Gw – you succinctly express my view,
Would Chris Evans be squealing if it were a Labor with control of the Reps and Senate?
- I doubt it.

Reality is we live in a democracy where the majority did vote for the coalition, in the face of the most appalling labor alternative since Whitlam (Latham) – and having been warned by the Whitlam experience (thank goodness enough remembered), rejected that offering.

The benefits of industrial relations reform will flow before the next election, the unions will whine – but they always do – and they are not elected under any process of universal suffrage – so who cares – they are just a vested interest with diminishing influence.

Oh AdrianK – proportional representation is not any superior method of voting to first-past-the-post it is just different and subject to similar problems of imperfection. However, I would also remind you that the Senate is a proportionally represented institution and that too is coalition controlled. Regardless of the methodology it is supported by the participants and if you don’t like it – I suggest you put effort where your mouth is and stand for election.

As for the “Left” – their influence has been in continuing decline since the 1980’s – soon they will just be the thing of bad dreams and something for latter day Grimm’s to write fairy tales about.

As for Shonga’s “Heal Divisions in our society” that has never been on the labor agenda – the labor faction power brokers who run that organisation of swill peddlers have power as the only agenda and do not give a hoot for “healing”, regardless of all the pathetic rhetoric.

A word of caution, any would be ALP polly would be wise to forget trying to wring anymore mileage out of the Tampa, "asylum seekers","stolen generation" ect, we are totally fed up with the whole rigmarole of the bleeding heart syndrome.
We want someone who acts for Australians and only Australians. If this doesn't interest, go away.

bushbred, I've just seen your posts, will give them some thought and reply later. Shonga, while I think highly of Hawke, I thought (even before his appointment) that Keating was unfit to be PM, I think that the ALP's present woes began with Keating's defeat of Hawke.

Hawke always sought consensus, sometimes I thought he overdid it but it helped him to implement reforms which were (relatively) accepted and sustainable. While his feeling for consensus was genuine, when Howard acts in a similar way I think that it's from electoral caution rather than concern for consensus.

Keating was a one-man band, while Hawke appointed capable ministers (even people like Peter Walsh, who he didn't like), and let them get on with it.

I have a friend who does not have English as her first language. She had been working as a cook in a restaurant, but lost that job when the restaurant closed down. I went with her recently to a job interview. The restaurant owner needed an experienced specialist cook and she has the right ethnicity and skills. She knows what the award rate is and also knew that she had no hope whatsoever of being paid that in her industry.

The restaurant owner was a nice friendly guy who was happy to sit down and talk with us. He was busy telling her how right she was for the job, then he asked her what hourly rate she wanted. When she named a figure of $3 less than the award, with no loading for evenings/weekends etc, his attitude changed completely. She has told me that it is customary in her industry to employ people, including tourists with or without working visas, for a pittance.

Another place put out the word that they wanted her, because she has a good reputation. When she went to talk to them, they offered to start her on just over half the award rate, with a review after twelve months.

We are supposed to have a legal minimum wage system. If I did not know the above to be true, I would find it hard to believe that these employers could get away with it. What does anyone think will happen when virtually everyone can find themselves negotiating individual pay rates and conditions? Hopefully most Australians will not be prepared to take this kind of treatment like some of our "New Australians" do.

Richardson has been the downfall of labor. While it has always been a "special interest" party, it was fairly general interest. When he discovered they could win an election by buying the green vote with excessively biased promises, the rot started. They then went out looking for more special interest groups to buy, & then went even further to shore up this suport. Greens, academia, arts, aboriginal, welfare it just kept growing. They owed so much to these groups, that there was nothing left for the majority, & we, average twits, started to see this. Even my farther who was totally rusted on, had to move his vote. We may be slow, but when we see hospitals full of art work, but no nurses we start to wake up.
This worries me, because I don't want to be rusted on anywhere, but while I have this perceptoin, I have no choice.
I hate the unfair dismissal law with a passion. It forced me to sack 3 young, new staff, during their probation, when I was not sure they would become usefull. I would have given them more time, if I could have got rid of them later. I had never, as a small business manager, sacked anyone in my life. It is the worst thing I have ever had to do, but I felt I had no choice.
However I have some doubts about some of the new IR laws, & would like to have a choice at the next election, if they have gone too far. Right now I don't have that choice.
I prefer to have a majority in both houses, of either party, so they can fully implement the policy's they have been elected on, not compromised a couple of one eyed members. I may be a fool, & have it all wrong, but it took me a while to get here, & it will take a lot ot move me now, & there are a lot of others with the same view.
Phil

Rex - your missive about the chef - and all that happened under the existing system - it just shows what a farce the existing system is.

From what you say - removing the award system, in your friends case, will not make a bean of difference. Oh, did she include how much she would be paid in "cash" on the side? - that too is a common practice in that industry.

I have negotiated my own "rate" for the past 20 years, without the benefit of awards or union representation. Far from being paid "award rates" I charge mega-bucks. Am I complaining about being underpaid - no - when I negotiate I sell my skills and the unique benefits of employing me over others. Your friend has limited communication skills, I am sure I would suffer similar problems anywhere that English was not the first language, hence I choose to live in Australia. I suggest your friend might benefit by improving her communication skills, thereby improving her employment options. The responsibility for English competency in Australia is for her to resolve, not the rest of society to accommodate.