiate their own salary and conditions – working unusual hours and working remotely are pretty common these days.
Labor may well get many young IT people voting for them but it will be based on other issues like the environment, not over workchoices.
The fact that the IT industry isn’t unionised is the point. That’s why many of the problems have arisen and why enrolments for IT courses went into freefall, here and in the US. That’s why the government and universities are now desperately trying to entice students back into the field.
ACS (Australian Computer Society) accreditation moves were met with derision because the ACS has less than 10 percent of the workforce, is controlled by employer and recruiter interests and has low membership standards. The ACS is also explicitly anti-union, by the way.
As to contracting, about 95 percent of individual placements in Australia are made by recruitment firms, not by direct negotiation by contractors. That process is characterised by undisclosed, often excessive, margins and one-sided power arrangements. In my experience, most IT people, employers as well as workers, are uncomfortable with this.
IT recruiter lobbyists were actually one of the drivers for Workchoices in 2004. They had failed in a campaign against the South Australian labour government, which wanted to remove some of the more onerous restrictions imposed by the recruiting industry. Workchoices gave the recruiting industry everything it wanted.
My cousin was (is still?) in IT recruiting. He told me some truly hair-raising stories about the sort of stuff he got up to. He admitted the whole business was rotten to the core, but just shrugged his shoulders and kept doing it.
I’d strongly disagree that lack of unionism is the reason for enrolments in IT dropping or that its causing problems in the industry. One major reason that post dot-com boom/crash enrolments have dropped is because its no longer seen as a career path to make megabucks quick with low/no skills. Wage protection will not work in the IT industry because it is very easy to outsource overseas – you have to work on the basis of productivity even taking into account much lower wages overseas. Not surprisingly skill levels in low wage countries can be very high, but even in China/India there is a growing shortage of qualified IT people to recruit.
Not that outsourcing is all bad news, I know many people in Australia who have jobs in IT essentially because jobs from the US have been outsourced to here.
Well the IT industry still has the image problem of being a geeky/nerdy profession and has issues with mysoginism which doesn’t help in getting women into IT either. Its not a sexy profession nor one where its seen you can make lots of money (not as much as say finance/banking etc anyway).
In respect to contracts I was referring to individual contracts with employers on a permanent full time basis rather than contracting as such. I’ve always been employed in this manner, and in fact the only IT people that I know of that aren’t on individual contracts are those who work for government organisations (and tend to get paid less because these organisations don’t seem to be able to distinguish between demand for IT people and demand for other professions).
Certainly the money contractors make is generally very good and I agree there are some really bad contracting agencies out there – no shortage of examples of this out there on the web. Though from the contractors I’ve spoken to, they tend to have the upper hand at the moment rather than the recruiters because of the high demand for workers but you have to be careful to avoid the bad recruitment agencies.
Under Minister Joe Hockey Australia has been included on the International Labour Organisation’s list of 25 countries with the worst labour regimes.
His nasty Workchoices regime based on the philosophy of the old Soviet labour code – no real unions, no real choices, no real pay for your labours.
If Joe Hockey thinks that the people of North Sydney are not intersted in Workchoices – he is quit wrong, most of us whilst not in Unions and many paid better than average also have the same no protection against unscrupulous employers.
Many in North Sydney work very long hours, -it is not uncommon for me to have to work 50-55 hour weeks and I get no overtime pay.
Its time we got rid of politicians like Joe Hockey and John Howard and their 1950ies class warfare mindsets and got people into power with the ability to serve an Australia living in the fast changing region in the world East Asia and bring in some 21st century cooperative solutions into our workplaces not the policies of a discredited dictatorship.