First and foremost-Howard is considered to be untrustworthy by most Australians according to polls.
Howard is an unmitigated liar - yes! easily shown and proved.
Howard has campaigned against ALL pay claims for the lowest paid - he "naturally" sided with the employers.
Howard revealed his new laws to the heads of business FIRST!
The economy is bubbling along quite nicely then suddenly Howard wants to change the laws - Why?
Could it be that the mean-spirited liberals want a permanent underpaid group of poor that would be easily manipulated- like America [led by john's hero] has at present?
Could it be that howard and his sycophants are looking to increase donations from big business to the liberal party machine. Don't laugh after all we have all seen this government in action.Remember brother Stanley and the big donor who manufacturs ethanol for two.
Could it be that the liberals are making sure that there are well paid jobs for them when they retire - whether voluntary or not? think this is silly and paranoid then look at the clapped out failed politicians Howard has rewarded with o/seas posts. Look at all the boards etc howard has stacked with his seemingly compliant toadies.
Could it be that it's the liberal thing to do, their ethos?
Could it be that howard and his compliant - yes I include barnaby - followers want to kill off the labour party finances ei donations?
Here we have a person that has two tax payer funded homes and an RAAF "taxi" service to get him from Sydney to Canberra - a humble person? Looking at his record is this person to be believed?
I can see CEO's lowering wages and conditions so they can receive bigger and more obscene bonus's. We have all seen these what some would call money worshippers. numbat

The IR changes proposed by Howard are somewhat pathetically mild. We still end up with basic non-coersive human relationships being regulated by the coersive instruments of the state.

Offering people a job that pays less than $11 per hour will still be illegal. But while it remains illegal for the private sector to create real jobs for the low skilled, the government continues to be able to force the unemployed to do "community work" while paying the dole which is a lot lower than $11 per hour. Its kind of like a government run slave program.

We should cut the bullsh%t and abolish the minimum wage (or at least reduce it). Then at least the government would have to compete with the private sector for its low paid workforce.

If people think that low skilled workers need a subsidy then the community should pay for it. At the moment the expectation is that individual employers should shoulder the cost alone. Of course the consequence is that employers find capital based alternatives to unskilled labour or other ways to avoid creating such jobs in the first place. And of course the victims are marginal workers that end up with less job security and more time in the unemployment queues.

Ho Hum why do we bother.What would this author consider radical change? Howard introduces the 2005 version of the Master/ Servant Act and he tells us we will have better lifes.These people put Goebells to shame.I wholeheartedly agree that the architects of this legislation are pure evil.

Goebells ... Evil ...

Hedgehog take a shot of reality with a perspective chaser. There is much that makes sense in the proposals, it is hardly going to end up with people in gas chambers. What total utter nonsense which no-one can take seriously.

Goebells. I can't believe someone would make such a comparison. You are suffering from some kind of delusion and it is useless to try and debate.

I hope you are not in anyway involved with a union because that kind of advice to your fellow workers would be a disgrace.

t.u.s.

the usual suspect: Please don't attack other writers personally. Your attack will not change them and it makes you look and sound like a total prat Now you have me doing it. numbat

From a retired old cockie, who has never worked for a boss in his adult life, except for a bush bank manager, but who has acquired a post-grad in history, politics, and macro-economics in his retirement. Favourite politician - Black Jack McEwen - Australian Country Party.

Now this particular article does not directly concern our present IR problems in Australia, but does appear to give an insight into a certain doctrine that has caused France and Germany to vote against the Anglo-American neo-liberal model in regard to the Maastricht Treaty and its industrial relations. From a political philosophical point of view, according to the lecturer-writer, John M Legge, although the neo-liberal model has proved to achieve very low unemployment, it does so through low comparative wages, lousy working conditions, poor public services and in the case of the USA, appalling public health care. But the most interesting point is, that even with all the extra employment, America cannot match the productivity of France and Germany which is attained with higher wages, and though undoubtedly more unemployment and the necessary social welfare, apparently the bond between employer and worker is much healthier netting the higher production.

"Where wages are high, accordingly we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than when they are low." Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations.
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The article by John M Legge is in the academic-based magazine “Dissent” recommended by the Murdoch School of Humanities, Murdoch - Western Australia.

George C, WA - Bushbred