Will you join us to Stand Up for the Burrup?

WE RECALL the Pilbara Strike of 1946-49, when 200 Pilbara LawMen asked three leaders – Clancy McKenna, Don McLeod, and Dooley Bin Bin – to organise a strike and walk-off by Aboriginal workers and their families for land – our Own Land – and for wages, not rations.

WE RECALL that our people won that strike after Waterside Workers Federation and Seamen’s Union members refused to load or transport the pastoralists’ wool until they settled with our strike leaders.

WE RECALL also the Great Strikes of the 1890’s, beginning with the Shearers Strike of 1891, when the Shearers Union members, like our people, struggled against pastoralists backed by police and courts.

IN 2012, OUR DEMAND is for UNESCO World Heritage Listing for our ancient sacred rock art at Murujuga/the Dampier Archipelago, the world’s oldest and largest rock art landscape.

ON SATURDAY 2 JUNE AND SUNDAY 3 JUNE 2012, we ask trade unionists throughout Australia to once again Stand Up with us and help us win our just demand.

Please circulate.
First join the Facebook campaign https://www.facebook.com/StandUpForTheBurrup

Then in Darwin we will be assembling for photos outside of Parliament House. Stand by….
More information

http://tracker.org.au/2011/09/the-contrarian-leading-the-way-the-pilbara-strike/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Pilbara_strike/wiki/1946_Pilbara_strike

by Rob Durbridge

The crisis besetting the Federal Government looks like a rising Queensland flood, while Abbott and Co watch and wait for the Government to drown.

It’s a crisis with multiple causes, linked by the failure of a leadership without a sense of identity or direction.

The undoubted achievements of the Government are submerged by short term opportunism, capitulation to the powerful at the expense of progressive support and an inability to communicate effectively.

However, this is all its own doing as the Abbott Opposition does not command much popular support either; from them there are no big ideas for reform, just more neo-liberal slogans and anti-union plans.

The one positive in this is that despite everything, Labor and the Greens could still win a majority next year.

It’s a long shot but,building on the blocks of the Carbon Price and its progressive compensation package, the NBN, and the Equal Pay commitment to community workers, a platform of social, environmental and economic reforms could still defeat the Coalition’s plans for greater inequality and disadvantage.

Instead of making concessions to corporations who will never repay the favour, take the concessions away from them so they pay their way like the good citizens they claim to be.

If the ALP wants the electorate to start listening, start saying things the majority wants to hear; public nation-building projects to stimulate growth, create jobs and protect the environment protection like fast rail, renewable energy sources and a publicly-owned and modernized energy sector.

Instead of becoming fixated on the budget surplus, how about building quality public services like education and health with the taxation base to do it? The increasing fragility of the prospects for growth may well demand further economic initiatives after May.

The ALP needs internal reform to allow adopted policies and members’ views to prevail and the restoration of caucus democracy so that isolation of the Government from the community can be addressed. Instead of blaming the Greens for the plight of the ALP, ask why it is that the Greens have won the progressive constituency where ideas count and swing votes.

The Greens have found articulate and knowledgeable leaders who are able to communicate the issues effectively while the ALP lurches from crisis to crisis alternating between denial and ultimate policy concessions which win no new support.

Withdrawal from the war-without-mandate in Afghanistan is an example; costing billions, lives and life-long disabilities for purposes never explained and then ended, but not ended with SAS units to continue indefinitely. US bases that are not bases but ‘joint facilities’, drones being launched from Australian territory and billions to be spent on submarines and aircraft for the privilege of the US alliance just don’t add up. Who are we arming against again?

The Carbon Tax is another – something which could be a key building block for the new economy which is now being downplayed and blamed on the Greens while renewable energy is downgraded in favour of more coal and gas exploitation. When it is known that the compensation is real, the costs are minimal for households and the sky has not fallen in, the Coalition’s scare campaign could be neutralized.

