"was repealed by the Blighters (around the same time they legislated to make lying by politicians 'legal') "

I thought they make it mandatory ;)

For those not across it my understanding was that the Beattie government repealed section 57 of the criminal code which made lying to the Parliament an offence during a scandal involving Gordon Nuttall. At the time it was alleged that he had deliberately mislead a Parliamentary estimates committee.

Nuttall later went to jail over other matters.

There was talk last year that the LNP would reenact those laws but I can't find any indication that has been done yet.

There is some info on it at http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3488171.htm

I tend to think that Graeme Orr misses the point a bit regarding safeguards (the other safeguards are unlikely to work when the person lying is part of the party that holds power).

R0bert

o sung wo thanks,while we differ in part I think we both want better for our country.
And my wants are different than most.
LAW first ,is costs a factor in short or no sentences or not, if so parole for some is too.
The grubby Rex Jackson, for that matter both a Police commissioner and Minister in QLD is a warning to us all.
Why not take from every major criminal all assets to cover prison costs.
Why not use for gun crime and such, a rule no short sentence and no parole.
At times like now, read the thoughts of a former serving Detective I have grown to respect, who tells us how bad certain sections of community crime in Sydney are.
Then target them!
Mate we can not all be police, I left as a youth the Redfern, as it was then, training center after seeing a dead man shot many times on the picture wall. , knew it was not for me.
Am happy with my life as it was and is and learn some thing every day
Politics? at its current worst, and that is our position, my team gets 30% of the vote.
Those of us voting for them, like your self served in war and peace are as Aussie as me, and we must never let that truth go, just as I till death will struggle to take my union brothers hands away from my party,s throat so it again can be the party of the people.

R0bert - I can't find any indication that has been done yet

Nor I. They were talking about the issue, but then the Newman / Seeney / Newman dictatorship talked about a lot of things that didn't happen quite the way we all expected. What makes the Queensland situation worse than it would otherwise be is the effective lack of an opposition, the lack of an upper house, the AWOL governor the very definite signs the watchdog has been de-barked

Belly, your union brothers have a death grip, because they know that if they loosen it for a second your union sisters will take their place.

And whether brother or sister, the aim is the same - personal power.

That's the probem, in a nutshell, with the labour movement.

The people at the top see themselves as business owners and their business is taking as much money as possible from working people and giving them back as little as possible that has to be paid for out of the business.

It's contemptible hypocrisy at the heart.

Antiseptic from within the movement I saw no brothers fighting sisters.
I hold the highest hope for some of the union movement.
And bar its hands on my party,s throat put mine at the top.
Power all too often blinds some.
No longer remembering why they joined our great movements.
I see and believe I know, the end of extremist unions, in the eyes and thoughts of members.
But in time unions too need face the challenge of change and see what should be, not what is.
Service is the best and in the end, ONLY recruitment tool.
Unions with 22% need to concentrate on lifting membership, not bringing Labor done to that level.
Both movements must again, and then again, move with the people.
Labor is damaged because of this woman.
We will see in time great books written by great men about this attempt to *Murder my party*
And in time, for the good of both union and party we will learn the lesson *Unions must*
Every child grows up, must stand on its own feet, go its own way, hopefully towards its people, not the current way charging away from them.
Gillard , said to have had a hand in stealing from the AWU now counts on them, to save her, and ignore my party and my mates Australian Workers, we once stood for both not against them.

Belly, the sisters are the labour movement. White collar female workforces in teaching, nursing, bureaucracy, childcare, finance outnumber the men in blue collar unions by 3:1 or more. They are not "workers", they are "professionals". They are not for solidarity and standing shoulder to shoulder with your mates against the forces that seek to oppress, taking a hit in the paypacket to support those on strike, a decent living wage. They will march in protests, but they want to be back in the office for morning tea. They "can't afford to strike" and frown on the idea of such uncouthness. They want a full-time wage for part-time work, not an opportunity to do a couple of hours OT so a carton of grog can be slipped under the missus's guard on Friday.

The union was a needful thing for blue-collar workers when they were paid by the amount of sweat they produced, the bosses Rolls was paid for in blood and more muscles on the floor meant more production. Because such industries are now heavily mechanised, every aspect of the job has a process that defines it, and employment depends on having the right certificate and license, which means the union has little to offer other than a hand in the wallet every week and the biggest whinger in the shop coming around and annoying people who have work to do.

Hawke saw it and Hawke made it happen. The unions had no idea what was happening and nor did anyone else. he made sure workers were bought off with pay increases in exchange for conditions that were not needed in a white collar workforce. Hawke rode the wave of feminisation of the unions and he ended up ditching his lovely working class wife for a committed middle-class feminist "progressive". He's a disgrace to the Labour movement, but cunning as the proverbial sh1thouse rat. Gillard is his natural successor - a middle-class female professional shyster.