One year in and Abbott’s carefully crafted attack on rights at work is on track and only just warming up

07 September, 2014 | Media Release While the cruel and unfair changes to education, health and the pension have dominated Tony Abbott’s first year in office, his Government’s carefully crafted attack on workers rights has been gearing up in the background.

“The Abbott Government has a clear agenda to chip away at workplace laws protecting workers’ rights, wages and conditions by ‘evolution not revolution’,” said ACTU President Ged Kearney.

This includes:

    The Fair Work Amendment Bill that goes further than the Howard Government did in stripping away protections around individual contracts
    A Productivity Commission review of Australia’s entire system of workplace laws with draft terms of reference that may as well have been written by big business
    Plans to set up an appeals body allowing employers to challenge and overrule decisions by the independent umpire, the Fair Work Commission
    Targeting the construction industry with different and harsher laws than any other industry through the Australian Building and Construction Commission and Building Code
    The Bill to amend the Fair Entitlement Guarantee will cut protection of workers’ redundancy payments where their employer is insolvent
    Review of transfer of business protections for state public sector workers where their work is outsourced as well as the rights and protections for outworkers in the textile, clothing and footwear industry
    The Registered Organisations Bill that will hamstring unions in red tape ensuring they can not effectively represent workers or campaign to raise community awareness
    Wasting $54 million on a political witch hunt through the Royal Commission

“The Abbott Government can repeat their mantra of ‘evolution not revolution’ all they like - but no one should be fooled, there is a comprehensive, calculated plan to strip away workers’ rights and wages,” said Ms Kearney.

“Remember, this is the same language the Liberals used to describe their workplace policies last time. All that has really changed is the name.

    “This is evolution, not revolution, and there is still a long way to go."
    Liberal Senator Nick Minchin, speech to HR Nicholls Society, 3 March 2006


“Whatever the Government calls it and however they plan to do it, the end result is still the same – workers will be worse off under Tony Abbott’s anti-worker agenda. Just because they’re not shouting it from the rooftops doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

“The Government has no mandate for these changes. It’s an attack on the rights of millions of Australian workers that goes way beyond what was flagged at the election.

“We’ve seen Tony Abbott target the most vulnerable in our society and attack the living standards of all Australians in his first year in office – there is no doubt he has workers in his sights for the second year.”

longweekend58 wrote on Sep 11^th, 2014 at 5:33pm:


When you just type the words that you wish are true you undermine your own credibility.

Rates went up a bit with the GFC as expected and unavoidable but on the whole were remarkable stable till the conservatives took power.

The ABS figures were posted just the other day and they are at odds with your opinion wish.

The reality is that last month we seen the worst unemployment numbers in 15 over years, this month we see a big improvement back to where it was.

This asks a number of questions ?

Was the last sample an aberration or was it the result of a one off, is this result in this same category as well or are we really seeing the start of a recovery. I can say that I don't know but the next few releases should tell us all.

I personally think that we you see two adjacent samples which are both going to the extreme in opposite directions it is almost certain to be unreliable.

Whatever the real rate of unemployment - it will never go away until We, The People, divest ourselves of this Tag Team of two 'sides' of politics here - each intent on some selfish and unthinking and unfeeling agenda that focuses on freebies and handouts to its particular 'chosen ones'.

We've had the 'socialist' side install and amplify affirmative action as a short term equalisation measure and seen affirmative action become THE way of life for those groups chosen for it and our right to earn equally and fairly removed from us to favour them and our society destroyed as a result; we've seen the focus on 'business' and 'industry' by the 'capitalist' side, and all we've seen is the death of industry after industry here.

Until a government of real vision comes along and proceeds to re-introduce some valid infrastructure including training opportunities in CRAFTSMAN work rather than some idea of sitting down all day and operating a computer for many dollars and sets about restoring GENUINE equality - this country will never see the light of day again.

I predicted, during a computer programming course in 1983 - as part of the required 'humanities' segment - that there would be a permanent high level of unemployment into the foreseeable future.

Unless and until some drastic changes are made and we divest ourselves of this Tag Team - nothing will change for the good - only for the bad.

It is the LEVEL of unemployment that counts and the projections for the future - all dire.

There is no solid infrastructure that provides real jobs instead of MacJobs and short term 'full-time' jobs anywhere on the furthest horizon......

"The Horizon" - the top of the earthworks of a trench in World War I.... and all the ordinary soldier could see most of the time..... in between random death and destruction.....

Now!  Show me that horizon!  The one we can aim for!

History will absolve me - and I do not accept that a few hours a week is a 'job' by any description than that of some self-interested government fool bent on the destruction of my country from within.... both sides... we have both kinds here.. Liberal and Labor.

The point is:-

Even 25 hours a week at $20 - that so many on one side say is too much - is $500 pre-tax... hardly going to give you a home, a future, a retirement package, a car, food on the table, a night out with a prospective shag, and a little comfort and security, is it?  You can spend $400+ a week on rent.... let alone get into the home-ownership slot....

NO part-time job - unless by personal choice - is in any real sense a 'job' at all - it is survival, and what is desperately needed here and now is full employment and full-time jobs at rates which will offer a dedicated worker some hope for a solid future - instead of a gold-lined future for the likes of Tony and Joe.

That means costs have to come down as well, which also means the DEMOLITION of the current housing grab market, the reduction of salaries of fat cats and other strap-hangers, abolition of inflationary taxes such as the GST, solid industry infrastructure that provides many real jobs for the long term instead of propping up holes in the ground, and a foreseeable career and life plan of some sort for the majority.

That should also see a reduction in the level of crime and other social ills... many of which are the direct result of hopelessness.

Then we might begin to see a decent country for all our years of work instead of this robber's paradise we live in now.

Setanta wrote on Sep 11^th, 2014 at 8:59pm:


There are no "whoms" in productivity stats. Growing labour productivity is not a reflection on workers working harder. It has more to do with the uptake of technology. In this regard, both workers and business are adding to the equation.

Add capital and labour together and you end up with multifactor. The decline is obviously in the capital component. The downward slope is what causes wages growth to stall and then fall with respect to inflation. That is what is happening now.

In short, the ratio of capital to labour has been in decline for a long time. Poor government policy from both sides hasn't helped. Too much capital tied up in unproductive asset classes.