From the ABC

Govt drops 'WorkChoices' from IR hotline

The Federal Government has dropped the name 'WorkChoices' from its industrial relations telephone hotline.

The hotline is now called the 'Workplace Infoline' and telephone operators have been told to change all references from "WorkChoices" to "workplace relations".

Federal Minister for Workplace Relations Joe Hockey says the Government is not ashamed of the name WorkChoices but he says the Opposition's "scare campaign" has worked.

"The unions and the Labor Party have put in a million-dollar scare campaign against WorkChoices," he said.

"It has resonated because it's been the most sophisticated and political campaign in the history of this country."

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Gus: No Joe... It has resonated because most people have seen through the Government con. And many have seen their mates on AWAs take a pecuniary plunge... those still left on "State Awards" are counting their blessings. 

Clash of Hope and Fear as Venezuela Seizes Land

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: May 17, 2007

URACHICHE, Venezuela — The squatters arrive before dawn with machetes and rifles, surround the well-ordered rows of sugar cane and threaten to kill anyone who interferes. Then they light a match to the crops and declare the land their own.

For centuries, much of Venezuela’s rich farmland has been in the hands of a small elite. After coming to power in 1998, and especially after his re-election in December, President Hugo Chávez vowed to end that inequality, and has been keeping his promise in a process that is both brutal and legal.

Yes Gus ....

No wonder people have stopped listening to rattus & his pack …. uncle joe busily muddies the waters & froths at the mouth about the dreadful behaviour of the trade unions for spending money on exposing the rattus “workchoices” fraud, whilst his panic-stricken government splurges more than $100million of taxpayers' funds promoting its new “mystery” industrial relations brand, superannuation, family & child-care rebates, private health insurance & $70 million alone promoting its grey-power-bribe superannuation changes.

And talking about “scare” campaigns, here’s some of the recent contributions from rattus …..

….. “the building industry's move to insert "Risk of Rudd" clauses in contracts to cover higher costs expected as a result of Opposition policies was a practical example of the consequences of electing Labor;

….. Labor would take Australia backwards in industrial relations and cause building costs to go up;

….. we have come a long way in industrial relations in this country and the notion of turning back to a union dominated industrial relations system clearly has alarmed many people in the business community, but that alarm goes wider than the business community. People are worried that Labor's policies will replace a system that has elevated the importance of individual agreement making at the workplace above the influence of union bosses and the primacy of union power.

….. well I'll tell you what the problem of that is, that those people will be hand-picked by the union bosses. Now that's the problem, and you talk about the Fair Pay Commission, there are five people on the Fair Pay Commission.”

As I said, no wonder people have stopped listening …..

Howard hits out at 'lopsided' 'Bastard Boys'

Prime Minister John Howard has lashed out at the ABC's Bastard Boys television drama series.

The series was based on the 1998 waterfront industrial dispute in Melbourne, and aired on ABC TV earlier this week.

"One of the most lopsided pieces of political propaganda I've seen on the national broadcaster in years," Mr Howard told a business lunch in Cairns.

"It completely ignored the fact that the Australian waterfront was notoriously inefficient and all of the collaborative attempts that had been made over the years to change that had failed."

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Gus: The way the government acted was illegal and akin to Pinochet's and Stalin's tactics... Peter Reith was ousted from his position in the government by his own party It was a sign he was on the nose and had he stayed on, Johnnee knew he could loose an unloosable election... Thus Reith who had been one of Rattus bully boys was given a cushy job as a whatever to Somewhatland to represent the Rattus Empire, away from the heat... especially after the "children-overboard" affair, another bully stint where Peter Reith lied through his teeth to upset the election result in favour of Rattus...

From the ABC

Howard dismisses China threat on Dalai Lama

Prime Minister John Howard says he will not be influenced by China when he decides whether to meet Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next month.

Yesterday China issued a thinly-veiled warning to Australian political leaders not to meet the Dalai Lama when he comes to Australia for a 10-day visit.

But Mr Howard says he will meet the Dalai Lama if he can.

"I make decisions in relation to what I think is right,' he said.

"I know that this country has a good relationship with China but in relation to who I meet that is a matter for me.

"In deciding who I will or can meet I don't seek advice from others - no matter who they might be."

