Ark Tribe’s lawyer has suggested to the court that the ABCC has acted beyond it’s powers. As a result the defense has called into question much of the evidence put forward by prosecutors.

For more than two years, Mr Tribe and his family have struggled under the threat of imprisonment for doing nothing more than speaking up on a safety issue.

In extraordinary evidence this week the community learnt a great deal about the way the ABCC does business.

The construction industry Star Chamber is supposed to exhaust all other channels before it uses its big guns (the controversial section 52 orders which compel workers to attend a secret interrogation).

But under cross-examination, ABCC Inspector Seamus Flynn admitted that not much had been attempted before the Commission resorted to its extreme coercive powers.

All Mr Flynn did before he fired the cannon was to make two quick telephone calls to CFMEU member, Ark Tribe.

No letter, no text, no visit – straight to the compulsory secret interrogation.

A pattern is emerging of an organisation that may not have operated within its powers and functions under its own legislation.

The Commission does not seem to have paid proper attention to making sure it acted even in accordance with the very limited safeguards placed on its unprecedented powers.

The trial will now move to written submissions.
A further hearing will now take place on 13 September.

Mr Tribe and his family will continue their uneasy wait for justice.

Construction workers, unions and the community will wait with them. And they will keep up the fight.

Thanks for your support.

Dave Noonan and the Rights on Site Team

www.rightsonsite.org.au

joe hill

Statement of the SEARCH Foundation Committee, July 21, 2010

The best outcome from the high-stakes federal election campaign now underway would be the return of a Labor government with the Greens holding the balance of power in the Senate, and perhaps making a breakthrough into the House of Representatives.

It is vital that the Abbott Coalition – which is essentially a more extreme version of the Howard brand of patriarchal neo-liberalism – is soundly defeated and forced to abandon its extremism.

Not only would this be the right kind of criticism of both major parties by the voters, but it would take national politics in a progressive direction and enable a faster transition to a low carbon economy than is likely at present.

In the last parliament, despite the general preference swap between Labor and the Greens at the 2007 election, when Green preferences were crucial to the defeat of the Howard conservatives, Rudd Labor studiously marginalised the Greens. The Labor government much preferred to find a Senate majority with the Liberals, Nationals and rightwing independents, contributing in particular to the calamity over the policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Labor’s disdain towards its supporters risks alienating them and shifting support to the conservative Coalition – a pattern so clearly shown by UK Labour. The risk of electing the most rightwing Coalition leadership seen in Australia in many years should not be underestimated. An Abbott Coalition government would be a disaster of historic proportions.

An emphatic voter shift to the Greens rather than the Abbott Coalition will provide the best insurance that a Gillard Labor government won’t repeat this rightwing approach to the constituencies which support the progressive movements in Australia in the new parliament.

Despite the current picture with opinion polls putting Labor in front, the campaign up to August 21 could have some nasty surprises for Labor, because its first-term record is tainted, and because it is not speaking clearly to the people about what it would do in a second term.

The trial of union activist Ark Tribe in Adelaide, for refusing to answer the interrogators from the Australian Building and Construction Commission, could lead to one of these ‘surprises’. The report on the schools building stimulus package could be another.

For now, voters are presented on the one hand with the Abbott Coalition, which is playing up fear of asylum seekers, and fear of government debt, without putting any clear program forward; and on the other with Gillard Labor in a policy vacuum called ‘moving forward’.

This cynical dumbing-down of the campaign will react on both parties, and the hope is that strong progressive voices can shift more votes to the Greens.

Prime Minister Gillard is right – Australia can face any challenge if the society works together, but why won’t she and her Ministers speak out clearly about the challenges? Because they don’t want to be held accountable in the coming three years?

What are the challenges?

The first challenge is at the moral level – respecting the rights of the first Australians, the indigenous peoples of the land, and compensating them for the loss of their lands and culture. This should mean a rejection of the authoritarian policy of the Northern Territory Intervention, and a renewal of the people’s movement for reconciliation which created real possibilities in the 1990s, only to be cut off by the Howard government and largely ignored by the Rudd Labor government.