Instead of sulking about the success of the Greens, and prophesying doom with Bob Brown’s departure, the ALP should accept that Milne’s team will be vital to regaining government and act accordingly. One way would be to make Bandt the Minister for Energy, replacing the corporations’ favourite son.

Short of that, a reform program which distinguishes Labor from the Coalition and joins the Greens in building a coherent vision for a more just and sustainable Australia would reach traditional and new ALP voters. Leaders who can articulate and reach voters who are sick of spin and manipulation is another necessity. The ALP of all parties knows that its first duty is to win elections and to find the people who can do it.

The Greens new leadership in Christine Milne and Adam Bandt will see the party maintain its vote and reach out to more traditional labour voters in unions and social movements beyond the environment. Marriage equality and all the issues which relate to it, rights for workers to organise beyond the half-finished repeal of Work Choices, ending the demonization of refugees, the unemployed and Indigenous people are all part of the Greens future.

Christine Milne began the leadership of the Greens with a stellar performance which illustrated her command of the economic and environmental issues facing the nation. With a background as a community activist and state politician she has experience in government with both major parties as well as their hostility and ruthlessness.

Of all Federal politicians she has shown her knowledge and ability and is respected internationally for her political and community campaigns against harmful emissions. The Greens’ near 20% primary vote in the recent Queensland by-election shows that predictions of the party’s demise are premature.

Both the Greens and the ALP will continue to compete, particularly in inner-city electorates, but both parties also need to recognize that sitting on cross benches does not achieve much in the way of reform; together they can win government but apart they will be on the sidelines.

The immediate challenge for the two parties is whether or not to exchange preferences in Deputy Leader Bandt’s seat of Melbourne. For its part the Coalition is likely to not preference the Greens as they showed in the 2011 Victorian state poll.

This is a challenge to both the ALP and the Greens, but it is also symbolic of the wider challenge for the two anti-Coalition parties.

- Rob Durbridge, SEARCH President

http://www.search.org.au/archives/3112

by Humphrey McQueen

For months, the bosses, their stenographers in the mass media and their political agents have been publicising corruption in the East Branch of the Health Services Union to tar the whole of the labour movement.

The responses from the Killard government and the ACTU have been as tardy as they have been lame. The best their leaders can mouth is that the HSU is the one rotten apple. This apologetic line is the latest instance of how organised labour is on the back foot.

The most obvious example of this retreat has been in regard to the Australian Building and Construction Commission where the Construction Division of the CFMEU has never taken the fight up to the bosses by focusing on their ‘ingrained culture’ of criminality. Too often the union pleads: ‘we’re not as thuggish as they say we are’.
The union is vigorous in attacking OH&S violations and detailing non-payment of wages, Super and taxes, But these offences are confined to the workplace and don’t help the populace to see the nature of capitalism.

Exploitation is not theft

Before documenting a few recent instances from the avalanche of the activities considered crimes even by the standards of bourgeois justice, it is vital to be clear about how the capitalist system works.

All the money that capitalists steal from each other and swindle out of governments and the public comes from the surplus value added by wage-slaves.

That exploitation is not theft. On average, capitalists pay wage-slaves the full value of the cost of producing the one commodity – their labour-power – that we have for sale.

That exchange is the core of capitalism. Once that surplus value has been produced, sections of capital battle to get their hands on as much of it as possible. That is where the most of the swindling comes in. In some cases, the original capitalist can be left with no profit. No commentator on the accumulation of capital has paid as much attention to swindling as did Marx who nonetheless kept it in its place.

Construction

Collusive tendering and price-fixing are the ‘ingrained culture’ of the employers in this sector. In 1995, Leighton’s then CEO, Wal King, justified his company’s use of false invoices to conceal price-fixing on the Sydney Casino as ‘the culture … and custom that had been long-standing in the industry that had been handed on for years.’ So had King’s excuse.

In 1911, the NSW MBA justified its members’ involvement in illegal commissions by saying that they ‘should be openly recognised’ as ‘universal and worldwide’.

