Of course the Liberals don't have any political masters who call the shots for them at all, and the Nationals have no interest in what the NFF want.

They just sit around thinking up elaborate schemes to pay workers more money and improve their conditions.

James Hardie would have eventually seen the error of its ways and voluntarily compensated all those injured workers as well.

There was an error in my first post, Peter Costello said the future fund would not be needed 'till 2020, not 2030 as I stated. (I checked Hansard). Does not change my point though.

The raiding the future fund is another red herring, Labor intend to sell the remaining shares in Telstra. This is specifically allowed in the Telstra sale legislation. Rudd has just removed $2.7 billion from Howards election war chest.

Unions? come Johny short on honesty, you can not flog that dead horse our power went a very long time ago.
We give to so many community Charity's of our funds and our time it is hard to call us evil to them.
Red necks like Tapp decry the truth we are a community of like minded people in no way as harmful as those big business unions that control Howard, no I was not referring to his wife this time.
Anyone who has no wealth only his time and body's out put to sell to eat has every right to see some of the wealth creation comes his or her way.
Just yesterday at a meeting of workers at least 4 private one on one meetings got held to assist in private ways, unionism is not out the gate stuff.
Tapp you have to address your fantasy that only you understand the direction Australia must travel.
In time you must and will understand you are on a train without an engine stopped forever.
Get on the one that suits you Labor or Liberal and enjoy the scenery.
Howard has his pointed at a bridge that is no longer in place so I invite you now to join the ALP for at least 12 years of leadership and change in government.
People should question the true intent of workchoices and ask why a boss can have his union still but not a worker.
Wages are the life blood of rural Australia and those places should be the first to inform Howard at the polls workchoices is evil.
Conservatives should inquire how low wages can be seen as the best way to make a quid.

Next lie, real wages have risen 14% under Howard but only 1.6% under Hawke/Keating.

Statistically true, but dishonest.

If you look at median wages and not average wages, the rate of increase is a miserly 3.6% if you include the 9% super introduced by Labor (in lieu of pay rises) the Hawke/Keating Govt did much better on wages.

Why is there such a huge difference between median and average? Because the top 10% of wage earners have given themselves indecent amounts at the expense of everyone else and Costello has given them tax cuts far in advance of what they need or deserve.

Steve, I would like to see the stats on average wages if you cut out those that earn over $200,000 (because few would be wage earners - most like business owners), and cut out those that earn less than $15,000 pa (because they are not working full-time and also distort the true average wage). The median wage is also not truly reflective of the situation, because again the median will be distorted by high income (and low income) earners. Its interesting when you get out of the cities. I live in a large country town, where the average wage is $38,000 (set to go up as mining increases of course). Also, it would be interesting to see average household income, as that's probably more indicative of how much Australians are using to live, particularly if one or more adults in the house is only working part-time.

Wobbles, actually the consensus among most country people is that the Nationals DONT care about what the NFF wants. Most traditional Nationals voters will mutter about when they changed from the Country Party to the Nationals. That's why there is a big swing towards independents in country seats. A lot of damage happened in 96 when the liberals federally had a majority in their own right, and didnt need the Nationals. Many National Party members resigned from the party in disgust.

Country Gal,

Thanks, point taken about the NFF.

I heard it really stands for "No Family Farms", which would help explain a few things.