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Gus: So our Rattus has not decided yet? Waiting for a wind change? Can't be sure to find a couple of hours in his busy schedule, especially his morning jogs? Does not seek advice from others? But can't make his mind up?... A bit like not deciding to go to war with Bushit when all the Aussie troops are already on the way there? Mind's already made up but not telling?... A jump-out clause, just in case?... Well I'm not going to tell you... It's a matter for "him"... His Majesty the Decider when he chooses to do or not to do the whatever.  

From the SMH

I'd abolish states: PM May 18, 2007 - 10:44AM

If Australia was started all over again and a fresh constitution was drafted, there would be no states, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Mr Howard, who has to deal with Labor leaders in every state and territory, said he wasn't about to launch a campaign for this to happen.

"If we started the country again, that's what people would want," he told ABC radio in Townsville.

"But I am not about to embark on a constitutional campaign to get rid of state governments, let me assure you of that.

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Gus: after having seen Johnnee try to collect as much of states assets as he could, interfering in all their  spheres from water to education, via hijacking industrial relations... one has to view his grand denial with a grain of salt. A HUGE grain of salt... And his comment "I'd abolish states" does zilch for the working of this country because the forefather who drafted the constitution knew what they were doing: stop little upstarts stealing the show and the loot by "national interest" grandstanding. It forces a certain amount of cooperation between all, a word that may appear from time to time in Rattus lexicon, with a frame-up, as his quivering lips choke on the meaning...

And to say: "If we started the country again, that's what people would want.." is a fake paradym that yet again uses the "everyone knows that" crab-basket-case when only he a couple of mates are in it...

Throw him out at the next election. He deserve the best send-off with the lowest votes ever... 

Yes, I'd abolish John Howard because "I am not interested in accumulating power in Canberra just because I am the prime minister. That is not the right way to go." says he? YES, take him out becasue when you read through the negative and the "just" causal premise, HE IS DEFINITELY INTERESTED in accumulating power no matter what or where he is... 

 

Hi Gus ....

See Nicholson's view

the lama drama ....

 

Well said Gus.

Rattus is an arrogant & ignorant little turd (I think this is french for "not nice").

In the words of Mark Twain ....

‘But it was impossible to save the Great Republic.

She was rotten to the heart.

Lust of conquest had long ago done its work; trampling upon the helpless abroad had taught her, by a natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home; multitudes who had applauded the crushing of other people's liberties, lived to suffer for their mistake in their own persons.

The government was irrevocably in the hands of the prodigiously rich & their hangers-on; the suffrage was become a mere machine, which they used as they chose.

There was no principle but commercialism, no patriotism but of the pocket.’

As mentioned, a few times before on this site, I am an avid follower of E.T. Gundlach, the advertising guru of the early 1900s — long forgotten by the account execs of our times but still using his techniques of spruiking like some of us do prose without knowing it — who was the father, or at least the first person I ever read, to recognise the subterfugial and sarcastical quality of his cunning craft. My only beef with him was he though that governments would never go so low as to use the snake-oil merchants techniques in which usage of he made a lot of money. Then came Hitler and Goebbels, who I believe without proof, would have read the works of Mr Gundlach front to back, in order to cunningly empower individuals in a sea of people, which Gundlach himself prefers to call mob rather than mass (mob rules while mass hysterics)...
One of Gundlach's early books is entirely devoted to selling surplus olive oil to a Greek City already full to the rafters with the virgin stuff, back in the days of Pytagoras.
Thus in "Old Sox", his not-so-fictional characters of Graball, Zeus-kin, Bullem and others, are gems of observation and manipulations at all levels all in order to make a "fairly large quick" buck... In short everyone cons everybody else down the line, but doing so in style and good manners.
This long and winded introduction to slide up to today's reality... Suddenly our Rattus government realises things are not working... Their advertising campaign "has been successfully counteracted" by the big bad unions...
Bollocks!
Removing the word "choices" from "WorkChoices" and replacing it with an innocuous whatever, is telling truly what the government was worried about: The government could have been sued for misleading advertising... Sure advertising can and does mislead with a certain amount of fairytale-ing and buttering up which goes a long way, but by trying to make people believe the sauce is fresh when it's stinks of old can lead you in front of the courts.
I know the word "choices" could have been argued in all the petty-courts of this charming land by slick, silked and horse-haired QCs, but in the end the highest court would have voted 5-4 the word "choices" was not appropriate for what the government was doing. Sure there is a "choice" between agreeing to an AWA or being sacked, but the better description for this situation is "ultimatum"... the "you sign or we shoot!" system.
Thus the name for the government IR laws "Work Choices" was misleading and the government, praise its glorious vision, saw that. It thus should rename its botched-up enterprise "Work Ultimatumes" (forgive my Latin), thus giving this glorious feeling of trench warfare truly associated with the laws. Not hard to know where the Kaiser is, nor hard to see where the diggers are....