The 1995 report branded King and Leightons as ‘not of good repute, having regard to character, honesty and integrity’. Despite this, he and Leightons continued to flourish.

They were not banned from sites, unlike CFMEU organisers defending the lives of their members.

The NSW Gyles Royal Commission in 1990 forced the resignation of the executive of the NSW MBA which had been a clearing house for collusive tenders. This unanticipated outcome was similar to that from the Royal Commission into the Ship Painters and Dockers which had exposed bottom-of-the harbor schemes across the big end of town.
Howard did not make that mistake in setting the terms of reference for the Cole inquisition into the building and construction unions.

Killard followed suit when she excluded health and safety from the review of the ABCC, which thereby had an easy time in finding that her ‘tough cop on the beat’ was necessary.

The gravest matter in building and construction is the Hardie Asbestos case. The High Court endorsed the disbarring of its directors for seven years for rigging the books about the compensation fund. There is no chance of their being charged with complicity in the mass murder of workers since, under capitalism, killing is not murder when done for profit.

In April, Lend Lease was made to pay fines and restitution of $54USm. for ten years of ‘a systematic pattern of audacious fraud’ in the US of A. Yet again, the company’s defence was ‘everyone does it’. Yet again, Lend Lease is allowed to tender for government contracts.

Funny money

John Gay, former head at Gunns in Tasmania, has been charged on two counts of insider trading late in 2011. It is alleged that he sold shares in Gunns knowing that funds for its pulp mill were not going forthcoming.
In the same week as Gay faced court on 14 May, the Securities Commission (ASIC) reported a boom in insider-trading, with as many as 200 alerts received every day, that is, some 50,000 a year. The authorities managed to get eleven convictions in the three years to December, a slight improvement over their ten successes in the decade before 2008. The financialisation of the economy has inserted multiple levels of intermediaries with access to advance information about company accounts. The disproportion of alerts to convictions is a measure of how light is the hand of the law on corporate crooks.

The shopping center giant Centro lost track of more than $3 billion and thereby misled shareholders in 2007. A judge fined its Chief Financial Officer $30,000 and disqualified him for two years. In delivering his findings, his honour warned off ASIC by ruling that the Centro board had not been personally dishonest. Indeed, they had been ‘intelligent, conscientious and well-advised’. Perhaps if they had been stupid, lazy and ignorant they would not have lost anything? We might compare the court’s kid-glove treatment of Centro’s bosses with what its managers would have done to an honest, intelligent, conscientious and well-advised shopkeeper who happened to lose track of even $3,000 in unpaid rents.

Much smaller in one sense yet also far larger in its implication is the plundering of Super fund Trio by its executives. Alongside the Wollongong battlers whose losses were covered by government guarantees were several hundred leafy North Shore investors who went for Trio’s self-managed funds because they promised higher returns. Where did those ‘victims’ think the extra spondoolicks were going to come from if not from shonky deals such as Trio’s transferring $124m. to a tax haven?

The problem is not the individual rip-off merchant or a few greedy Pymble millionaires, but the institutionalisation of tax havens with the connivance of governments across the globe.
ASIC recently fined Leightons $300,000 for non-disclosure of information to the stock exchange. That is a hanging offence because they were ripping off other capitalists. A fine for killing for profit can be as little as $35,000. Bourgeois justice values a worker’s life at one-eighth of a share-holder’s monetary loss.

Bribes
Leighton’s is also under investigation here and in Iraq into whether one of its subsidiaries paid bribes to get information to win a contract with South Oil Co.

Queensland ex-Minister Gordon Nuttall is in jail for taking bribes from mining magnate Ken Talbot. Talbot was due to stand trial on thirty-five charges of corruption but died in a plane crash between Cameroon and the Congo, two of the most corrupt countries on that continent. You can bet your bottom dollar that Talbot had been as generous to the thugs ruling over those mines as he was to Nuttall. Perhaps his plane crashed because it was overloaded with gifts.

In the wake of the Wheat Board’s bribery in Iraq, the Reserve Bank of Australia got around to cleaning up its act.

