The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

Huge turnout expected for IR protest
November 13, 2005 - 1:29PM/the AGE

Unions expect the biggest political protest in Australian history this Tuesday when workers will rally across the country against the federal government's industrial relations changes.

The union-organised community rallies and meetings will be held in all capital cities and more than 300 regional centres.

ACTU president Sharan Burrow said the meetings would be linked by a national satellite broadcast from Federation Square in Melbourne, and would be screened on Sky channel.

"Tuesday without doubt will be the biggest political protest we've seen," Ms Burrow said.

Ms Burrow said the living standards of working Australians would be under attack if their take-home pay was cut with the loss of penalty rates, overtime and shift allowances.

The government used its numbers to force the legislation through the House of Representatives last week, guillotining debate on the package, amid outrage from opposition MPs.

The bill will be debated in the Senate in two weeks. The government has the majority in the Senate, but maverick Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce has expressed some concerns over parts of the bill.

Ms Burrow has urged senators to carefully consider their vote on the legislation.

"Look, I would hope that all senators, all politicians are today examining their conscience. They're law makers," Ms Burrow said.

"We've now got to say to those politicians: `Do your job, listen to Australians and stand up to John Howard.'"

But Ms Burrow said she was prepared for the chance that the legislation would pass through the Senate unchallenged.

"Do I hold out a great deal of hope? Not particularly," she said... <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Huge-turnout-expected-for-IR-protest/2005/11/13/1131816798829.html

I am gonna be there!!!!!

I will try and cock a snook at that awful Rumsfeld too.

our schoolies are stopping work on tue, which i applaud. bit of a bugger though cause now I have to find something for a 14 and 16 year old to do.

Better than having right wing schoolies, though, yes?

Oh, everyone who is anyone will be there, Deb! Be there or be square! Can you walk to it?

Dadpad, any regional meetings in your neck of the woods? Can you get to one?

Victorian Trades Hall Council site with information on the Melbourne rally & regional gatherings:

http://www.vthc.org.au/index.cfm?viewmode=eNews&section=10&category=38

I heard DEWR (the IR dept) aren't letting their employees take their own leave/flex to participate?

Oh - the ACTU has a site up for all the rallies in the country including the regionals; even Cairns.

http://www.rightsatwork.com.au/campaigns/november15

Last Update: Monday, November 14, 2005. 10:15pm (AEDT)

'Harassed' leaders renew IR challenge threat

State and territory leaders have restated their intention to mount a High Court challenge to the Federal Government's proposed industrial relations changes.

The leaders have appeared before a Senate inquiry investigating the reforms.

Queensland's Industrial Relations Minister, Tom Barton, says he and his colleagues were harassed by Government senators at the hearing.

"I think the Senate committee were very arrogant in terms of their response," Mr Barton said.

"We were given a short two hours ... then there was a great deal of restriction on the number of questions that could be asked.

"All of us had the same view that we were treated with a high degree of contempt by the Government members of that Senate committee."

Mr Barton says the leaders told the inquiry that the changes are unfair, unwieldy and unnecessary.

"We view it as the greatest single act of vandalism of the Australian Constitution in 100 years," Mr Barton said. .. <cont>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1506538.htm

Funny how little this is acknowledged, isn't it?:

I reckon it is now Tuesday in Aus. I look forward to your reports on the IR demonstrations.
I had to go back about 10 pages to find a posting that described the terms of the bill. I had kind of forgotten the details. Goodfielder posted a link to an article (04nov05) in The Australian. Much appreciated by someone who is not intimately following the issue.

Bloody big here.....I slept in....waaah...and got there late, joined the rally at Parliament House (our government is firmly against most of the changes, and is joining in a move to take them to the High Court to argue they are illegal/unconstitutional) and thought it was small....then left, and started to walk to work, onlt to find a huge march passing!


So I joined that. Looked big. Nowhere near as huge as the marches protesting the anti aboriginl land rights laws, and the anti Iraq ones were bigger, but I was two hours late, so some may have left.


Anyhoo.....old people, young people, scary looking building workers, little old ladies, Quakers, black, white, brindle......

