Hi there SHADOW MINISTER...

I'm sorry if I misunderstood your original Email, I do understand, you were NOT drawing any comparison between the coppers union and the more militant construction unions who do have a reputation of playing hard ball. Don't worry none of our union leaders could ever be described as 'wilting lilies' either!

O,

It is perfectly possible to be a tough negotiator and stay within the law, something the CFMEU has never bothered to try.

Quite true SHADOW MINISTER, quite true.

o sung wu, "A little known fact with the Police Association, the Executive are all made up of serving police members, with only the top echelons of the Executive (the President & Secretary) on secondment for full-time Association duties"

While that might seem odd to some and perhaps even to you since you mention it, the reasoning is based in the lower pay, lesser conditions and privileges of certain occupations that are charged with serving the public.

Without wanting to go into long detail, I will take advantage of the arguments presently circulating 'in the ether' concerning the 'generosity' (they take some leeway there with that word) of federal public servants superannuation. The rationale is that they pick up a bit there for years of lesser pay than the private sector. Nurses, police, military, clerks, professionals to list some affected, are all expected to regard themselves as serving in vocations that should never withdraw labour to get their due pay and entitlements. - Witness the *bleep*storm that descends on them eg., nurses, where they do take minor 'work to rule' action.

However even where superannuation is concerned, for most, the far greatest majority of retiring public servants (including nurses, clerks and so on) the compulsory contributions only result in superannuation payments that are little better than the Age Pension and can easily exclude the rebates and freebies of the Age Pension.

It is the politicians who always have the last laugh on public servants. Because the pollies' generous super is indexed against average weekly earnings and maintains its value. But as Parliamentary Committees have noted, the luckless public servants super loses its purchasing value through UNFAIRLY (Parliamentary Committees' comments!) being indexed against the CPI.