Clearly the global capitalist crisis is continuing to unfold, rather than fade away, with the ‘double-dip’ recession now looming in the USA and Europe. There is a huge challenge for the next government to keep people in work, and to push for the new low-carbon, fair society which is urgently needed. This requires much more refurbishing of existing dwellings and commercial buildings, as well as radical shifts in investment in the energy and transport sectors. This has to be led by government, and needs a mobilised people’s movement to push it through, with all the education and training, child-care support, public and affordable housing, fair workplace systems and changed taxation needed to support it.

To meet the challenge of climate change, there is an urgent need to put a price on carbon emissions and to implement other measures to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.

Despite the Labor government’s real success with stimulus spending, Prime Minister Gillard says she ‘believes in surpluses’ as if it’s some article of religious faith. The facts are that Australia’s public debt and budget deficit are small by world standards and should not even be issues in the campaign. Australia’s federal government debt in 2009 was 8.9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. In contrast, the USA is 53.1 per cent, the UK is 75.1 per cent, France is 60.8 per cent, and Germany 43.8 per cent. Greece stands at 125.7 per cent, and Italy at 106.6 per cent. The latest figure for Japan is from 2008, when its central government debt stood at 178 per cent of GDP. The Abbott attack on government spending is dangerous as well as absurd. The Left must tackle this economic debate head-on.

Another major challenge is the global security crisis, where the ‘war on terror’ so blindly prosecuted by the Howard and Rudd governments at the behest of Washington, has catastrophically failed. A new policy is urgently needed to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, help the democratic movement in Iran and increase pressure on the Israeli government to respect the human and national rights of the Palestinian people. The Afghan War is not ‘winnable’, costing civilian and military lives every day, and forcing more and more people to flee as refugees.

Our major river systems are in crisis due to over-demands by irrigators, as demonstrated by the failure of any water from two flood events in the Murray-Darling Basin to reach the Murray mouth. The ‘market’ approach to this crisis has also failed and needs radical change based on community involvement, not corporate dictat.

While Labor’s reforms to the industrial laws have been positive, removing the worst features of Work Choices, much remains to be done – including the abolition of the punitive Australian Building & Construction Commission – to achieve a balanced system in which international norms of workers’ rights and standards are recognised.

Abbott’s Shadow Cabinet has, at its kernel, those who pushed the policies of the Howard Government and who were rejected by the electorate in 2007. These include Kevin Andrews, Phillip Ruddock and Bronwyn Bishop. No matter how Abbott evades and denies the issue, a return to those days is foremost on their agenda. He says Work Choices is “dead buried, cremated” but, like Phoenix, it would rise from the ashes if somehow the Coalition wins.

Australia’s Howard government signed up to the Millennium Development Goals back in 2000, aiming to significantly reduce global poverty by 2015. These goals will not be achieved, but it is a vital part of global security and Australia’s future well-being, that this effort is renewed. This requires Australia to move up its official overseas aid budget to 0.7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, and to embrace its obligations under the UN Refugee Convention to properly process the claims for protection from all asylum seekers who reach our territory. On this we know the stand taken by Abbott’s Coalition, Gillard Labor and the Greens.

In the four weeks left of the election campaign, community organisations and trade unions need to work to ensure that these challenges are discussed and that Labor, the Greens and the Coalition spell out their policies on them.

Whether or not the parties take any notice of the community on these issues, the organisations and networks trying to respond to these challenges will be better mobilised and educated if this effort is made, and thus more capable of engaging with the new government after August 21.

Democracy is definitely much more than casting a vote every three years, though casting the vote as intelligently as we can is a precious capacity won by our forebears that we cannot afford to waste.

Peter Murphy
Coordinator
SEARCH Foundation
www.search.org.au

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Since the early 1970′s OHS law has been “de-lawyer-fied”.

The intention of the law is to empower workers and employers to manage safety in the workplace to meet basic human rights – the right not to be injured at work, the obligation not to hurt others.

Good law allows for the basic legislative tenets to be readily understood. Poor law is difficult to understand and leads to increased business and personal costs in order to determine compliance.

I would argue that Australia’s recent aim of the national harmonisation of OHS laws will lead to complexity and cost – the opposite of what was intended – and a disempowerment of the workforce as the legal imperative overrides the safety management obligation.

