Another 400 Broken Promises As Unemployment Queue Grows

 A media release from the Labor opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk:

30 AUGUST 2012

The Newman Government has today served up another 400 broken promises with mass sackings across the critical Natural Resources and Mines area.

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said Natural Resources Minister Andrew Cripps delivered another 413 public sector workers to the unemployment queue and had attempted to downplay the mass sackings as a “cost saving program” which “reshaped” his department.

“But what this Minister has failed to admit is that through his so-called reshaping he is marching more than 400 people out the door,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“That’s another 400 families who will today find themselves in crisis, another 400 families who will be looking forward to an unhappy Christmas, another 400 families who will have to sort out how they are going to pay the rent, pay the mortgage and put food on the table.

“The manner in which this cold-hearted government is carrying out its vendetta against the public sector is nothing short of disgraceful.

“To the Premier and his Ministers, these workers are just numbers. And they can’t dress up the job losses whether they amount to 15,000 or 20,000 – that’s still 15,000 or 20,000 broken promises.

“And the reality is that with the number of workers now facing unemployment, the human cost is very high.

“In addition, when you rid the state of huge numbers of highly experienced workers like this, years of experience is marched out the door never to be replaced.

“The Minister has hide today to say that a number of these workers had expressed an interest in leaving their jobs and the insensitivity to dress his sacking program up as a vital cost savings exercise.

“These are the people who protect Queensland’s precious environment.

“The Minister needs to front up and tell Queenslanders how he intends to preserve and protect the environment without these jobs into the future.”

The Beating of the Drums

*THE WORKER* 
Brisbane, February 21, 1891

The Wellington (N.Z.) Times says very rightly :- “ If a few unruly unionists outstep the bounds of propriety the whole organisation is pounced on and decried as a menace to society, while the tyrannical acts and powers of capitalists and the existing laws are allowed to go on without even a passing condemnation; it is when this is done by the very victims of these acts, powers and laws, that insulted justice covers its hollow eyes and weeps tears of blood.”

At the half-yearly meeting of the Q.S.U. held in July last a letter was read from the Warrego District Employers Association, Charleville, asking delegates from the union to attend their meeting. In reply it was resolved:-

That the secretary write the association to the effect that this committee has no power to make arrangements nor to appoint delegates to attend the meeting as requested, but delegates from the Employers' Association will be received by the Shearers' Union at the time of the annual meeting in December next.

This resolution was published all over the colony but no employer attended the December meeting as invited. Yet the Q.S.U. is accused of trying to settle everything without regard to the position of the squatter.

The first of a series of meetings convened by the Brisbane District, A.L.F., for the purpose of telling the public the truth about the bush trouble was held on Friday last, a meeting called during the previous week having been prevented by heavy rain.

The Queensland pastoralists have obtained the loan of a large body of police who have been placed entirely under their control. Freedom of contract, free labourers, free police. What next ?

On the 10^th instant the largest meeting ever held in the Rockhampton School of Arts enthusiastically passed the following resolutions:-

That in view of the fact that the Queensland Pastoralists' Association refuses to submit the present dispute to a conference having power to deal with the whole question at issue, this meeting protests against the threatened invasion of foreign labour while thousands of workers here are idle, whose appeal for a reasonable settlement of the dispute has been refused, as the introduction of such foreign labour at the present time is calculated to provoke a serious breach of the public peace.

That this meeting further protests against the handing over of the control of the police to the Pastoralists' Association as a gross violation of the impartiality of British law and calls upon the Government to rescind the order already given and to abstain in future from all such open and unblushing partiality. Also that copies of this and of the preceding resolution be forwarded to Premier of the colony and the M.M.L.A. for the district.

An amendment to the first motion - “ That the pastoralists of Queensland are perfectly justified in the action they are taking” - only secured seven votes.

Queenslanders See The Real LNP.

A media release from opposition Labor Leader:

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk says a succession of opinion polls show the LNP and Premier Campbell Newman have breached the trust Queenslanders placed in them just five months ago.

“While individual opinion polls come and go, the unmistakable trend in recent results points to the LNP’s fundamental breach of trust with the electorate,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Queenslanders have had five months to see the real face of the LNP and they will not be fooled by any future attempts to spin a friendlier image of a government that has been exposed as arrogant, callous and out of touch.”

Ms Palaszczuk said a significant finding in the latest Galaxy poll in today’s Courier-Mail was the failure of the LNP’s blame game on the state’s finances.

“For five months the Premier, Treasurer and every other LNP Minister and MP have been talking down our state and trying to blame the previous government for the LNP’s mass sackings and cuts to frontline services,” she said.

“They have heard the Premier liken Queensland to Spain, and have heard him talk about us being on a ‘high dive into the abyss’. Treasurer Tim Nicholls has spoken about the state going off Niagara Falls and he spins a horror story at home but tells the truth when talking to overseas investors.

