Saturday, October 29, 2005
Absolute power
"Down, down we go, we're so very low,
To the hell of the deep sunk mines,
But we gather the proudest gems that glow,
When the crown of the despot shines."
Ernest Jones - Song of the Lower Classes (c1848, pub. 1952)
This is going to be a political post and I make no apologies for that.
Now that the Howard government (an Australian Federal government of already highly questionable morality) has absolute power in both Houses of Parliament, they are moving rapidly forward with their radically rightwing agenda. That there appears to be no economic need whatsoever should surprise no-one as this is clearly ideology driven.
I had wondered why single-mothers, injured workers and others on government benefits were being forced to seek employment, but now it becomes clear. The Howard government's radical industrial relations legislation is clearly set to strip workers' rights to an extreme degree, and there will be a need for an available, exploitable underclass to fill vacancies created by unskilled workers who might be unwilling to sign a (new) minimum wage individual contract.
A new report, from Sydney University's Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Reseach and Training, showed that New Zealand's deregulatory system decreased hourly wage rates by 18% for ordinary time employees and 44% for part-time workers. No-one should confuse the ultimate goals and ideals of capitalism with democracy! As Paul Robinson writes in The Age today - John Stuart Mill observed in 1848 that "under conditions of competition, standards are set by the morally least reputable agent."
Former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, in a lecture on Monday described Howard's Industrial Relations plans as "an assault on the very core of what generations of our citizens have been proud to boast of at home and abroad as the essence of the Australian character: the fair go; the belief that might is not right; that it is not those already with privilege who should be protected by government but the most vulnerable in our society; the encouragement of enterprise, not exploitation."
I know my grandfather would have agreed with him, and so do I.
To the hell of the deep sunk mines,
But we gather the proudest gems that glow,
When the crown of the despot shines."
Ernest Jones - Song of the Lower Classes (c1848, pub. 1952)
This is going to be a political post and I make no apologies for that.
Now that the Howard government (an Australian Federal government of already highly questionable morality) has absolute power in both Houses of Parliament, they are moving rapidly forward with their radically rightwing agenda. That there appears to be no economic need whatsoever should surprise no-one as this is clearly ideology driven.
I had wondered why single-mothers, injured workers and others on government benefits were being forced to seek employment, but now it becomes clear. The Howard government's radical industrial relations legislation is clearly set to strip workers' rights to an extreme degree, and there will be a need for an available, exploitable underclass to fill vacancies created by unskilled workers who might be unwilling to sign a (new) minimum wage individual contract.
A new report, from Sydney University's Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Reseach and Training, showed that New Zealand's deregulatory system decreased hourly wage rates by 18% for ordinary time employees and 44% for part-time workers. No-one should confuse the ultimate goals and ideals of capitalism with democracy! As Paul Robinson writes in The Age today - John Stuart Mill observed in 1848 that "under conditions of competition, standards are set by the morally least reputable agent."
Former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, in a lecture on Monday described Howard's Industrial Relations plans as "an assault on the very core of what generations of our citizens have been proud to boast of at home and abroad as the essence of the Australian character: the fair go; the belief that might is not right; that it is not those already with privilege who should be protected by government but the most vulnerable in our society; the encouragement of enterprise, not exploitation."
I know my grandfather would have agreed with him, and so do I.
Labels: corruption, industrial relations, oppression
