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Howard Government bias
Date: 06 August 2001
Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Arch Bevis said today the intervention by the Government in the TriStar dispute to argue that the bargaining period should be terminated was further proof of their bias in dealing with industrial relations issues.
Mr Bevis was commenting on the decision of the government to intervene in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and seek to terminate the bargaining period and order workers to return to work.
"All Australian workers are entitled to have their life savings protected and the Howard Government and the system they have put in place has failed to do that. It is the failure of the Howard Government to put in place an adequate scheme to protect 100 per cent of employees that is at the heart of the TriStar dispute.
"The Labor Party urges the company and the union to adhere to the decision of the industrial relations commission and continue to work for a sensible compromise in spite of the inflammatory comments by Tony Abbott.
"However, the bias of this government in dealing with industrial relations issues is blatant. We only need to contrast the actions of the government in dealing with the Hunter Valley No 1 dispute where the government argued against termination of the bargaining period. In that dispute, which raged not for days or weeks but years, they agreed that the company, Rio Tinto, should be allowed to continue its fight with the unions. But today they argue for the termination of the bargaining period at TriStar. Invariably the Howard government line up with their employer mates rather than the public interest.
"This government insists on becoming a combatant in any industrial dispute and always against the workers. Since the election of the Howard Government we have seen some of the most bitter and divisive industrial disputes in Australia's history. Pakenham in Victoria witnessed the longest lockout since the 1930s - a nine-month lockout described by Justice Spender of the Federal Court as a "baseball bat lockout". In another example of the aggressive approach to industrial relations adopted by employers under the Howard industrial laws, ACI locked out its workers at Box Hill in Victoria for five months starting on Christmas Eve 1999.
"There was not one word of criticism from any minister in the Howard government of either of these lockouts, in fact Peter Reith, in the Pakenham-Berwick Gazette, said "he had no objections to G&K O'Connor Export Abattoir locking out 334 workers last year and that "he supported O'Connor's actions and the moves taken by the company to de-unionise its workforce." Today in parliament Tony Abbott refused to criticise that nine month lockout.
"Tony Abbott and the government have not acted as honest brokers in this dispute. The involvement of Tony Abbott in this dispute has only made matters worse," said Mr Bevis.
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