“Queenslanders have not been fooled, especially when they see five LNP Ministers and MPs having to admit in State Parliament about their false statements peddling the ‘$100 billion debt’ myth fabricated by the Costello Audit.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the latest poll results showed Queenslanders were disappointed and angry at the LNP government and Premier who had stopped listening and were refusing to take the community’s concerns on board.

“The results show a massive disappointment with the LNP and are a damning indictment on not only the Premier but on all LNP Members of Parliament for their support of mass sackings and the slash-and-burn approach to frontline services,” she said.

“This is a government that gleefully continues to repeat that it will sack 20,000 public sector workers, and it continues to bandy about sacking figures without taking into account that behind each of those numbers is a family that must put food on the table, pay the rent or the mortgage and put their kids through school.

“This has been a horrifying, frightening five months for all Queenslanders and the results of that are reflected in this poll.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the Labor Party was doing what the LNP wasn’t — listening to people and raising their concerns about the LNP's job cuts, loss of frontline services, the stripping away of job security and the impacts those are having on state, regional and local economies.

Former Prime Minister John Howard has urged a return to individual employment contracts.

A few quotes from a speech to a Westpac forum by Former Prime Minister John Howard, it comes from an article in the  "Financial Review" dated  27/08/12:

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"Former Prime Minister John Howard has urged Tony Abbott’s Coalition to return to the individual employment contracts of the Work Choices era"

"I think we have to address this issue again. There is no reason why this country should not go back to the workplace system we had between 1996 and 2005 where you had individual contracts."

 "Mr Howard suggested that Mr Abbott was locked into opposing the carbon tax for political reasons at the expense of business certainty"

"Pressed during the question and answer session on Mr Abbott’s unrelenting political campaign against the carbon tax and whether the opposition leader should shift his position to give business certainty, Mr Howard effectively admitted the Opposition Leader’s hands were tied by political, rather than policy factors."
 

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 It is interesting to see what is running through little Johnny's mind, there would have to be a lot more Members of the Coalition who would like to see the return of Work Choices in some form to. And like before it will reduce working conditions and wages, it is in the Liberals DNA to bring back a form of Work Choices in the future.

Also if that's the case in regard to the Carbon Tax, Tony Abbott is condemning it because of political reasons and not scientific research, that really says a lot about the man, who is playing politics with future generations of Australian lives. 

Newman Puts Rural and Regional Ambulance Stations at Risk.

A Media release from the Shadow Community Safety Minister Bill Byrne for Queensland:

Shadow Community Safety Minister Bill Byrne says the Premier has failed to guarantee the future of ambulance stations and paramedic numbers in rural and regional Queensland.

Mr Byrne said the Premier was asked in State Parliament to guarantee the existing stations and paramedic numbers would be maintained or enhanced.

“Appallingly, instead of reassuring the people of rural and regional Queensland, the Premier said ‘all things are being looked at’ and he is not making any guarantees,” Mr Byrne said.

“That means ambulance stations, especially in smaller centres, could fall victim to the Newman Government’s axe.

“I think communities right across rural and regional Queensland would be horrified that the Premier is considering closing their local ambulance station or slashing frontline paramedic positions.

“Once again Premier Newman has shown his utter ignorance about the service needs of rural and regional Queensland,” he said.

Mr Byrne said the Premier’s admission came on the same day the Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney belittled and dismissed ambulance workers and fire fighters protesting at Parliament House.

“More than 1,000 ambos and firies rallied at Parliament House yesterday calling on the Government to guarantee regional and rural stations will remain open, to confirm emergency workers will not be outsourced and to open negotiations on wages and conditions,” he said.

“Instead of providing guarantees for our hard-working frontline ambos and firies or even talking to them, the Newman Government rudely dismissed them.

“The Deputy Premier told the media yesterday ‘those people really are wasting their time’.

“The arrogant dismissal of these concerns is insulting to all Queenslanders who rely on the important frontline services ambos and firies provide.”

Springborg Must Explain Health Cutbacks.

A media release from the Shadow Health Minister for Queensland Jo-Ann Miller:

Shadow Health Minister, Jo-Ann Miller, says the LNP government has not ruled out cuts to oral health services in Brisbane as well as cancer services in Toowoomba, Townsville, Hervey Bay, Mount Isa, Bundaberg and Rockhampton.

“If the LNP government is to stoop as low as cutting funding for oral health or cancer services it needs to say so now, and not sneak out the announcement after dark as it usually does with its bad news,” Mrs Miller said.

“In State Parliament today Health Minister, Lawrence Springborg, claimed all health services would gain a funding boost in the State Budget.

“How then does he explain suggestions that oral health services in the Metro North health region have been told to cut their budgets and the jobs of three part time dentists will disappear?

“I am advised that the Metro North health region’s oral health services have been told to make payroll savings of $1.75 million to its $30 million budget. That’s a cut of about 6%.

