Monday, October 10, 2005
AM IR interview
I love my ABC to bits. I'm a huge fan of both Triple J and 666 (local AM station), as well as the TV station itself. I really like listening to AM (the half hour news burst on 666) as I'm driving to work. Usually, it rocks hard. Their interviewers are really intelligent and it's fun to see them leave people flat-footed.
But this morning they were playing an interview with Lil Johnny Howard about the Industrial Relations reforms, and I just wished I could reach inside the interviewer's head and get her to say the things I was thinking. Lil Johnny, although I despise him, is a very savvy interviewee, and he seemed to be catching her flat-footed a lot. That ain't how it's meant to be.
The specific things he said that I had particular issue with were:
1) When Lil Johnny said that we had a skill shortage and a worker's market, meaning that workers would have more bargaining power than employers, I really wanted her to come back with, "What happens when the worker's market goes away?" Changing it now while everything is (apparently) rosy and saying that therefore everything will be rosy for ever and ever is complete bull.
2) When he used America of all countries as an example of a place where the unemployment rate was really low because they had a deregulated IR market, I nearly punched the stereo. America also has a shocking number of full time workers who live below the poverty line because the rate of pay is so low. I'd personally rather we had a higher unemployment rate if it meant that a lower percentage of the population lived in poverty.
*shakes fist*
But this morning they were playing an interview with Lil Johnny Howard about the Industrial Relations reforms, and I just wished I could reach inside the interviewer's head and get her to say the things I was thinking. Lil Johnny, although I despise him, is a very savvy interviewee, and he seemed to be catching her flat-footed a lot. That ain't how it's meant to be.
The specific things he said that I had particular issue with were:
1) When Lil Johnny said that we had a skill shortage and a worker's market, meaning that workers would have more bargaining power than employers, I really wanted her to come back with, "What happens when the worker's market goes away?" Changing it now while everything is (apparently) rosy and saying that therefore everything will be rosy for ever and ever is complete bull.
2) When he used America of all countries as an example of a place where the unemployment rate was really low because they had a deregulated IR market, I nearly punched the stereo. America also has a shocking number of full time workers who live below the poverty line because the rate of pay is so low. I'd personally rather we had a higher unemployment rate if it meant that a lower percentage of the population lived in poverty.
*shakes fist*
// posted by Cass @ 8:59 AM 
Comments:
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Ah the US. Where you are completely free to die in a ditch if you so wish. That's in the constitution.
And where all races form a great big melting pot of goodness where no one racial or cultural type is better off.
But it does help if you're not Asian/Hispanic/Black/Arabic/or an Inuit.
Cass - I applaud your points that the ABC should have really made. Howard has been cruising along nicely thanks to labor party reforms made in the 80's and 90s (which was no mean feat considering the massive black hole Howard left them as the boy treasurer back in the early 80s).
It is a complete fantasy to say stripping workers of fundamental rights will somehow result in greater choice. Greater choice to die in a ditch as per above perhaps. And that's about it.
I listened to a CPSU rep (our public service union) on the radio this PM. She said that 90% of Australians preferred a union negotiated contract where applicable. 90% is pretty big Lil John.
I hope we remember this when next the election comes. But he tends to get all the painful stuff out of the road in year 1 of his term, then spend the next two years sucking up with complex benefits to encourage women to f_ck off out of the work force.
God bless Australia with Howard at the helm. Nob.
And where all races form a great big melting pot of goodness where no one racial or cultural type is better off.
But it does help if you're not Asian/Hispanic/Black/Arabic/or an Inuit.
Cass - I applaud your points that the ABC should have really made. Howard has been cruising along nicely thanks to labor party reforms made in the 80's and 90s (which was no mean feat considering the massive black hole Howard left them as the boy treasurer back in the early 80s).
It is a complete fantasy to say stripping workers of fundamental rights will somehow result in greater choice. Greater choice to die in a ditch as per above perhaps. And that's about it.
I listened to a CPSU rep (our public service union) on the radio this PM. She said that 90% of Australians preferred a union negotiated contract where applicable. 90% is pretty big Lil John.
I hope we remember this when next the election comes. But he tends to get all the painful stuff out of the road in year 1 of his term, then spend the next two years sucking up with complex benefits to encourage women to f_ck off out of the work force.
God bless Australia with Howard at the helm. Nob.
They're only allowed to f_ck off out of the workforce if they have a hubby who's signed up to some AWA that means he gets no time at home with the 3 kids (one for each parent and one for Peter Cotsello) because he needs the extra money that he's won for giving up his entitlements.
If they don't have a hubby then they are a dole bludging scumbag and should be in the workplace.
If they don't have a hubby then they are a dole bludging scumbag and should be in the workplace.
Amen Princess Right !
I wonder if Costello is actually going to round up all those third kids and firm a gang of loyal pickpockets.
Then he will have a nice fat new revenue stream for the government coffers based on the reclaimed funds from his street crews and from the sale of silk hankees.
"Oh ... I got to pick a pocket or two !"
I wonder if Costello is actually going to round up all those third kids and firm a gang of loyal pickpockets.
Then he will have a nice fat new revenue stream for the government coffers based on the reclaimed funds from his street crews and from the sale of silk hankees.
"Oh ... I got to pick a pocket or two !"
I'm of the opinion that radio and TV journos should collectively refuse to interview John Howard at all until he promises to answer their questions... and not the %$£#ing "politician's answer" that they're all so fond of giving but he is the absolute master at. Howard was interviewed by Kerry O'Brien on the 7.30 Report the other night and when Kerry *did* try and ask the sensible, probing questions he basically just interrupted and shouted him down. It makes my blood boil because he's essentially giving us -the audience, not just the journo, a big "F_CK YOU". Grrr
I think Howard got picked on as a kid but lower class boys - and he's spent his entire life trying to get his own back.
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