Bartlett's Blog

Parliament resumes this week, although only the House of Representatives is sitting.  The Senate is not sitting, but a range of Senate Committees are engaging in additional Estimates hearings.  I expect the focus on economic management and the current pressures on the economy will continue. No doubt Brian Burke's extraordinary capacity to keep making life difficult for politicians will also come into focus as well. Also catching attention is the ...

The federal Labor Party’s emulation of every stance John Howard takes now extends to them also demanding the Senate rubber stamps major legislative changes with no time for proper inquiry or public input. The Federal Opposition is warning the Senate to support Labor's industrial relations policy should it win the election. Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard has told ABC TV's Lateline if Labor wins the election, it wants the legislation ...

The Australian newspaper has reported more detail on Labor’s workplace relations policies, including another major piece of backsliding with the adoption of John Howard’s Workchoices constraints on workplace entry by union officials: “A Rudd government would keep all of John Howard's tough limits on unions entering worksites.” The new strict controls on workplace entry have been a key target in the rhetoric from Labor and the unions since Workchoices became ...

I recently mentioned an experience I had of being criticised in the Senate by a Labor Senator back in 2004 for supporting "fascist" and "evil legislation". This incident came to my mind again when Labor announced that they will maintain the Building and Construction Commission if they win the election, as this was the subject of the "fascist legislation" I supported. Indeed, the measures which I supported in ...

It seems pretty clear that Therese Rein isn't cut out for the federal political arena if these words of hers are accurately quoted: "I fully accept personal responsibility for any errors made by my company in handling the details of the employment arrangements for staff," she said "I have also accepted full responsibility for rectifying any errors." Apologising and taking responsibility for your mistakes! No wonder people like Howard, Downer, ...

Given that workplace relations is such a significant issue at the moment, both politically and - far more importantly - in terms of its impact on people's lives, it's amazing how little of the media commentary is on the actual substance and content of the workplace laws and the various policy proposals being put around to modify them. Most of the media coverage has been dominated by the politics ...

Senate Estimates have provided many opportunities for Senators to try to establish the cost and nature of taxpayer funded advertising across a range of departments, finding that "the total media spend on current Government ads is $111 million." However, the big focus is still on the (not)Workchoices advertising campaign. This is partly because it is very expensive, and partly because it is clearly aimed as much ...

A week or so ago the government announced changes to our workplace laws. It did so with great fanfare and at great cost to the taxpayer through widespread advertising of their new policy. Today in the Senate we discovered that the government is so enamoured with their new changes that they are trying to ensure there is minimal opportunity for the rest of the community to check out the ...

After giving no indication of its intentions during the 2004 election campaign, the Coalition makes some extremist changes to the industrial relations laws, a key one of which is to totally remove the crucial ‘no disadvantage test’ attached to AWA and almost completely remove other aspects of the safety net protecting lower income Australians. Now, six months before the next election, the Coalition says it will introduce a ‘fairness ...

The main front page article today in my local paper, The Sunday Mail, started with the following sentence: “Prime Minister John Howard launched Australia towards a nuclear future, while his opponent Kevin Rudd staked his claim on leadership with a promise of a return to the industrial relations laws of the past.” Even allowing for poetic licence, the suggestion that Mr Rudd’s position involves a return to the laws of ...

Kevin Rudd made some substantial shifts in Labor’s industrial relations policy in his Press Club address this week, releasing four new elements of Labor’s IR policy – a new national uniform system for the private economy; mandatory secret ballots; the abolition of strike pay; and new unfair dismissal laws that create flexibility for small business operators – other elements of our policy will be progressively released between now and ...

I have received a range of correspondence over recent months about the so-called ‘workchoices’ issue. This issue is shaping up as a crucial electoral issue – not just in regards to who ends up in government, but what the consequences of the various possible Senate outcomes might be. There’s plenty of different aspects to it I could go into – and probably will a bit later – but I ...

The shambles over the sacking and apparent ‘unsacking’ of 29 meat workers at an abattoir in Cowra shows the risks of rushing through ideologically driven laws without bothering to give adequate attention to how those laws will work in practice.

This is a description of the final stages of the Senate debate on the government's radical workplace relations change as I witnessed it from my seat in the Senate chamber. At 4.30pm today, the guillotine came down on the Senate, and votes were forced on all the amendments which had been circulated but not yet moved or debated.

The Second Reading vote on the Workplace Relations (Work Choices) Bill was brought on at 12 noon. The vote passed by 36-34, with all Government Senators in favour, and all Labor, Democrat, Green and Family First Senators voting against. The debate now moves on to what is known as the Committee Stage, where amendments can be moved and debated. As mentioned here, there is a total of 471 ...

At the very start of Senate business at 9.30am this morning, without notice or warning, the Government moved to introduce a guillotine on the workplace relations legislation to force it to a vote by tomorrow. By no coincidence, at the very same time the Government was guillotining the welfare legislation through the House of Representatives. The Government was probably hoping to avoid any further speeches such as ...

The Senate Committee report into the terror law that was tabled today provides a very good example of how valuable it can be when a few government Senators show sufficient courage to actually admit to and point out significant flaws in a piece of legislation. On this occasion, the Government (and non-government) Senators recommended over 50 changes that should be made. Margot Kingston's site provides some good ...

The welfare changes will be debated the week after next, with the workplace and terror laws coming this week. The welfare changes are dishonestly labelled as a 'welfare to work' package, even though what it will mean for over one hundred thousand people (according to the government's own figures) is 'welfare to (more poorly paid) welfare'. This is reminiscent of the dishonest title of the 'work ...

The Government has released its program for the sitting of the Senate next week. As expected, it has listed debate on the radical changes to the Workplace Relations Act to start first up on Monday, followed by the Terror laws later in the week. The Committee examining the misleadingly named ‘Work Choices’ legislation was forced to complete their report by today, with the Government refusing to allow even ...

I'm too immersed in Committee hearings on the welfare legislation to write much detail about things at the moment. Here are some things worth reading on other current issues: - A piece from Redrag which shows that state Labor governments can be just as good as 'Liberals' at legislation that gives extreme and unnecessary powers to government agents. - A timely reminder of another instance of politicians who "thought ...