Between 2001 and 2009, two subsidiaries, Note Printing Australia and Securency, paid $50m. to agents to win contracts to supply plasticised bank notes. How much of this payout ended up bribing officials in places like Nepal? How much did the RBA oard know, and when did they know it?

On 4 April this year, thirty Victorian building inspectors were charged with ‘alleged corruption, serious misconduct and harassment’; they allegedly took kickbacks to block formal investigations. On the same day, the State government announced the formation of its own Construction Stasi to ban the flying of the Eureka flag on sites. There will be no special police to investigate who bribed the inspectors.

Killing no murder

Four trucking companies are up on 1,000 charges of disabling the speed governors on their trucks. The practice came to light after a truck killed three people in January. In the aftermath, NSW police found that scores of governors at four firms had been tampered with.

The Transport Workers’ Union repeated its accusation against Coles and Woolworths for imposing unsafe delivery schedules. For proof, stop at the Truckies’ memorial at Tarcutta. The employers’ association defence is that executives sit in offices and don’t sully their suits by tinkering with accelerators. Hence, any blame rests with the drivers. At law, corporations don’t have a soul to condemn or a backside to kick, yet they seem well supplied with arseholes.

Price-fixing

One QANTAS executive in the US went to gaol for eight months in 2008 for colluding with competitors to fix freight rates.

Qantas has also been fined by the European Commission, the New Zealand authorities and paid $26m. in penalties early last year in the US of A. If Qantas bosses were indigenous lads in Western Australia they would be behind bars under the three-strikes-and-you’re-in rule.

Dick Pratt made a name for himself as a philanthropist before the Competition Commission fined him $36m. for price-fixing. By colluding on the price of cardboard cartons, Pratt’s Visy and rival Amcor stole money from every pensioner who bought a packet of corn-flakes. Out of that rip-off of the most vulnerable, Pratt made a big fellow of himself.

It is typical of the ingrained culture of capitalism that his associates said that the head of the Competition Commission, Gordon Samuel, had behaved badly in pursuing the case because he had been a guest at Pratt’s house.

Prime Minister Rudd knew about the scam yet flew to the funeral to pay homage to one of the biggest crooks yet to be exposed in Australia.
Transfield’s co-founder, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis, subsidised the visual arts out of the profits he made from exploiting workers while swindling customers and governments. He confessed to his corporation’s official historian that he had engaged in corruption and strong-arm tactics: ‘We cover this with a veneer of civilization.’ In a class society, each act of civilisation is met by a piece of barbarism exacted from workers whose creativity and suffering pay for the benefactor’s noble gestures.

Activists must voice class bitterness and class contempt.

We lose by cringing before bad behaviour in one union.

Instead, we must go straight for the corporate jugular to publicise organised robbers and serial killers.

Dickens got it half wrong in Bleak House when he has detective Bucket observe that, while murder could be done by amateurs, thieving needed professionals.

Dickens was right to foresee that Pratt did not wake up one morning after a blameless career in business and decide to steal tens of millions of dollars. He was a professional thief. Moreover, killing for profit is no work for amateurs as asbestos makes clear.

An International Class-War Crimes Tribunal would charge the Hardie executives with ‘prole-cide’.

Australian unions have endorsed the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) support for co-operative operations, recognising the critical role they play in advancing the organisation’s Global Employment Agenda and promoting decent work.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said the 2012 ACTU Congress had endorsed the position in support of co-operatives as they had a proven record of creating and sustaining employment, now providing more than 100 million jobs globally.

“Co-operatives have also been more resilient to the deepening global economic and jobs crisis than other sectors,” Ms Kearney said.

“Trade unions and co-operatives have a long association in this country. Industry based credit unions gave workers access to financial services and loans, and co-operatives provided affordable services for key workers such as childcare, housing and health.”

The motion adopted at the Congress supports the ILO’ position on co-operatives, outlined in Recommendation 193.

