Labor re-election good for regions

Date: 08 September 2010

AWU members who live in regional, remote and rural Australia can expect to reap the rewards of the re-election of the Labor Government with the support of the independents.

“ This will be a government which puts a priority on providing infrastructure and services to Australians who live outside of the big capital cities,” AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes, said today.

 “ The AWU has always championed the regions. It’s our birthplace and our future.

 Campaigned hard for more taxpayer dollars to be put back into the regions

 “ In recent months, in fact during the Federal election, we have campaigned hard for Australia to pay more attention to the regions – and put more taxpayer dollars back into the regions.

 “ This election result will secure good jobs in regional and remote Australia. It will create new, long-term jobs for regional and remote Australia.

 “ The result therefore is good for our people,” Paul Howes said.

 Build a stronger economy delivering jobs and training

 “ The priorities of the in-coming Government are to build a stronger economy that delivers quality training and good job opportunities for all Australians.  This has always been a core priority for this union.

 “ While the focus on investing in the regions is especially important for the AWU the re-election and continuation of a Labor Government in Canberra has also ensured that there will be no return to the hated WorkChoices laws of the Liberal Party. 

 New worker protections will help the AWU to grow even faster

 “ Labor ended that awful era with the Fair Work laws, which only became fully operational at the start of this year.

 “ Over the next few years  the AWU will be able to use these new worker protections to improve the rights of members – and to grow the union even faster than we’ve grown since the Fair Work laws were introduced.

 Protecting worker entitlements will be big step forward

 “ The union looks forward to further improvements to the rights of working Australians. Most importantly I want to see the introduction as soon as possible of the proposed Fair Entitlement scheme announced by the Prime Minister during the campaign.

“ Under the proposal, most workers made redundant when a business failed without the capacity to pay entitlements would receive 100% of what they were owed, rather than being dependent on GEERS which provided a maximum of 16 weeks’ pay.

“ The restoring of workers’ rights will continue under this Government and we can look forward to massive investment in Australia which will create new, decent and secure jobs for AWU members and their families,” Paul Howes said.

For further information

Contact:	Paul Howes
Union:	AWU National Secretary
WWW:	http://www.awu.net.au/

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