The major weakness in the law is its seeming reliance on the Courts to clarify the laws, their application and their relevance.

Legal commentators on the laws have stated publicly that the impact of the law will not be clear for several years and that many questions about the laws will only be answered when prosecutions are brought and the Courts hand down decisions.

This process is sloppy, should not be accepted unquestionably by OHS professionals and does almost nothing to help the vast majority of Australian businesses to comply.

The argument is that the laws will not change but be harmonised. The fact is that in some States, the laws will change and change for businesses that have no trans-boundary operations.

OHS laws, enforcement strategies and impacts in Australia would benefit from a review similar to that undertaken by Thomas McGarity and others at the University of Marylands School of Law, as reported in the Regulation At Work newsletter. According to the newsletter:

“The authors suggest that regulatory dysfunction stems from the agency [US-OSHA] being starved of resources, operating under a statute weakened by 30 years of appellate court decisions and White House initiatives that increase time and effort needed to implement a proactive regulatory agenda.”

There are distinct similarities with OHS enforcement and regulation in Australia.

http://safetyatworkblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/ohs-law-reform-should-not-rely-of-courts-for-clarification/

His ‘crime’? Sticking up for his safety rights on site and then refusing to be coerced into an interview with the unfair Australian Building and Construction Commission.

For this, Ark now faces up to six months in jail.

But most Australians are still asleep to what the ABCC is or how it trashes the rights of ordinary working people like Ark.

If they learn the truth they will want to defend construction workers who operate in an industry where safety is a daily matter of life and death.

A tragic reminder of this came on Friday, when a construction worker was killed by a falling steel beam at Adelaide’s desalination plant site.

Rallies are being held around the entire country to mark Ark’s trial on July 20, 21 and 22, but we need a mass of people to turn up if Australia is going to actually sit up and take notice.

Your voice needs to be heard to end this injustice.

Workers standing up for their rights have changed Australia for the better throughout history and we need that to continue this week.

Rallies kick off in Ark’s hometown of Adelaide, starting from the Tent Embassy in Victoria Square at 8:30am.

There will be one near you, just check the full list of times and locations below.

Show your support for Ark and make the nation aware of what the ABCC actually does to ordinary construction workers.

We’ll be tweeting updates from the court, you can follow us on #dontjailark

July 20
Adelaide, South Australia -Tent Embassy, Victoria Square, 8:30am
Sydney, NSW – Sydney Town Hall, George St, 12pm
Melbourne, Victoria – March to ABCC offices, Cnr St. Kilda and Toorak Roads, 10am
Canberra, ACT – on-site meetings over the three days of Ark’s Trial
Perth, WA – March to office of ABCC, Perth Esplanade (near glass pyramid), 10am
Warrnambool, VIC – Cannon Park, 10am

July 21, 22:
Wonthaggi, VIC – Lions Park, 1:30pm (July 21)
Brisbane, QLD – Roma St Forum, 10am (July 22)
Gold Coast, QLD – Southport Broadwater Parklands, Gold Coast H’way, 10am (July 22)

Rights on site campaigns to abolish the ABCC

26 June, 2010 | Media Release
Australian unions warmly congratulate ACTU President Sharan Burrow on her election as the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation.

http://www.ituc-csi.org/second-ituc-world-congress.html

Ms Burrow was elected to head the global union body at its Congress in Vancouver overnight.

The Brussels-based ITUC is the world’s peak union body, working to advance and protect workers’ rights across the globe.

It directly represents 176 million workers from 156 countries and territories.

Ms Burrow, who has been President of the ITUC and its predecessor, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, since 2004, was elected unopposed to a four-year term.

ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said her election was a monumental achievement for Australian unions.

“Sharan has been a great advocate for working people in Australia throughout her career,” Mr Lawrence said.

“We will never forget the magnificent role she played during the Your Rights at Work campaign to ditch the Howard Government’s disastrous WorkChoices.

“It is fitting that one of Sharan’s final achievements in Australia was to see the national paid parental leave legislation passed by Parliament. This has been an issue she has campaigned tirelessly on for decades.