The resolution acknowledges the importance of co-operatives in job creation, mobilising resources and generating investment, as well as their promotion of economic and social development to the benefit of their members.

Ms Kearney said a good example of how co-operatives fostered decent work was Earthworker Co-operative, a micro-financing venture aimed at resourcing manufacturing start-ups including Eureka’s Future Workers Cooperative destined for Morwell, Victoria.

Earthworker Co-operative project officer Dave Kerin said that as future jobs began to disappear out of the power industry, it made sense that co-operatives had higher productivity and better work environments as employees were co-owners.

The Eureka Future Workers Cooperative, which starts manufacturing of its solar hot water units in Knox, Victoria, in July, was the first of a series of union-based worker-owned renewables manufacturing businesses to be rolled out across the nation.

Factories are planned in the Hunter region in NSW, Geelong and WA. The model is unique because of a distribution system where units will be purchased through the wages component of the enterprise agreements negotiated between unions and companies with incentives paid out of rebates.

“Australia’s International Year of Co-operatives Secretariat now seeks to partner with the ACTU to progress the development of a strong social sector of the Australian economy,” said Melina Morrison, Director of the International Year of Co-operatives Secretariat.

“Trade unions and co-operatives share sustainable employment agendas.”

The ACTU Congress backing of the resolution follows the introduction last week of new national co-operatives legislation which aims to strengthen the sector by removing restrictions on co-operatives doing business in other states and territories.

Australian unions have been central to the advancement of progressive economic and social policy in the past.

Unions have fought for, and secured, vital elements of the social wage, like pensions, superannuation, Medicare, and income for the unemployed.

Australian unions have always had a vision for a fair and prosperous Australia that starts with rights at work, and looks outward beyond the workplace. Congress recognises the challenges and opportunities that Australia faces over the coming decades and commits to the development a new union agenda for the future of the economy.

 While the Australian economy has outperformed most other advanced economies since the global financial crisis (with low public sector debt, a low unemployment rate and solid real growth in average wages) the benefits of prosperity have not been shared broadly enough.

 Key areas of the economy are under pressure – the multi-speed economy is real. Some sectors, particularly trade-exposed industries such as manufacturing, finance, and tourism, are struggling with the dramatic and sustained appreciation in the exchange rate.

Jobs have been lost and more are under threat. Australia needs a comprehensive plan for sustaining employment and economic development beyond the mining boom.

 Secure jobs are becoming rarer, with precarious work on the rise. Income, job and working time insecurity have profound negative implications for workers, their families, and their communities.

 Inequality has risen, putting at risk the long-standing norm that Australian should remain a relatively egalitarian place.

 A form of corporate inequality has developed. A greater share of corporate profits are being taken by a handful of the largest companies while many smaller enterprises struggle. An enormous share of national wealth is being captured by a handful of mega-rich individuals who also seek to dominate policy making and public debate.

 Public services are under threat, with the rise of a radical ‘small government’ ideology threatening the health, education, and other vital community services that Australians take for granted.

 There has been a decade long under-investment in infrastructure and skills, leaving Australia under-equipped to grow and compete in the Asian Century.

Unions seek a strong Australia that is fair and prosperous, with secure employment for all who want it, social assistance for all who need it, and truly equal opportunities for all.

Unions seek dialogue with political parties, civil society, and business leaders on this agenda.

Consistent with the policies adopted at the Congress the ACTU will urgently convene experts from across Australian unions to develop a plan to make sure workers and their families, no matter where they live or work, benefit from a prosperous economy. The union agenda for the Australian economy will be centred on the following issues.

 Jobs & Employment: Ensuring that Government policy does everything possible to create and sustain good jobs;

 Productivity: The human and physical capital necessary to secure sustainable productivity growth that lifts real wages and workers’ living standards;

 Public Services: Securing adequate and sustainable revenue to provide high-quality public services; and a response to the ideological attacks on public services.

 Macroeconomic Policy: The appropriate framework for managing macroeconomic policy, (including the inflation target, fiscal rules, and exchange rate policy) and the possible role for policies such as the creation of a sovereign wealth fund.