“I also understand that within the Metro North region management at the Brisbane Dental Hospital have been told to find labour cost savings of at least $200,000 and possibly up to $550,000 out of a $6 million.

“Oral health services at Royal Children’s Hospital including surgery on cleft palates in infants have been asked to find savings of $100,000 to $150,000.

”How does that all sit with Mr Springborg’s assertions of funding boosts?”

Mrs Miller said she was also concerned about information from within Queensland Health about possible cuts to vital cancer services.

“The Health Minister today attacked funding arrangements of Commonwealth/State health programs, leaving the door open to cuts to state funding components,” she said.

“I am told that the LNP is considering rolling back the state component of the Regional Cancer Centres scheme as part of the Newman Government’s cuts to frontline services.

“Any cuts to the state government’s funding of the RCC program is likely to come from scaling back components covering the operation and equipping of the RCCs.”

Mrs Miller said the federal government committed more than $164 million over four years for Regional Cancer Centre capital funding for projects in Toowoomba, Townsville, Hervey Bay, Mount Isa, Bundaberg and Rockhampton as part of total national funding of $560 million announced in the 2009-10 Federal Budget. Most of the RCCs in Queensland are in the final planning or building phase.

The federal funding was to be on top of the previous state government’s commitment of $105 million over four years from 2010-11 to staff, equip and operate the RCCs.

The Bushmen Roused to Action

*THE WORKER* 
Brisbane, February 21, 1891

Several developments have taken place in connection with the bush struggle. On Tuesday, 11^th instant, about 150 blacklegs arrived at Rockhampton in the Derwent, and were escorted to the train by a strong body of armed police. Twenty-eight constables accompanied the Southerners to the West, where they were drafted to Logan Downs, Gordon Downs, Arcturus Downs, and Ravensworth Stations, At Clermont the non-unionists nearly came to grief owing to the abstraction of the linch pins from the squatters' waggons, which was not discovered until the order for starting had been given. At the last moment a couple of the men decided to forswear the business of blacklegging and threw in their lot with the white men.

On Sunday last an enthusiastic mass meeting of unionists was held in the scrub near Barcaldine. Rousing speeches were made, and it was decided to discontinue the policy of inactivity pursued hitherto. Accordingly 200 horseman started for Clermont to strengthen the union camp there, with a view to taking steps to induce the blacklegs on the surrounding stations to stop work. Brisbane dailies say the unionists announced their intention of carrying the blacklegs off by force if necessary, and are well supplied with arms and ammunition.

The newspapers, who never said one word against the squatters' reduction of wages, the introduction of foreign labour, or the placing of the police under the control of the Pastoralists' Association, have raised a tremendous howl against this new departure, the Brisbane dailies advocating the arrest of all union officials. Of course everybody expected that the western men would show the utmost respect for the laws in whose making they had no voice, and whose administration rests entirely in the hands of the class which is now combined to crush the workers. The police guards on the several blacklegs stations are to be reinforced by men drawn from all parts of the colony, and it is talked of sending the Permanent Force to make a demonstration with Gatlings and Nordenfelts, so as to install a proper " respect " for the Law into all unionists who are not prepared to remain quietly in camp while their places are filled by the scum of the other colonies.

The Labour Movement.

A quote from Ben Chifley Prime Minister of Australia 1945 – 1949:

" After the long association I have had with Labour knowing all it's faults and it's difficulties, and all the things people do and say, I have such an affection for the Labour Movement that it over rides any other consideration for me.”

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Industrial Wing + Political Wing = Labour Movement

The Opposition Leader, he has been given a free ride.

This is exactly what Tony Abbott needs to be asked by the Australian Media, since he has been opposition Leader he has been given a free ride, he has been aloud to get away with anything he says without having to back it up with facts and it takes the ABC our National Broadcaster to do the job.

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An extract from an interview with opposition Leader Tony Abbott, from the ABC 7:30 Report:

22/08/12

"Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the carbon price and mining tax are to blame for economic uncertainty in Australia while also responding to the language of asylum and the nature of speech in parliament.

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: To discuss the BHP announcement today and other issues I was joined moments ago from Parliament House in Canberra by the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Tony Abbott, welcome to the program.

TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER: Evening, Leigh.
LEIGH SALES: You were pretty loose with the truth today, weren't you, when you said that BHP's decision to put the Olympic Dam project on hold was partly due to the Federal Government's new taxes?
TONY ABBOTT: Not at all, Leigh. For months BHP have been warning that the carbon tax and the mining tax are making Australia a less competitive place to invest. And Marius Kloppers himself said back in June that the carbon tax and so on are all conspiring to turn Australia from a low cost to a high cost environment.
LEIGH SALES: Well let me read you exactly what Marius Kloppers had to say today when he was asked if the decision on Olympic Dam was related to Australian taxes. He said, "The decision is almost wholly associated with in the first instance capital costs." He goes on to say "As you know, the tax environment for this particular project has not changed at all since we started working on it six or seven years ago. The MRRT only covers coal and iron ore, not copper, not gold and not uranium, so the tax situation for this project has not changed."
TONY ABBOTT: And, Leigh, let me read you what Jacques Nasser said back in May. He said, "I cannot overstate how the level of uncertainty about Australia's tax system is generating negative investor reaction." Sure, today, today, Marius Kloppers didn't want to make a very bad situation worse by directly blaming the Federal Government. Of course he didn't want to directly blame the Federal Government. But for months, for months BHP has been sending signals to the Government this build-up of tax, this build-up of high costs is making it much more difficult for this investment to go ahead.
LEIGH SALES: But, today, if you're right, then why does it say nowhere in the BHP statement that there's anything to do with the Federal Government? If you go through the documents they blame weakness in commodity markets, industry-wide cost pressure, instability in the eurozone, the slowdown of growth in China. They haven't been backwards in criticising the Federal Government before, but they certainly haven't today.
TONY ABBOTT: And, Leigh, they didn't need to say it today because they've said it so often in the recent past.
LEIGH SALES: Well they listed everything else that was to blame.
TONY ABBOTT: You're not seriously - you're not seriously telling me, Leigh, that the mining tax and the carbon tax have made Australia an easier place to invest in.
LEIGH SALES: I'm going on the facts that Marius Kloppers said today when he was directly asked if the decision on Olympic Dam was affected by Australia's tax situation and I'm going on the facts that are outlined in their results statement that they've issued. Have you actually read BHP's statements?
TONY ABBOTT: No, but I've also got again the statement of Jacques Nasser, who says, "While we're still evaluating the impact of the carbon tax, but it just makes it more difficult."
LEIGH SALES: But hang on, no, no, you haven't read their statements today, but you're commenting about what they've announced today and how the Federal Government's to blame for that.
TONY ABBOTT: Leigh, I didn't say that the carbon tax and the mining tax were solely to blame. I said that the carbon tax and the mining tax have created an environment where it's much more difficult for investments like this to go ahead. I bleed for the people of South Australia tonight because there's 8,000 construction jobs, 4,000 production jobs and 13,000 associated jobs that are at the very best on indefinite hold because of this decision.
LEIGH SALES: How do you know more what's to blame though?
TONY ABBOTT: And the mining tax and the carbon tax make a bad investment environment much, much worse.
LEIGH SALES: How do you know more what's to blame than Marius Kloppers, who I presume has read his own documents?
TONY ABBOTT: And, Leigh, I've been reading what they've been saying for the last few months.
LEIGH SALES: Tony Abbott, on the carbon tax you've been saying that it would be a wrecking ball through the economy, but if you look at the latest jobs figures, more people are in employment, the economy continues to grow solidly, inflation is low. Are you once again being a little bit loose with the facts there?
TONY ABBOTT: Leigh, 1st July wasn't the end of the pain; 1st July is the beginning of the pain. And the carbon tax, don't forget, just goes up and up and up. It's $29 a tonne in 2015, it's $37 a tonne in 2020, it's $350 a tonne in 2050, if it's not repealed. Now, it is, as I've been saying, a python squeeze, not a cobra strike, but it starts to hurt from day one.
LEIGH SALES: But where is the evidence if it's hurting from day one of a wrecking ball through the economy?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, I think that we can say that in some ways at least the postponement of Olympic Dam is the biggest victim so far of the new taxes that this government has put in place.
LEIGH SALES: Marius Kloppers said - I don't want to quote it again - but that, "... the tax environment for this particular project has not changed and that it has associated this decision to delay with capital costs."
TONY ABBOTT: And capital costs are obviously more difficult in a situation where the company is massively impacted by the mining tax and the carbon tax. Let's not forget for a second, Leigh, BHP with Rio is Australia's biggest iron ore producer. BHP is one of Australia's biggest coal producers. They are all impacted big time by the mining tax.
LEIGH SALES: They've announced a $15 billion profit today.
TONY ABBOTT: About one third down on last year, and in any event, that's a profit based on past results, it's not a profit based on the results of the future. That's what they're looking at now; they're looking at future prospects, not past results.
LEIGH SALES: Why have you referred repeatedly to illegal asylum boats coming to Australia? Do you accept that that's illegal and that seeking asylum by any means is legal?
TONY ABBOTT: Most of the people who are coming to Australia by boat have passed through several countries on the way and if they simply wanted asylum they could have claimed that in any of the countries through which they'd passed.
LEIGH SALES: But I don't believe that it's actually illegal to pass through countries on your way to somewhere where you want to have asylum.
