Sly the other major parties are over-represented with academics too...

The IR laws, like most other deregulation in this country was set up to drag most of the country down to the lowest common denominator...and make the transnationals and company executives richer.

After all 'he who pays the piper, calls the tune...'

...and the transnationals are certainly paying plenty in election donations to ALL the major parties. Of course there are plenty of LARGE taxpayer funded grants to those corporations too...I guess that means that you and I are indirectly paying the election donations THROUGH the corporations to the major parties...or is that TOO simplistic?

National Competition Policy has promised so-called 'competitiveness' for Australia but instead it has meant that the corporations can dictate price on everything and Australians go begging...now it's the workers turn. If the intention is not to lower real wages for workers then why were the present laws enacted at the behest of big business?

You are right about the choices amongst parliamentarians...from all the major parties, the genuine ones who are there for the good of Australia and Australians FIRST and FOREMOST, are thin on the ground.

Thanks for your reply Meg1, all I can say is Howard is destroying this country in many ways. IR, AWB , WELFARE TO WORK, NEW ID CARD,
ANTI TERROR AND MANY MORE CASES.

I have the inside word on the AWB story...at a meeting last week a retired barrister told me that he knew who was aware of the everything and therefore responsible for everything as no one else was...he's convinced it will all come out in the end...it's the postal clerk! After all he-she delivered or posted all the correspondence out and sorted all inward correspondence...guilty surely!

He also said something about passing the buck and scapegoats, but I'm assuming that was unimportant as bureaucrats and politicians wouldn't do that sort of thing, would they?

Knowing the amount of red tape the bureaucrats wrap around everything, you'd have to be pretty obtuse to think that either the previous ALP or this government's bureaucrats were unaware of the AWB board's initial concerns about the payments.

If I was cynical of both the bureaucrats and the politicians...I'd say that this was all a great set-up to get rid of the Single Desk for selling wheat...the AWB, and discredit them...who suffers? The farmers who had NOTHING to do with it.

Who gains? the transnationals who can then beat down the price to the farmers as they have in other primary industries like dairy, etc...etc...

When Australians learn to stand together - workers, farmers, independent fuel retailers, newsagents, manufacturers, liquor stores...etc...we'll have better government acting in the interests of us and our country.

What's the penalty for treason again?

The French the French, look to the french you downtrodden ozzie battlers.

I am far from a battler. This is about right and wrong, black and white. The IR laws were created to drive down wages. AWB was known
all the way to the top and if Mr Cole does not ask for broader powers
to investagate the government he will unfortunatly loss much credibility within the law society. I hope to have a PM in the future I can respect.

Mr Howard has small man syndrome and is a pawn in big businesses
plans to control all. He sells all public assets and then boasts how much money the government has spare and then bribes voters near poll date.

All Liberal senators should be ashamed about there lack of leadership and guts on the IR reforms. They got walked all over and are embarrassments to this countries parliament.

My hopes for a bright future are fading but if the high court rules against the aggressive IR laws that would cheer me up.
Mr Cole, I hope your not just another tail between the legs puppet.

Oddly, industrial relations have been running pretty smoothly in recent years compared with the 1980s. Furthermore the industrial practices that most need to be shaken up - state government union employees - are entirely immune from the IR changes. (Electrical workers in Queensland and NSW come to mind, as do school teachers and government transport workers.)

Brad Norington in The Australian on 25/2:

QUOTE
From bowser boy to IR reform

THE inspiration for John Howard's dramatic overhaul of Australia's workplace laws can be traced back to his childhood, pumping petrol for no pay at his father's Dulwich Hill service station in Sydney's inner west [in the 1950s].

Providing the strongest clue to his little-explored personal motivation, the Prime Minister has revealed his chief influence was his first unpaid job where he learned that life was "not a five-days-a-week existence". It is a key to understanding the philosophy behind Mr Howard's workplace changes...

In his quest to promote private enterprise, individual initiative and a strong work ethic, he believes employment should be based on the market with little or no role for unions.

During an interview with The Australian for a book to mark his 10 years in power, he harked back to his beginnings as the son of a small businessman to explain his views.

"I didn't grow up in a home where unions were, sort of, routinely denigrated," Mr Howard said.

"I mean, (my parents) didn't entertain the idea that unions are bad, but they didn't talk about unions.

"The whole idea of doing something with your life was about personal achievement, and starting a business...

"I remember as a child, the first unpaid job I had was serving petrol on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

"So this idea that life is not quite a five-days-a-week existence was with me at a very early stage. I guess working for yourself, working for private enterprise... was something I was brought up to believe in."
END QUOTE

So Howard wanted to share his start in life, enabling many of us to work in unpaid jobs for small businessmen.