Presumably,Keating's Industrial Reforms are derived from a different political philosophy than the Coalition's; and so, it should be of no surprise that the Coalition has a different slant on Industrial reform. Keating from what I can remember of him tended to be a thug against the Coalition parliamentary representatives; whereas, Reith through his push to change the waterfront employed thuggery against Australian workers (remember the rotweillers).

Human nature is no different now to what it was when workers began fighting for their rights in the 1890s; do we just roll over, and trust employers to treat workers in all sectors with decency. Recently Bakers' Dozen has become yet another example of workers being abused by AWAs.

The Coalition has not been communicating with Unions in relation to IR legislation, they have been keeping in contact with employers organisations though. Mr Howard has stated that he will govern for all Australians, what a laugh. I don't believe in the tooth fairy, I suppose other people don't as well.

Here are some alternative interpretations of the IRS reforms.

1. If wages are lowered so is spending power. This means that there is less money to buy products and services consequently decreasing the profits of business and being detrimental to the economy.

2. In a time of high employment (now) Howards laws will force wages and conditions up as companies compete for better workers. They no longer have the luxury of paying "award wages".

The disadvantage to naieve workers that they will be paid less because they don't know their true worth will only lead to an employer having an unstable workforce as these people leave when they find out their disadvantage.

Much of the union complaint over this issue is due to their wish to protect their own future rather than the workers future.!

How can we trust the Howard Government when National Party officials in Western Australia are questioning the dismissal provisions of the proposed IR legislation.

In the Age today: "The PM brushes aside the state branch's criticisms of planned changes to unfair dismissal laws."

When the Prime Minister is so dismissive of supposed supporters how can we expect him to take into account the views of ordinary Australians?

What raises my ire with the Howard, Andrews and Costello ramblings on IR reforms is that they claim they can already take away a lot of the conditions that workers enjoy. That being the case, why the need for the reforms they are proposing and what is their real agenda?