- Opposition playing with fire on IR: Rudd
Email Print Normal font Large font February 18, 2008 - 5:20PM


Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned the Liberal Party it is playing with the "fire" of a double dissolution election if it continues to block workplace laws in the Senate.

The government's workplace bill is yet to arrive in the Senate but the opposition has already shown it is willing to use the last days of its upper house majority to frustrate Labor ambitions.

On Monday, Mr Rudd delivered his most strongly worded threat yet.

Asked whether the possibility of calling a double dissolution election had entered his mind, the prime minister did not directly address the question but delivered an opaque threat.

"The Liberal party are playing with fire," Mr Rudd told reporters in Canberra.

"They should just reflect on this. What did the Australian people say? The Australian people said 'get rid of Work Choices, get rid of AWAs'.

"How loud do you have to be for the Liberals to sit up and take notice. And I think the Liberal party should reflect on their own future when it comes to this extraordinary act of contempt."

Asked if the Liberals would "get burnt", Mr Rudd said that was "a matter for them".

"The Liberal Party are in grave danger of just losing their way. They are so internally divided on a whole range of policy questions."

A double dissolution election, which includes a full Senate election, can be called after a bill has been rejected twice by the upper house following a three-month break between the two votes.

Mr Rudd and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard set about symbolically getting rid of Work Choices despite it still remaining law.

They visited a Canberra industrial site where tens of thousands of Work Choices pamphlets were being packed for shipping to a pulping factory.

"Today we are here to see the destruction of the remaining Work Choices propaganda," Ms Gillard said.

The deputy prime minister promised Labor would not copy the multi-million dollar Work Choices advertising campaign once its laws were passed.

"It won't be glossy booklets, it won't be TV advertisements," Ms Gillard said.

She admitted there would be some advertising spending.

"We, of course, will want to inform people about our new system.

"We understand that employer organisations, unions, employers themselves, employees will want something that explains to them what their rights are.

"It will be the kind of communications you genuinely do when you're trying to explain a new system to people."
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Fun times ahead- would the Libs be this stupid..all past indicators say - yes!!

The opposition has a responsibility to the people of Australia.  Seeing the impact of a Liebor government in power the coalition have to still try to keep Liebor from destroying the country completely no matter what Kevvy thinks.  The opposition are not a rubber stamp for the Liebor Party's jobs-destroying policies.  If they were they wouldn't be an opposition with any compassion for workers.

You will also recall that Liebor opposed the IR policies of the coalition from 1996 until the coalition could pass the excellent policies when they had a majority in the senate in 2005.  Before that Liebor maintained the anti-job, anti-worker policies of Cheating by voting against reform which ensured full time employment was restricted.

Liebor can keep on ruining Australia in lots of other areas until they have the numbers.  They have carte-blanch in signing worthless treaties and mumbling sorry at people.  This will ensure the country is bankrupted soon enough.

Aussie wrote on Feb 19^th, 2008 at 1:22pm:


good news Aussie..



Lib backbencher calls for endorsement of Labor's IR laws
Posted Wed Nov 28, 2007 0:42am AEDT
Updated Wed Nov 28, 2007 0:51am AEDT

A federal Liberal backbencher has urged his Senate colleagues to let Labor's industrial relations (IR) laws through the Upper House because he says it will expose the harm they will do to the economy.

There is a debate within the Coalition about whether it should use its control of the Senate to block Labor's IR changes.

Some Liberals, including West Australian Wilson Tuckey, are urging the Coalition Senators not to vote for the Labor laws.

Queensland Liberal backbencher Michael Johnson says he believes that Labor has a mandate to have its laws passed immediately, and he predicts that would damage the economy and help the Coalition win back votes at the next election.

"I think that in terms of the country's prosperity, somehow I don't believe that in three years' time our unemployment figures will be at record 33-year lows as they are now," he said.

"The people of Australia will revisit their votes and think 'my goodness, what have we done?'

"My view is that they do have a mandate and I actually think that their policies are counter-productive to the economic prosperity of the country, so for my part I wouldn't be too unhappy if they went through because my view is they'll only damage the economy and cause unemployment figures to worsen."


 
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"My god what have we done?..."[[says Michael Johnson]] well this "regressive leftie" voted for freedom to choose and to reinstate our rights and conditions worked so hard for by our  predecessors over generations . We now have a democratic and compassionate leader . Im not sure what the Liberals can do to discredit the labor Party that will give them any political  traction in the electorate.


I voted Labor !          

Side issues [[ Brian Burke]] are just that and won't effect Rudd at all..





Aussie says-
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DT says-
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Well if what you say is right [[and its not]] then Im in good company to the tune of around 60 plus percent of the nation..


Im not saying Liberals dont have any good policies , they do..but they go too far.  Most Australians feel comfortable when the status quo is maintained..there are more poor and working class  /middle income in this country than ever will be the high end. Leave them behind and youve signed your death warrant politically and thats what happened this last election. My very simplistic analysis anyway    

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He may not be following Cheating's phenomenal churlishness but he is adopting a similar careless approach to the economy, he has mirrored Cheating's propensity to tell porkies, he enjoys treating Australians like mushrooms as Cheating did, he doesn't care at all about the consequences of his actions which is exactly like Cheating and he detests workers which is so like Cheating.

All in all he's like a pale imitation of a tyrant gone mad.  But I guess he's building up to that.

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Pray tell what porkies were told about AWB and IR Oceans?  When it comes to porkies the Liebor Party wins the competition hands down.  Who will ever forget Bob Hawke's tricky lurch into Parliament with the porky that there would be no capital gains tax - within two years we had a capital gains tax.  Or Bob's fib that he would not increase the super lump sum tax.  He did so 3 fold.

Both Bob and Paul Cheating lied they would not increase the Medicare levy.  Both actually increased - Bob in 1986 and Cheating increased it twice - in 1993 and 1995.

Need I go on?  The Liebor Party are known as Liebor for a reason dude.

Aussie wrote on Feb 19^th, 2008 at 7:56pm:


I said

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as well. 

In this instance it appears they have decided to let the majority have what they want as they see it as a shorter route to power.  I guess they can try to remedy the huge dole queues and soul destroying interest rates faster that way.  Not what I would have done and not what Johnny would have done but sadly Dr Nelson is not Johnny.

Long live the King.   

Good to see you have given up defending your insipid excuse for a party and resorted to 'hahaha's'

It exposes the shallow end of the gene pool in which the Labor party supporters reside. I say lap it up while you can- history shows your time will be short and I think your excessive protestations coupled to a lack of suitable comeback show your own lack of confidence in your own party...it's very telling to see 

Another couple of years of Labor f@cking the economy (just look at Swans performance- a first year economy student could have done a better job than that little weasel has displayed so far. How the bugger can you put a trillion dollar economy in the hands of those morons I will never know- but birds of a feather...) will see them ousted.

There are tough times ahead - and this is probably the most amateurish start for a govt every displayed- Australia should be embarrassed. I know you're not because Swans performance is on par with yours in this thread...yet you think you have done well.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH