Dingo
The announcement by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission that there will be a program to reduce workplace deaths by one fifth in ten years has rightly been greeted with derision by workers and their unions. The Commission has set the target in its latest report, saying that 297 people died as a result of workplace accidents in the financial year 2001-02, and that 138,810 were injured in that period. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union dismissed the numbers, which are based on claims for workers' comp, pointing out that every week a building worker is killed on the job. "The Federal Government has failed to deliver anything beyond platitudes", said the union.* * * So, PM Howard doesn't like the values being promoted in public schools, accusing them of being "too politically correct" and "incredibly antiseptic about a whole range of things". Let's list briefly the values that have flourished under Little Jonnie and his government: intolerance, commitment to endless war, growing poverty and unemployment, the imprisonment of innocent men women and children in refugee prison camps, widespread corporate corruption, ministerial nepotism* * * Last week there was a very upfront cartoon in one of the daily papers following the introduction by the Bush Government of a raft of strict new rules for visitors to the US. It was of the Statue of Liberty holding instead of the torch a sign that said "Piss Off". The rules, part of the reactionary Homeland Security laws, cast a mighty wide net, as aging pop groupie Ian Meldrum found when he lobbed there to interview a band. He was refused entry and ordered to return to Australia because he was not holding the correct visa. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, like his Government ever on the lookout for populist opportunities, said, "I'd like to do everything I can to help him." Ah, the humanity.* * * CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: is Labor leader Mark Latham. Mark has jumped on the security bandwagon, bringing to an end his brief period as a larrikin flouting conservative convention. He's now endorsing the mandatory detention of asylum seekers and he wants to introduce a photo ID for foreign workers. The card would contain name, nationality, and passport and visa numbers and be linked to the holder's fingerprints, eye and voice characteristics. In announcing the plan he wanted to appear tougher than the Government on "border protection", a bit like state Liberal and Labor when they do their law-and-order beat ups. There are illegal workers here and many of them are being exploited to the hilt by employers. But why has the Labor Party just discovered them? The suspicion is Labor's aim to introduce a national ID card has not been taken off the agenda. You may recall the attempt by the Hawke Government in the 1980s to introduce the Australia Card, which was defeated by grass roots public opposition and protest.