Kevin Rudd has taunted Prime Minister John Howard over remarks he made more than 10 years ago criticising excessive Government spending on advertising.

The rattus government has finally admitted that it plans to spend more than $111m on advertising & had spent $4.1m in six days on its new AWA 'fairness test' - the legislation for which won't be tabled in Parliament until Monday.

Rudd asked Howard whether he recalled making the following remarks six months before an earlier election:

'In a desperate attempt to find an election life raft, the Prime Minister is beginning an unprecedented propaganda blitz using taxpayers money. This soiled government is to spend a massive $14m of taxpayers' money over the next two months as part of its pre-election panic. If any other form of business, the shareholders would revolt & throw out the management which wasted their money.

'This propaganda blitz will make the electorate feel even more angry. Families, welfare organisations, small businesses, the elderly & the youth of Australia can all see far better ways to spend $50m than self-congratulatory mirage-making.'

Despite attempts by Liberal backbencher Bronwyn Bishop to take points of order, Rudd ended by asking: 'Does the Prime Minister stand by these statements, or do they simply no longer apply?'

In reply Howard said he would 'check what I said' & then spoke about a Labor newspaper ad from 1985 about consumption tax, saying it has been 'sunk' by the ACTU.

'I remember this ad very well. It was perfectly okay for the Keating government to spruik the virtues of taxation reform with an expensive advertising campaign almost 22 years ago,' he said. 'Can I also say that when you read [the fairness test ad] it reduces the information campaign that we have launched in relation to the IR changes to a bland statement of the obvious & of reality.'

Howard then asked that further questions be placed on the notice paper.

A motel AWA that strips all award conditions for no compensation, pays the minimum rate & tells workers not to adjust their bra straps 'appears to fail the fairness test', according to Workplace Relations Minister, smokin’ joe hockey.

However a major motel group has defended the AWA, saying criticism of it is 'confused, unrelated to reality & totally unwarranted'.

Media reports yesterday revealed the Lilac City Motor Inn in Goulburn, NSW, was asking employees to sign an AWA which was linked to a staff handbook saying it was unacceptable to yawn, clean their eyes, yawn, push their hair behind their ears at work - or for women to adjust their bra straps.

The AWA also removes all award conditions such as overtime & penalty rates but pays just the minimum $13.47 an hour - although the motel operators claim they actually pay their staff above that rate.

Smokin’ joe said that 'at first glance' the template AWA would not pass the fairness test.

But the prime rattus says that doesn’t matter - a “fairness test” doesn’t mean that things have to be fair - & has refused to guarantee that AWAs which strip away all award conditions such as penalty rates & overtime, without compensation, would automatically fail his new Fairness Test.

The Fairness Test, legislation for which will introduced into Parliament on Monday, was brought in because of complaints that workers were losing all their award entitlements under AWAs without receiving any compensation.

Rattus stated earlier this month that it was never intended to be the 'norm' that this occurred. In his statement on the Fairness Test on May 4th, rattus said that in 'appropriate circumstances' the Workplace Authority will also consider other factors such as the industry, location & economic circumstances of the business & the specific employment circumstances or opportunities of the employee when assessing whether an AWA passed the fairness test.

But rattus subsequently indicated that companies in dire economic circumstances could cut all entitlements without compensation (what’s the bet that this won’t be expected of the directors & senior management). He also indicated that in some regions (presumably with higher unemployment) merely the 'offer of a job' could be fair compensation for losing all entitlements.

Yesterday in Question Time rattus was asked: 'Will the Prime Minister guarantee that this Australian workplace agreement will be illegal in all cases given the special circumstances exemption which exists under his changes to his WorkChoices laws?'

Of course, rattus avoided answering the question, saying: 'I tell you what I will guarantee. There is a guarantee which I have given in the past & which I am very happy to repeat that is, interest rates will always be lower under the Coalition than they are under Labor. The other guarantee I give is that if the Labor Party wins the next election & repeals our industrial relations laws unemployment will rise significantly.'

Not a rattus “fairness test, just another rattus “sham” test.