TONY ABBOTT: You try turning up in America without documents, without a visa, without a passport; you'll be treated as very, very much illegal, Leigh. The other point I make, from recollection at least, is that the very term that the Government has officially used to describe these vessels is "suspected illegal entry vessel".
LEIGH SALES: Do you - I'm asking you though, not about the Government. I'm asking: do you accept that it's legal to come to Australia to seek asylum by any means - boat, plane - that it is actually legal to seek asylum?
TONY ABBOTT: I think that people should come to Australia through the front door, not through the back door. If people want a migration outcome, they should go through the migration channels.
LEIGH SALES: That's an answer to the question if I asked you: how do you think people should seek asylum?, it's not an answer to the question: is it legal to seek asylum?
TONY ABBOTT: And Leigh, it's the answer I'm giving you because these people aren't so much seeking asylum, they're seeking permanent residency. If they were happy with temporary protection visas, then they might be able to argue better that they were asylum seekers, but obviously the people who are coming to Australia by boat, they want permanent residency; that's what they want and this government has given the people smugglers a business model by putting permanent residency on the table. And even though the Government has adopted just one of the Howard Government's successful policies, it won't adopt temporary protection visas or the willingness to turn boats around where it's safe to do so.
LEIGH SALES: Do you think that the nature of politics allows politicians to be a little bit free with the facts in their statements just as part of the game of politics?
TONY ABBOTT: I certainly think that we had an example today in the Parliament of the Prime Minister caught out misleading the Parliament, but typically of this prime minister she just tries to brazen her way through it by refusing to answer the question. She said ...
LEIGH SALES: But how about - speaking of answering the question, how about you? I mean, what do you think? Are you absolutely scrupulous about making sure what you say in public is accurate?
TONY ABBOTT: Of course I am. What we had in the Parliament today was the Prime Minister clearly caught out. She said in the Parliament last year that it had been the industrial registrar who'd called her office about the Health Services Union and the Craig Thomson matter. It was exposed in the report that we got yesterday that in fact her office had called the industrial registrar. Now, in terms of this prime minister's looseness with the truth, maybe not her worst offence, maybe nothing to rank up there with, "There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead," but certainly yet another example of a prime minister who is seriously ethically challenged.
LEIGH SALES: But on questions of being loose with the truth, I've run you through three examples there on BHP, on the carbon tax and on asylum seeker boats where people would say you've been a bit loose with the truth.
TONY ABBOTT: And I've given you answers to demonstrate that what I've said is entirely justifiable.
LEIGH SALES: When we scratch beneath Tony Abbott's criticism of the Government, what's there? Is there an industrial relations policy, for example? Are you going to tell us if you're going to do what businesses want in terms of introducing flexibility into the workplace?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, I've told you that we will certainly address the flexibility problem, the militancy problem, the productivity problem and we'll do so in good time before the next election, Leigh.
LEIGH SALES: Well when exactly because business, I'm sure, would like certainty. You spoke about BHP being worried about uncertainty earlier.
TONY ABBOTT: And I'm offering them the certainty of the abolition of the carbon tax, the certainty of the abolition of the mining tax. I want to see an end to sovereign risk questions over Australia.
LEIGH SALES: You've said that it's in the public interest for Julia Gillard to answer some questions regarding her history with Slater & Gordon. What are the questions she needs to answer?
TONY ABBOTT: Look, these are questions that have been put to her by The Australian, which has run I think a very proper investigative analysis of her period with Slater & Gordon.
LEIGH SALES: And what are those questions? What are the questions?
TONY ABBOTT: But look, this isn't the main game for us. The main game for us are the cost of living pressures that this government has inflicted on the Australian public. It's not really ...
LEIGH SALES: Well sure, but a string of your - I'm sorry to interrupt, but a string of your frontbench have come out on this Slater & Gordon issue so I'm just wondering what are the questions that you want answered?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, the issue here is not whether she was an unethical lawyer. The issue surely is she is an unethical prime minister. And that's the main game for us, Leigh.
LEIGH SALES: No, but your - members of your frontbench keep saying she should give a statement to the Parliament. You said you would assist her to do that because you thought it was in the public interest. What are the questions you want to hear her answer in the Parliament?
TONY ABBOTT: And the point I'm making is that various reputable media bodies have put questions to her. I think the ...
LEIGH SALES: I'm just asking what those questions are.
TONY ABBOTT: I think the circumstances of her departure from a previous employer are of public interest, but in the end it's not whether she was an unethical lawyer that matters, it's the fact that this is an untrustworthy prime minister that counts, and that's the main game for us.
LEIGH SALES: But if you can't put to me - if you can't put to me specific questions that you want answered, then why are members of your frontbench running with it as an issue?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, look, don't forget it was Robert McClelland, Leigh, who first raised this recently.
LEIGH SALES: Sure, but you've run with it.
TONY ABBOTT: It was then raised again by Andrew Wilkie in the Parliament just a couple of days ago. Bill Shorten himself, in a sense, dumped the Prime Minister in it when he said that in recent times he was confident that the AWU had been legitimately and ethically run.
LEIGH SALES: Tony Abbott, there's always lots of things to ask you, but I'm afraid we're out of time. Thank you very much for making time to speak to us.
TONY ABBOTT: Thank you."