“It has been hard to see Sharan go, but this is an incredibly proud time for Australian unions to see a woman from regional New South Wales elected to such an important post.

“We look forward to seeing Sharan continue her passionate advocacy for workers around the world.”

Ms Burrow’s term as ACTU President will end on 30 June.

She has been President of the ACTU since May 2000.

Ged Kearney, outgoing Federal Secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation, has been elected the next ACTU President from 1 July.

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As well as the strong CFMEU speeches warning mass strikes if Ark is penalised, addressing the rally was Paddy Hill (Birmingham 6) and Gerry Conlan (Guildford 4). Both had been unjustly imprisoned for several years in the UK before being exonerated. They came all the way from Scotland and Ireland to support Ark and voice their disgust at a possible similar injustice.

Most impressive and have to be listened to so we can understand the Police state we live in.

If Ark goes in, construction workers across the country will go out.

But being interested in the legal proceedings against Ark, I decided to sit in the Magistrates court. A very small room with only 20 seats for the press and public, that did not allow in the hundreds of rank and file building workers, but some CFMEU and VTHC elected officials managed to squeezed in.

Here were heavy legal guns – appearing for Ark was leading Adelaide Counsel Michael Abbott and Brind Woinarksi QC, leading Melbourne criminal silk for the ABCC and for the Commonwealth DPP.

Before the prosecution could start, Ark’s silk was on his feet arguing the application to prosectute was a nullity as it was not done properly.This was a legal technicality. Magistrate Whittle can only proceed if the application is brought legally and the union argued the person authorising the prosecution did not have the power to do so. The ABCC had a history of prosectuting buliding workers but not using the required process.

A normal construction worker accused of nothing more than failing to attend an interrogation by the Construction Star Chamber for the Australian Building and Construction Commission has to be prosectuted in the proper way.

The prosecutor was on his feet in his reply for awhile and although a simple issue required the explanation that somehow rather than the Building Industry Act offence the process was through the Crimes Act. I was not able to follow the High Court case, and other references, but guessed that he was off track a bit by citing similarly the fair Work Act that had nothing to do with it.

The magistrate wanted the submissions in writing (I think maybe the transcription services dont work so well) and adjourned his decision until 2pm wednesday that was then further adjourned untill friday 18th june when he announces his decision.

We shall see the result that then maybe appealed…who knows.

Ark and CFMEU Dave Nunan went back down to
the CFMEU workers to report back, some ‘workers united will never be defeated’ and handshakes all around and if Ark goes in gaol then workers go out! Keep following this vital trial.
www.rightsonsite.org.au

right to strike

For the past 12 months many of you have been following his case, and now the time for his trial has come.

Don’t Jail Ark – Sign the petition

Here’s your chance to see what Ark’s lawyer, Steven Dolphin, has to say about the landmark industrial case that he has been fighting. The first case of its kind, that will test the laws under the Building and Improvement Act. Watch video

Most people are horrified to find out there is no right to silence in the laws that underpin the ABCC.

There is the possibility that an ordinary worker will go to jail. This is something that all working Australians need to be mindful of.

Sign the Don’t Jail Ark petition and send it to your mates.

We want Ark to walk into court next week knowing that over 5000 people have signed the petition Don’t Jail Ark. Help us reach the target.

Sign the petition – Don’t Jail Ark
Justice for one; One law for all.

Dave Noonan and the Rights on Site Team

Go here to sign
www.rightsonsite.org.au

For the staff who walk in a daze around the burnt-out shell of their workplace the next morning it is a scene reminiscent of a Baghdad bombing.

But this is not Iraq, it is Sydney and the offices belong to the NSW branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy.

The CFMEU in NSW often has heated disputes with employers ranging from big developers through to small sub-contractors over issues of safety, conditions and wages for workers on building sites.

But those disputes are always settled through negotiation. Car bombings are not part of the industrial relations modus operandi.

To illustrate this fact Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon and Master Builders Association chief executive Brian Seidler had a rare moment of agreement in supporting the CFMEU after the attack. Both men said that they had seen nothing like it in more than 20 years in the industry.

