An extraordinary amount of union bashing going on when the man of the moment is actually our newly elected PM and his bad of mornons.

Put aside the union bashing, the 457 is being abused and it because the rules are to broad and open to being twisted to suit the particular employer/ employee.

One section of the community will do what is becoming rather tedious and blame the previous Govt. IF that's your beef then your party had the option to change the 457 Regs as they stood, instead of saying No to anything and everything.

So instead of beating off here write to your local Fed MHR or senator and express disappointment at the loss of local talent to overseas and overseas workers coning over here.

Try lads really try to forget the anti union bias. Its a broken record and frankly immature. This is effectively Australia's next big things and can actually be fixed......IF YOU WANT IT TO BE FIXED, or continue whinging and blaming everyone except the current Federal Government who are from todays little media fling quite happy to sling off and do NOTHING about 457's...your choice gents fight or flee!

Belly, a good post. You, I and John Howard knew the reality of Work Choices and individual contracts. For the vast majority of workers, the unskilled, the semi-skilled, the young, the migrant, women the non unionised, those working for many small businesses, instead of being a level playing field the reality was it was geared to breaking down wages and conditions. instead of negotiation it would be a case of take it or leave. The cynical conservatives made out it was bring equality and fairness to the workplace, nothing could be further from the truth as Howard set out to destroy unionism and the rights of workers.
Abbott is philosophically opposed to unionism and worker rights and at the first opportunity will try and introduce another Howard style attack on the rights of Australian workers.

I am a believer in "sustainability"
Paul1405,
So, do you believe the ALP was sustainable as a Government ? Do you believe the public service is sustainable as it is presently ? Do you believe the ever increasing wages & prices can be sustainable ?
I don't think our society is sustainable without the re- introduction of some discipline & common sense. Our education system is unsustainable in its present form because we need smarter people who can think instead of brainwashed mutts who have no concept of anything & just keep asking for more.

Indi, you hold a certain philosophical view, as do I. Our society is far from perfect and there are many things that should change for the better. A balanced view of those things you mentioned would say improvements can always be made, and we should work towards a goal of complete sustainability in every area of human society. Those things worth achieving are never easy, and often are not as black and white as they may seem. Debate and argument over those things that matter is important to the final outcome, hopefully for the betterment of society.
The public service is something you have a strong view on, it is unreasonable to paint all as useless, and call for its total sacking, just as it is unreasonable to claim all are working to peak efficiency and vital for the good of society, the truth lies somewhere in between. I prefer to take a positive view that through effort things like education can improve and continue to improve. A cynical negative view achieves little for the common good. Society is, and should be forever changing, we live in a different world to our parents and our children will occupy a different place to use. We collectively have a responsibility to hand on to our kids a better world than the one our parents gave to us.

Paul1405,
Very good view & post.
Re the public service, of course it's not the whole of the organisation which is a costly burden on the rest of us. I just happen to be exposed to public servants 24/7 for the past 35 years who literally are not pulling their weight especially the upper echelon.
I am always on about a national service & it is my firm belief that we desperately need some institution to shape discipline & responsibility in adolescents & young adults. The present system is not only failing the young it's failing all of us. The notion of getting the top job or top pay after a year's induction is something we need to sort out asap because no young people are willing to do manual work anymore. Everyone's chasing work in front of a computer screen. We can't do that it's unsustainable, we need to make them understand that there's more to work than just showing up for 8 hours a day. We also need to make them aware that many people are simply getting paid too much. Many believe the high salaries in the public service are sustainable, they're not. The evidence is screaming out loud. Our society needs an overhaul & it needs it soon.

Here here Individual;
There is a time coming covered by the term "Transition" and the young
people will very quickly understand that if they do not pull their
weight they will probably go hungry.

Everything will be local, if you want a new kitchen table you won't go
to Harvey Normans you will go to the furniture maker in the local town.
The "Chuck it and Buy a New One" idea will be so last century.
You will take "it" to the local electrical fix it man, just like our
parents did.
The farmers' markets, of which you now see the beginning, will be where
you do your weekly shopping.
That clever youth you speak of will not be after a computer cell job,
but might be talking with his mates of setting up to do odd jobs until
they get enough money so they can buy some land and start a vegetable farm.

Does this seem way out ?
Well you need to do some reading as this has already started and there
is now time for younger people to get ahead of the curve.