Labour Day change.

Queensland's Labour Day holiday will be changed to October by the Newman Government, how petty and vindictive against working people can they get. Labour Day holiday has traditionally always been held in May in Queensland, so the Unions can celebrate winning better working conditions for there Members and enjoy May Day with the rest of the world's workers.

The Newman Government seems to take alot of pleasure in sinking the boot in when it comes to the Labour Movement. This decision reverses the previous Labor Government's move to transfer the Queen's Birthday holiday from June to October to some people this is not important, but I think it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Mr Newman you are few but we are many.

Howard Government as a template.

 In a speech to the South Australian Liberal Party over the weekend, Tony Abbott promised to return Australia to the so called “golden years” his words not mine, of the Howard government, in it he gives a very good insight into his mindset and I quote some of his speech:

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“The tradition of the Howard government would live on, he declared, in no small part because of the similarities between his frontbench and the ministerial team of the former PM.”

“Sixteen members of my frontbench were ministers in the Howard government''

''We won't have to learn on the job because we have done the job before”

“There won't be questions about the judgement of an incoming Coalition government because an incoming Coalition government has shown good judgement in the past”

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Compared to previous Liberal-National Party Coalition Governments, I believe John Howard moved his Government to the far right with his policies he turned the Australian Society up side down and in the process changed Australia forever, I believe for the worst.

When John Howard and his Government brought in Workchoices that attacked the working conditions of average Australians he had gone to far and we through him and his far right Government out of office, he was disliked so much at the end, that he even lost his own seat, I think he was only the second Australian Prime Minister in history to lose Government and his seat at the same time.

In Tony Abbotts speech we have him using the Howard Government as a template for a possible future Tony Abbott led Government and will we get more of the same?

Bushmen's Official Proclamation

*THE WORKER* 
Brisbane, February 7, 1891

The following official proclamation has been issued to the members of the Q.S.U. and Q.L.U. :-

Fellow Unionists,

An unprovoked and unjustifiable attack has been made upon the above unions by the squatters' associations. It therefore becomes our duty to take such action as will best conserve our interests and frustrate the attempts of organised Capitalism to crush unionism and reduce wages in this district.

The terms which the capitalists are attempting to enforce are known to you all. The agreements, which apply to both shearers and shed hands, deny us the right to resist any insidious undermining of our unions, even though such undermining should take the form of the introduction of that “ cheap and reliable ” labour which so many squatters seem to prefer to their own flesh and blood. In other ways the squatter __ whose treatment of the bushman first brought the bush unions into resistance ___ is made the sole arbiter of the working conditions of those whom Capitalism can force to sign away their rights as men. Even the Eight Hour day is not conserved. Even the wages which have been so hardly earned may be forfeited without appeal to law under this unrighteous agreement, practically at the option of the squatter.

On top of this, it is demanded that shearers pay for the combs and cutters broken in the squatters' “ labour saving machinery ” and that labourers submit to reductions on the scale of wages established for years past, the reductions in some items being as high as 33 percent.

So sweeping and unreasonable are these attempted changes that some importance has been attached to a malicious statement which asserts that the squatters' associations submitted their proposals to the annual meetings of these unions. It has seemed absurd that such an attack should be made without even the appearance of consulting us beforehand. We have to inform you, therefore, that our unions have been insultingly ignored in the matter, that no official information concerning agreements or reductions has been received from the squatters and that the first heard of the affair was from advertisements in the newspapers and from the managers of sheds at which our members expected to start work in due course.

It is very evident from the whole circumstances that the squatters, intention is to endeavour to wipe unionism out of existence and to make a bold bid for the unqualified mastership of the wage-earners of the District. They evidently imagine that because our comrades, the maritime men, went down before the shipping companies that therefore the bush workers must go down before the squatting companies.

Fellow–unionists ! We call upon you all, individually and unitedly, to pull the unions through this fight let the cost be what it may. You all know what the squatter was and what he is and what we shall be if we let him get the whip hand over us. Here in the bush we have no voice in the making of the laws and no share in the Government, we are disfranchised and denied all rights as citizens, we have only our unions to which we can look for justice and if our unions go down we are totally enslaved.

Fellow-unionists, the squatters expect the Queensland bush unions will fight hard but they do not know how hard. We call upon you to show them, not underestimating the difficulties that confront us or the power of the organised Capitalism that backs the squatters, but relying with confidence upon the devotion of the bushmen of Queensland to their unions and to the Labour cause.