 The Mining Boom: The best ways to ensure that the benefits of the current mining boom are used to benefit all Australians, including future generations of Australians;

 Inequality: Rising inequality, especially inequality of earned income, and the need for intergenerational equity;

 Personal Tax & Transfers: An equitable personal tax that will help promote social inclusion and jobs and a welfare system that does not create or entrench poverty; and

 The Social Wage: Ensuring that the components of Australia’s social wage keep pace with the evolving needs of the needs of the community;

 Corporate Tax: A corporate tax system that promotes productive investment, infrastructure development and employment, and ensures that taxes fall most heavily on sectors and companies extracting economic rents.

Dave Oliver said unions “cannot tolerate the sorts of things revealed in the Fair Work report into the HSU and that kind of behaviour is not acceptable in our movement”.

Unions had a responsibility to “make sure and make double sure” that funds were only used to advance the interests of members and there would be no tolerance for individuals that breached that obligation.

He said to rousing applause that there was no place in the union movement “for $360,000 salaries to be paid to any union official” – the reported remuneration of HSU East secretary Michael Williamson.

The report into the HSU had been a “wake up call” that meant unions had to be “on the front foot”.

Unions had to ensure they had the best governance structures.

While the ACTU didn’t run its affiliates,”this issue has made us see that there must be standards by which unions should operate”.

The scandal surrounding the HSU had affected all unions he said, “and all of our members”.

“And that’s why we have to set a clear set of principles around governance and financial management.”

AWU national secretary Paul Howes said unions had to say to corrupt officials: “no more, it’s not on, give it back and get out. if you’re here to rip off workers, get out and we’re coming after you!”

I agree. Elsewhere I urged a way in which the workers, the members of HSU could be able to come together in meetings and debate the issues and then democratically decide what to do, with one alternative to disband the union and go into other health unions; at least, the chance to vote out these officials, to debate a change of name, to decide on salary levels etc. We shall see.

The ACTU endorsed that former Federal Court judge Rodney Madgwick will chair a four-member panel to recommend reforms for union governance, financial controls, accountability and transparency, (including remuneration) and risk management (including management of conflicts of interest); financial controls and procedures (including income, membership systems, expenditure, procurement, investments & audits); procedures for contacting members, handling complaints dealing with grievances and disputes.

Here is Dave Oliver’s speech:

http://www.actucongress.org.au/site/congressmedia/speeches-and-opinion/1625-address-by-actu-secretary-elect-dave-oliver-on-union-governance

Who knows what was going on in the HSU? I have no idea.

Nevertheless one interesting read about Kathy Jackson and rats and rats…
http://wixxy.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/i-think-i-smell-a-rat/

and further

http://wixxy.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/comin-under-fire/

Today’s release by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) of the Labour Force data for April 2012 reveals a weak labour market with the employment gains being confined to part-time work and workers dropping out of the labour force due to the limited available vacancies. While unemployment fell by 28.8 thousand, the drop in participation accounted for 26 thousand of that – meaning the Australian economy has been busy over the last month converting the official unemployed into hidden unemployed. This is not a “good” outcome as some in the media and the Government are claiming today. The outlook is also not very positive either given the Federal government’s obsessive pursuit of a budget surplus which will cut economic growth by some percentage points. They are even boasting that if growth falls short and tax revenue shrinks they will impose even further cuts on spending and/or increases in taxes. At that point the word idiocy comes to mind. The most disturbing aspect of the labour market data remains the appalling state of the youth labour market. This should be a policy priority for the government. But they have gone missing in action – lost in their surplus mania. My assessment of today’s results – very subdued indeed. I will be on ABC Radio National Drive program tonight from 18:15 talking about today’s data! Live Feed.