The union believes the attack is connected to a dispute with a Sydney contractor over its maltreatment and underpayment of migrant workers. This contractor has also made repeated violent threats to union officials and workers.

Surprising then that the watchdog charged with overseeing thuggery in the industry, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, has not bothered to contact the CFMEU to discuss the violent attack or the conditions these migrant workers were forced to accept.

The inaction of the ABCC in this most violent attack in the industry in recent times compares unfavourably with its tenacious efforts in Western and South Australia.

When a CFMEU WA union official used expletives towards a site manager on an unsafe building site the ABCC jumped in and the matter continues to wind its way through court at considerable expense.

So it’s okay to bomb a union, but you can’t swear at the boss.

Compare this also with ABCC actions against an ordinary South Australian construction worker, Ark Tribe, who simply refused to be interviewed about who organised a stop work meeting because “I’ve always been told you don’t dob on mates”.

Statement of support for the CFMEU (NSW) – Advertisement in The Daily Telegraph, June 11, 2010

The recent car-bomb attack on the office of the CFMEU in western Sydney is an unprecedented attack on one of the strengths of our democracy.

The attack caused considerable damage but, most importantly, had the potential for loss of life.

We come together as leaders in our community in condemning the attack and stand beside the CFMEU in this dark moment in its history.

We do this because an attack on the CFMEU is an attack on all organisations that stand up for the rights of people in our community.

Our democracy is stronger when workers and our community feel free and fearless to speak up when their rights are being undermined.

A strong construction union not only represents the interests of building workers, but that of the public.

Overwhelmingly, construction does not take place in remote, isolated areas. It happens in the middle of our city and our town centres and in the schools, hospitals and shopping centres in which our families work and play.

The CFMEU has played a strong role in ensuring the highest levels of safety are adopted to protect its members and our families.

Across Sydney, vast tracts of our heritage, parkland and bush have been saved by union green bans when government was too willing to bow to developers.

And for the most vulnerable in our community – migrant workers – the union has been their friend when they had none, stepping in to stop exploitation, whether it be on building sites or elsewhere at our workplaces.

We welcome the establishment, by the NSW Police, of a Strike Force to investigate this violent attack and urge our leaders across the political spectrum to show their support and solidarity.

This is needed because crimes of this kind cross political and social boundaries.

We need only look to history to see what becomes of society when people remain silent.

As German theologian Dietrich Boenhoffer noted: If we fail to speak out when others are attacked, there will be no one left to speak for us.

I hereby authorise for my name/organisation’s name to published in The Daily Telegraph as a signatory to the advertisement condemning the car-bomb attack on the CFMEU offices and in support of the union
Print Name of Individual:______________________________________________________________
Print Position (e.g. Trade Unionist, Solicitor etc)____________________________________________
Or
Print Name of Community Organisation:__________________________________________________
Signature:_______________________________ Contact e-mail:_____________________________
Contact phone numbers;_______________________________________________________________
The cost of publication is $25.00 per individual or $50.00 for community groups. Additional financial support is appreciated.

• Phone 9749 0400 and pay over the phone with a credit card
• Make a cheque payable to the CFMEU – Support Advertisement and post to the CFMEU, Locked Bag 1, Lidcombe NSW 1825
• Complete the following and fax to 9649 7100 or scan and e-mail to dcooper@nsw.cfmeu.asn.au
Card  Mastercard  Visa
Card Number:_________________________________________________
Card Expiry Date (MM/YY):_____________________________________
Signature:_______________________________ Date:_______________
This statement, with name and signature, needs to be returned to the CFMEU (Fax 9649 7100 or E-mail: dcooper@nsw.cfmeu.asn.au) by Wednesday June 9, 5pm.

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There is no doubt that Ark’s case has been shaping up as one of the most important in recent industrial relations history and it’s up to all of us to stand up for a worker’s basic right to safety in the workplace.

See posts on this blog under ABCC.

Come to Victoria Square at 8.30am on June 15th to stand tall with Ark Tribe, the man who has put himself on the line to stand tall for what is right.

Let’s rally together and fill Victoria Square on June 15th. The voice of the people must be heard on June 15th, 16th & 18th.

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