For it is not ourselves alone we fight for, though we ourselves have much at stake. The Queensland bush is to be a battle ground where on is to be decided whether Capitalism can crush Australian unionism altogether into the dust. Remembering this we ask each one and all together to resolve that come what may we will not be beaten, that when the battle is over our unions shall still live. We have a right to resolve this, for disfranchised though we are we are the men whose labour mainly upholds Queensland. It is our toil that brings rich dividends to banks and fat incomes to squatters and profitable trade to great cities. Yet we have no votes by which we can secure laws to protect us even in our earnings and the squatting companies dream of dragooning us into submission with hordes of police protected blacklegs when we refuse to work under any conditions which the profit-mongers who fleece us choose to draw up in some bank-parlour.

Fellow-unionists our cause is just as every man knows. We have found the verbal agreement work more smoothly and satisfactorily than any other. It was last year worked under by the great majority of stations in Queensland without complaint or cause for complaint. The Darling Downs was satisfactorily worked under an agreement which we are willing to work under there for the ensuing year also.

The wages of the Q.L.U. scale are not in excess of the last three years' rates. If the squatters had meant fairly they would have asked us to a conference to consider any points they wished to improve or any better conditions they desired to make, in exactly the same way that we asked them to meet us when our unions were first formed. That they did not do so indicates to us that they do not want a conference but have deliberately planned an attack on us. Nevertheless, we have requested the General Executive A.L.F. To ask for an open conference from the Federated Employers' Union and we are prepared to show at such a conference, if it is agreed to by the squatters, that these unions desire nothing but what is just and right.

Should a conference be held we still hope that the struggle may be averted but should an unprovoked fight still be forced upon us we consider that those who force it should help pay for it, particularly as many of our bitterest enemies are sheltering themselves behind earlier sheds, expecting that the battle will be decided one way or another before it reaches them. The Central District Council has therefore unanimously resolved:-

That any employer or member of the Pastoralists' Association in the colony of Queensland who does not before the first of March accept through this office the agreement of the Queensland Shearers' Union and the scale of wages of the Queensland Labourers' Union, shall pay for every week or portion of a week after that date an additional sixpence per hundred for shearing, wages of members of the Q.L.U. to be increased pro'rata.

Those squatters who have bound themselves by bond to break down our scale of wages, our agreements and our organisation can thank nobody but themselves if they find it expensive to get their work done by competent union hands, when the blacklegs they rely on do not come to time. If they want conference, we still offer it to them, but if they want fight, we offer that also.

Fellow-unionists! From time to time it may be again necessary to address you but for the present there is only this to add: If the worst comes to the worst we can always ride down to Brisbane and ask the Government that swamps in surplus labour to help Capitalism degrade wage-earners what it is going to do with 10,000 able-bodied bushman unemployed because they hung out for the fair thing.

By order of the Central D. C.

Strike Committee:

W. J. Bennett

W. Fothergill

J. R. Riseley

M. Murphy

A. J. Brown

Central D.C. Office Barcaldine, February 1, 1891

Well done Tony Windsor.

A quote from the Media:

****

"Independent MP Tony Windsor has launched a furious attack on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in Federal Parliament.

The Opposition again interrupted Question Time to accuse the Prime Minister of lying over the carbon tax and asking her to apologise to the Australian people.
But Mr Windsor repeated his claim that Mr Abbott told him during the negotiations after the last election that he would do almost anything to become prime minister.
And he says Mr Abbott has been totally inconsistent on carbon pricing.
"You're an absolute disgrace in the way in which you're wandering around on this issue," Mr Windsor said.
"You have exactly the same target, you have the audacity to say you'll achieve that target through a much more expensive arrangement of putting a price on carbon."

****

James Hansen the Scientist: http://fromjameshansen.blogspot.com.au/ who first warned the World about Global Warming says the best way to combat it, is to have a Carbon Tax and return the proceeds back to the people exactly what the Australian Government is doing.

In regard to Tony Abbott, I have such a low opinion of the man and to think it is possible that he might become the next Australian Prime Minister leaves me with a feeling of  sadness.

Backbenches are starting to splinter.

Well, some of the LNP Backbenches are starting to splinter over the savage job cuts to frontline  services I am hearing, especially to regional Queensland and using phrases like "over my dead body"

I will not let those job cuts happen. This is an interesting development we shall see how it unfolds.

Treasurer caught out telling the facts.

A Media release by the Shadow Treasurer Curtis Pitt just about says it all about the LNP Government in Queensland.

Treasurer caught out telling the facts!

Shadow Treasurer Curtis Pitt says the Newman Government has been caught out telling a vastly different story to overseas investors about Queensland’s financial status and Labor’s record than it has been peddling at home.“Just as the Opposition predicted, Treasurer Tim Nicholls is spending his current overseas trip spruiking the strength of the state economy and telling a vastly different tale than the one he spreads in Queensland,” Mr Pitt said.

