Labor, Labor, why don’t you give me a call?
http://enpassant.com.au/2012/03/27/labor-labor-why-dont-you-give-me-a-call/
Posted by John, March 27th, 2012 - under ALP, Labor Party, Left turn.
It seems everyone has a view on Labor’s collapse. Most of it is laughable – banal explanations about an it’s time factor to half grasped truths about privatisation. Everyone is offering advice so here’s my two bob’s worth.
Give me a call, Labor, to discuss a left turn. My fees are very reasonable.
The editorial in the increasingly erratic and Australianised Australian Financial Review – its editor, Michael Stutchbury, is the former neoliberal economics writer for the Australian – says that ‘Labor is a captive of the vested interests of militant unions and rent seekers.’
Well, the rent seeker part is right. The mining companies, whom the editorial praises, are the classic rent seekers, along with the banks, supermarkets, petrol companies, car manufacturers and all the profit bludgers feeding on the tax teat to the tune of tens of billions.
But militant unions? Seriously? The figures tell a rather different story, one where the union leadership are more the poodles of profit than its nemesis.
The strike figures in Australia for 2011 and previous years are at historic lows, not withstanding minor blips in 2011. As Michael Janda put it:
When one smooths out the volatility, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) figures show industrial disputes have declined steadily and significantly since limited protected industrial action was introduced in 1993.
Read more: http://enpassant.com.au/2012/03/27/labor-labor-why-dont-you-give-me-a-call/
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