Nice.

And apparently it passed off without incident here. Good. Worse thing that could happen is the media portraying it as being run by and attended by irresponsible "unionists".

That description you gave dlowan takes me back to the early Vietnam War demos here. I remember the Quakers and other supporters walking along the footpath with their signs only to stop at the red "Don't Walk" flashing sign then wait until it was green to continue marching. Of course later we had the September demo but that was a year or so later.

I hope this has the same sort of deep public support because if it does then it bodes well.

Hello, again, RJB! Thanks for continuing to take an interest in our political goings on in Oz. It's just ust after 3:30pm now & I just got home. A huge rally & thanks heavens the threatening rain held off. (It rained cats & dogs last night) I can't say it felt like a big celebratory event. Most folk i saw looked pretty grim & serious ... & tired! But but lots of us there all the same, all deadly serious, I can tell you! This campaign is going to take ages to win. This was just phase 1.:

Protesters engulf Melbourne CBD


Melbourne's landmark buildings - Flinders Street station, Young & Jackson Hotel, St Paul's Cathedral and Federation Square - surround a sea of protesters.

Burly blue collar workers joined suited office staff and mums with strollers to protest against the Howard Government's workplace changes in Melbourne's CBD this morning.

The crowd, estimated at up to 175,000 people, stretched from a crammed Federation Square up Swanson Street to La Trobe Street in a sea of union flags and placards.

Speeches by union officials and politicians at Federation Square were broadcast on the square's large televison screen and relayed to crowds down the street on loudspeakers. .. <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/protesters-engulf-melbourne-cbd/2005/11/15/1132016771730.html?oneclick=true

Last Update: Tuesday, November 15, 2005. 1:23pm (AEDT)

Unions claim anti-IR law rallies a success

Unions claim up to 200,000 people have protested at the main industrial relations rally in Melbourne, with an estimated 60,000 more in other capital cities and in regional centres throughout Australia.

Huge crowds packed into Federation Square in Melbourne this morning.

Protesters marched across the city to the Carlton Gardens, where Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) secretary Martin Kingham said the rally was a huge success.

"Looks like 200,000 to me - the biggest industrial rally that I've ever seen in Melbourne," he said.

Thousands of building workers attended the rally despite the threat of a $22,000 fine each for taking part.

Australian Workers Union (AWU) secretary Bill Shorten says today's rallies are just the beginning of a campaign against the Howard Government.

"You asked what is the strategy for the next 700 days - the strategy is to fight - to fight in the workplace, to fight in the community, to fight in the media and to get rid of the Howard Government," he said.

The chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) Peter Hendy says most workers have ignored the national protest against the proposed workplace relations changes. .. <cont>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1506947.htm

Actually, it wasn't ALL grim resolve on the streets of Melbourne today. There were some very nice moments & the odd funny one, too:

Like, travelling into the city centre to the rally, packed in like sardines on the No 96 tram: Yarra Trams announced on its PA system that, contrary to popular misconception, a strike day did NOT mean free public transport! Everyone laughed. Actually, the tram was so packed that it was impossible to get to the ticket machine, so most of us didn't pay, anyway.
Got a free trip home, too.

Then, there was Paul Kelly's marvellous performance in the Carlton Gardens, where we'd marched to from Federation Square. The sun had finally come out & we were all mightily relieved that the rally hadn't been a disaster. Paul sang:

Little Kings

I'm so afraid for my country
There's an ill wind blowing no good
So many lies in the name of history
They want to improve my neighbourhood

I'm so worried about my brother
He just gets sadder every day
We gotta take care of each other
Or else we're gonna have to pay

In the land of the little kings
There's a price on everything
And everywhere the little kings
Are getting away with murder

I was born in a lucky country
Every day I hear the warning bells
They're so busy building palaces
They don't see the poison in the wells

In the land of the little kings
Profit is the only thing
And everywhere the little kings
Are getting away with murder

In the land of the little kings
Justice don't mean a thing
And everywhere the little kings
Are getting away with murder

<sigh>

thanks msolga

A pleasure.