He said the shallowness of the LNP’s attacks on Labor’s record was highlighted by the latest version of the so-called ‘blue book’ prepared by Queensland Treasury Corporation and distributed to potential investors by state treasurers when traveling overseas.“The ‘blue book’ Mr Nicholls is using as his calling card underlines the state’s strong position and prospects and confirms Labor’s plans for a return to surplus in 2014-15,” Mr Pitt said.“Nowhere is there mention of a ‘power dive into the abyss’, or ‘debt crisis’ or any similar claims that he and the Premier have been making at home.

“If it is good enough to tell investors the truth – it is good enough for the Premier and the Treasurer to tell Queenslanders the truth and to stop talking down our state economy.”Mr Pitt said the QTC’s ‘blue book’ being provided to investors by the Treasurer showed that over the next three years the LNP would reach the same level of debt ($85 billion) as projected by Treasury for the previous government.

“This official LNP government publication cites ratings agency Standard & Poor’s as saying Queensland has a far lower level of general government net debt relative to operating revenue compared with similar international semi-sovereign issuers,” he said. “S&P is also cited saying the amount of money spent by Queensland on interest payments, when expressed as a share of revenue, is also low relative to its international peers.“Rather than repeat the claims he makes at home of Queensland being in ‘a debt crisis’, the Treasurer’s own ‘blue book’ spells out that Queensland’s ratio of financial assets to liabilities shows ‘its relative financial strength compared with other Australian states’, especially when considering each state’s investments to meet their future super and long-service leave obligations.

“Nowhere in the ‘blue book’ is there reference to Queensland being ‘a basket case’
as Mr Nicholls has previously claimed at home. “In fact the ‘blue book’ proves that after spending to
build generational infrastructure and to generate or save jobs in the wake of the GFC, Labor left
office a debt that was manageable, not unsustainable as the LNP keeps claiming,” he said.


Mr Pitt today also released his updated assessment of the Costello audit and its projections of a
“mythical” $100 billion state debt.“The headline figure of a $100 billion state debt by 2018-19 is a
myth generated by the Costello audit by using flawed assumptions,” Mr Pitt said. “Since the audit’s
release LNP MPs have been misleading Queenslanders by quoting the figure as being the current
state debt without saying how the Costello audit had to exaggerate assumptions to achieve the figure.


“The truth is that Labor left office with debt of $62 billion as detailed in the January 2012 Treasury Mid-Year Review. That included $30.2 billion held by government-owned corporations much of which is self-sustaining through future profits, for instance port authorities receive revenue from
resources companies — not taxpayers — to help pay down their share of GOC debt.

“The LNP has now committed to the same level of debt that was projected prior to the election of
$85 billion in 2014-15. “The Costello audit also confirms that the position of the previous government, outlined in the January 2012 mid-year budget review, was correct including a return of the budget to surplus in 2014-15.“However, the Costello audit also identifies the LNP’s inability to find the $5.7 billion in savings to fund its election commitments without resorting to ‘downsizing of the workforce’.

“Mr Newman and Mr Nicholls said they had identified these savings before the election, but what
they didn’t say is that the savings would come through sacking up to 20,000 of its own employees.”
Mr Pitt said the Costello audit could reach its conclusions only by making flawed assumptions
including:
• that any government elected in March would have done nothing to further address debt and
outlays — that it would “take its hands off the wheel”. That was never an option and Labor
in Government had already committed to $737 million in net savings in the Budget Mid-
Year Review,
• economic circumstances in the next five years would be a repeat of the past five years — in
other words, the next five years would see another global financial crisis and a repeat of
record drought and the summer of disastrous floods and cyclones that required heavy
spending to repair communities across the state.
“Only by making these assumptions could the audit come up with a projection for $100 billion in
gross debt at a point seven years in the future,” Mr Pitt said.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2012 at and is filed under Media Releases.

Like teaching a parrot to talk

I was listening to an interview on the radio this morning with the opposition Leader Tony Abbott and as it progressed, to every question about the Federal Labor Government his answer was, this was bad, that was bad, this was bad, that was bad, he is like a broken record he repeats the same thing, again and again.

Maybe the logic behind it is, like teaching a parrot to talk, you just keep repeating the word and overtime you hope the bird will remember it, and start saying that word?

It really amazes me that he can take good news about the Government and twist it for some political reason and come up with a negative answer every time and he still can't get the facts right. Well Mr. Abbott they must be doing something right with July unemployment figures at 5.2% .

Accusing Public Servants of leaking info?

 
The Queensland LNP Premier Campbell Newman is accusing Public Servants of leaking information and undermining his Government, he also said, "That's why we are now moving on at speed - we will be sorting this out." I have a rough idea what that means.

I think Mr. Newman you have woken a sleeping giant...... The Labour Movement.




.

Showing his true colours

Tony Abbott is starting to show his true colours he has said today he supports the slash and burn attitude of the LNP Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman who is sacking nearly 20,000 public sector workers, is this what Australia faces if he becomes Prime Minister?