General

Work And Family

Government only listens to big business

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet has rejected today's erroneous claims by the Prime Minister John Howard saying the real issue is that the Government only listens to big business on industrial relations and completely ignores the views and interests of Australian working families.

Mr Combet said:

"Today's claims by the Government are completely ridiculous and show just how desperate John Howard and Kevin Andrews are becoming on the issue of their IR laws.

The comments to which the Prime Minister has referred were a joke and a light-hearted aside shared with a group of workers in Adelaide who had gathered yesterday to protest against the Government's IR laws.

The comments were met with the laughter and levity with which they were intended.

The comments have been deliberately taken out of context and misrepresented by the Prime Minister and the Employment Minister, Mr Andrews.

The ACTU and unions support the democratic process of electing governments in Australia.

However, in the democratic process it is very important that governments listen to both sides of an argument and do not favour sectional interests. In the industrial relations debate the Howard Government has only listened to big business and it has refused to take into account the views of working people. That is the real bias in Australian politics.

John Howard and Kevin Andrews must be getting pretty desperate about the IR laws to spin this kind of nonsense. They have run out of arguments to justify their unfair laws and are resorting to the slogans of the conservatives in the 1950s about 'union power'.

They have misled the Australian public about the effect of their IR laws, wasting $55 million of taxpayers' money on deceitful ads.

The laws are hugely unpopular with the electorate who day after day are seeing more cases of people being unfairly sacked or having their pay and conditions cut.

The Government's economic case for the laws is in tatters.

The OECD has told the Government its IR laws are on the wrong economic path and yesterday BIS Shrapnel said the IR laws would not improve productivity.

The Prime Minister is right about one thing - the ACTU is absolutely committed to getting rid of these laws and we will continue to do everything we can through the democratic process to see the IR laws repealed.

These laws are bad for working families and bad for Australia and the Prime Minister and Kevin Andrews should be willing to argue the facts not hide behind these ridiculous accusations," said Mr Combet.

Media Contact: George Wright 0419 556 616

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© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

http://www.cpsu-spsf.asn.au/latest_news/general/20060627_business.html
Last Modified: 27 Jun 2006