The summary ABS Labour Force (seasonally adjusted) estimates for April 2012 are:

Employment increased by 15,500 (0.1 per cent) with full-time employment falling by 10,500 (0.1 per cent) and part-time employment rising by 26,200 (0.8 per cent).
Unemployment decreased by 28,800 (4.6 per cent) to 598,200. The decline in unemployment is almost solely due to the declining participation rate.

The official unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent because of the labour supply contraction.
The participation rate decreased by 0.1 pts to 65.2 per cent.

Aggregate monthly hours worked increased by 6.6 million hours (0.4 per cent).

The ABS broad labour underutilisation estimates (the sum of unemployment and underemployment) is published quarterly (next release in May 2012) and in February was 12.5 per cent. I expect that underemployment will have risen given that drop in full-time employment.

The Sydney Morning Herald story – Jobless rate in surprise fall – referred to the prediction by bank economists that the unemployment rate would rise to 5.3 per cent (up 0.1 per cent).

One bank economist was quoted as saying:

It’s generally stronger than expected … You’ve got another reasonable gain in employment and while the previous month was revised down, the last couple of months have been decent.

Which is not the story that the numbers are telling. The gain in employment was tepid and full-time employment fell. An economy that adds part-time jobs only is not providing a “reasonable gain in employment” or indicating strength.

And with the participation dropping again, the story is far from decent. I will show you what the decline in participation means further on.

The Employment Minister was quoted as saying:

Even the most trenchant critics of the government would have to acknowledge that an unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent is good news for the nation.

As one of the Government’s most trenchant critics a fall in the unemployment rate that is associated with a drop in full-time employment (that is, further moves to casualisation and low-pay) and the unemployed leaving the labour force because vacancies are scarce is hardly “good news”. It just means that the quality of employment is declining and the official unemployed are becoming hidden unemployed as an artefact of the way the statistician conducts the Labour Force Survey and classifies activity.

Three days ago (May 7, 2012), the same Sydney Morning Herald reporter (Chris Zappone) reported that – Job ads point to labour market weakness. This story was in relation to a job vacancies series which is published by one of the four main banks. The bank also indicated that it was revising its previous estimates of job ads growth down because the data was found to be unreliable.

Last week, the RBA in its Statement on Monetary Policy – see Chapter Domestic Economic Conditions – also said that the current expectations of jobs growth were too optimistic:

… these leading indicators have tended to overestimate net employment growth … Overall, the vacancy data and survey measures continue to point to modest employment growth in the period ahead.

So today’s data does not alter that view – a very sombre outcome was presented.

The ABC report – Unemployment drops as job seekers give up – focused on what is actually happening:

Australia’s unemployment rate dropped to a 12-month low of 4.9 per cent last month in a surprise result as people gave up looking for work … The figures suggest job seekers dropped out of the hunt for work; the participation rate, which measures the number of people at work or seeking work, fell 0.1 of a percentage point to 65.2 per cent.

While most people will think the decline in unemployment is a “good thing” the reality is as explained above – a conversion of unemployment to hidden unemployment in the face of declining vacancies and increased casualisation is not a good signal.

The ABC also quoted the Employment Minister as saying that:

… the figures showed that more Australians were at work than ever before Federal employment minister Bill Shorten said the figures showed that more Australians were at work than ever before and highlighted the importance of the Government’s confidence building measures, such as bringing the budget back to surplus.

First, the ABS Population Clock tells us that there is “an overall total population increase of one person every 1 minute and 34 seconds”. Saying that “more Australians were at work than ever before” is thus meaningless. There are also more American in work than Australians and so on.

Second, the data does not suggest an increased confidence in the private sector. Exactly the opposite. Full-time jobs vanishing, casualisation increasing, people dropping out of the labour force because there are limited new vacancies.

Third, the pursuit of the surplus is the reason the labour market is so flat and on trend terms in decline.

Read more

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=19359#more-19359

http://oz.labourstart.org/

Ged Kearney ACTU
Responding to the 2012 Federal Budget, ACTU President Ged Kearney said:

“The 2012-13 Federal Budget will help shape a fairer Australia, through a more progressive tax system, better assistance for low and middle income earners and protection for jobs in struggling businesses.

