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Tony Abbott, "The Mad Monk" and the union movement

By Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary

18 January 2010

It is right for the union movement to warn workers about the return of the right - wing rump now in charge of the federal Liberal / NP opposition.

The turmoil inside the Liberal Party at the end of 2009 over a proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has only exposed to the wider Australian public the existence of the ultra conservative, born to rule group of politicians in Canberra, that the union movement has been well aware of for years.

We should be wary of their antics, their prograndising, pro- employer, wage cutting, work place destabilisation rhetoric.   There is no way ordinary working people want these politicians running the country again.

Their arrogance knows no bounds.   When their latest leader Tony Abbott said he’s going to resurrect the insulting concept of “Howard’s Battlers” and rename them “Abbott’s Army”, it was pathetic.

They can try to reinvent themselves as much as they like, but unions know that the contempt they hold for ordinary people will never go away.

There is no way Mr Abbott is going to turn back time and play similar games. Yet he fancies himself.

Hard working Australians saw through John Howard’s misrepresentations of their aspirations in 2007 and threw him out of office.   He even lost his parliamentary seat.

The downside of monitoring the conservatives desire to create a WorkChoices 2 is that some focus is taken off the actual government in power.  

Rudd and Gillard have not dissolved many of the excesses of WorkChoices 1 with their Fair Work Act.   The ACTU presented a report recently to the ILO over the ongoing breaches of International Labour conventions contained in the ALP’s new Fair Work Act.   The report on this from the ILO’s Committee of Experts is due in May 2010.

The Federal Government is also allowing the ongoing discriminatory treatment of the nation’s 150,000 strong building industry workforce, by having Howard’s ABCC continue to exist.   Ordinary building workers face 6 months gaol for simply refusing to be compulsorily interrogated about what happens at rank and file meetings at their workplace!

2010 is a federal election year.   These issues must remain in the forefront of the union movement’s thinking.

Yes, keep an eye on Abbott and Co, but don’t drop the ball on the real ‘unfinished business’ issues of the day.