Things that matter
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 they knew best, thought they knew who the terrorists were and didn’t want them getting off on a technicality”.
- For anyone wondering about whether John Howard might be getting a bit old for this Leadership thing at age 66, it’s worth looking at Israeli politics. Ariel Sharon, at age 77, has taken a big political gamble by quitting the party he helped form to set up a new party to run in an imminent election. Another potentially big player in the political realignment, Shimon Peres, is 82 years old.
- If there is anybody who still wonders whether the industrial relations laws are about employment and economics or just about ideological obsessions, read this piece by Ross Gittins. -
“WorkChoices is so one-sided it’s quite mistaken to think of it as “deregulation” of the labour market. Employers may have been deregulated but unions have been subjected to more, highly prescriptive regulation. The new act will be more voluminous, there’ll be more work for lawyers, no tribunals will be abolished but additional ones created, and the minister will be given greatly increased discretion to intervene in union affairs.”
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