“The Government has had to perform a difficult balancing act in framing the 2012-13 Federal Budget. It has been driven by its objective of returning to surplus, but has also made several welcome commitments to create a fairer Australia.

“However, while we understand Treasurer Wayne Swan’s objective to deliver a surplus in the coming financial year, it is regrettable that this has resulted in cuts to public services, jobs, and social security for some of our most vulnerable community members.

“The Budget forecasts confirm that Australia’s economy continues to be well-managed, with unemployment much lower than that of the United States and much of Europe.

“However, the Government must remain conscious of the ongoing global economic instability and be prepared to reconsider its position if necessary.

“Specific initiatives we welcome from the Treasurer tonight include the Government’s commitment to the reduction of the inequitable tax concessions on superannuation contributions for high income earners, along with raising the tax free threshold to $18,000, which will mean about 630,000 low paid workers will not pay income tax.

http://www.actu.org.au/Media/Mediareleases/GovernmenttakesimportantstepstowardscreatingafairerAustraliawith2012Budget.aspx

Australia is among the top military spenders per capita.

This is not something to boast about! There are alternatives – for example, well resourced public schools with better facilities and smaller classes to educate the citizens of the future; more beds in our public hospitals with more nurses with better working conditions, a sustainable environment, and much more.

All this would be possible if Labor and Liberal Governments would listen to the people and cut military spending.

General Facts
• We spend $32 billion a year on the military that is $87 million a day.
• That makes us the 14th biggest spender on the military in the world.
• We are 6th largest per capita spender on the military in the world.
• Australian military expenditure equals and sometimes surpasses what we spend federally on education.
• Australian military expenditure is 9 to 10 per cent of Federal Government outlays.
• Australian military expenditure is guaranteed to rise by 4 to 5 per cent each year for 20 years.

Specific Facts
• Australia has spent $10 billion on the war in Afghanistan – $1 billion a year plus an additional $1.6 billion for extra armour.
• Australia is buying 3 Aegis air warfare warships at over $2 billion each.
• Australia has recently acquired a fleet of 24 Super Hornet warplanes for $6.6 billion.
• Australia is purchasing 100 F35 Joint Strike Fighters at a cost of over $16 billion. This aircraft involves controversial, highly complex technology and is still being developed. In late 2009, when the Government ordered its first instalment (14 jets totalling $3.2 billion), less than 3 per cent of flight testing had been undertaken.
• Australia cannot staff its existing 6 Collins Class submarines but the 2009 Defence White Paper pushed for 12 new submarines (estimated to cost $38 billion).
• Australia plans to be the first country in the South East Asian region to acquire cruise missiles (said to be more than $0.5 million each). Not only will this appear threatening to our neighbours but it will put us in breach of a nuclear non-proliferation measure to which we subscribe, the 1987 Missile Technology Control Regime.

Australian Comparisons
Building the Educational Revolution; $16.1 billion ½ of 1 year’s military spending
The Government’s 2 year economic stimulus plan – $42 billion 1 year and 3 months military spending
Move Royal Adelaide Hospital to a new site – $1.7 billion 3 weeks military spending
Refurbish Royal Hobart Hospital – $1 billion 2 weeks military spending
Government funding of large, grid-connected solar projects (Solar Flagships Program) – $1.5 billion 3 weeks of military spending
Refurbish Royal North Shore Hospital (Sydney) – $1 billion 2 weeks military spending
Rebuild Wagga Wagga Base Hospital – $290 million 3 days military spending
$100 mill for Tamworth’s hospital Just over a day’s military spending Just over a day’s military spending
Acute care beds for Dubbo and Orange Base Hospital – $5 million 1 and half hours military spending
EcoTransit’s light rail plan for inner west Sydney – $414 million 4 days of military spending
Australian overseas aid — $4.3 billion 1½ months military spending
Queensland reconstruction after the cyclone and floods — $5 billion 2 months military spending