Scorched earth policies

With control of the Senate in its own right or via Family 
First or right-wing Democrats, the Howard Government has open 
slather to implement its scorched earth agenda.

The full privatisation of Telstra is high on its list, taking 
Australia down the path of a user-pays telecommunications system. 
Communications Minister Helen Coonan coyly said of Family First 
and Telstra's privatisation: "... one would think they would be 
more aligned with our view."

Every public asset and service that can generate a profit is up 
for sale. In the front line are health and education. Elite 
private schools will receive even larger handouts.

Issues for resistance and struggle

These and other issues, some of which are listed below will 
provide many opportunities for the whole of the labour movement 
to struggle against these policies which will savage the living 
standards and rights of the overwhelming majority of the 
Australian people.

It is time for unity and joining hands after the inevitable 
investigations into the causes of the defeat for the Labour 
movement.

Simply because the Coalition Government has won a majority can 
never be accepted as a reason to meekly accept the attacks that 
the Howard Government is set to implement. Working people have 
the right to resist and fight back against any and every attack 
by the corporations and its conservative government 
representatives.

The Government legislate away more fundamental democratic rights, 
build more camps for refugees, and take any other measures it 
deems necessary to quash any form of dissent or resistance to its 
policies.

It will press ahead with its remaining anti-union legislation, 
adding to the already substantial armoury in the hands of the 
employers in their offensive against workers and unions. The 
drive to impose individual contracts, the Government's Australian 
Workplace Agreements, will be stepped up, as will the dismantling 
of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

Further deregulation of the financial system will be given 
priority passage. This will include the scrapping of the four 
pillars policy, allowing the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB and 
Westpac to merge with each other or be taken over by foreign 
banks.

ABC

The ABC will be hit even harder with funding cuts in order to 
make it run advertisements, the first step towards it complete 
commercialisation, when it will be broken up and sold off 
piecemeal. The Government before the election announced its 
intention to dump cross media ownership laws, which will result 
in turning even more information, news and current affairs into a 
Rupert Murdoch-Kerry Packer view of the world.

Welfare will be slashed more deeply across the board, hurting 
many of Australia's most disadvantaged, beginning with major cuts 
to the disability pension. The unemployed will have their 
payments cut completely after a strict time limit. All people on 
welfare, regardless of their situation, will be forced to take 
whatever work is offered or lose their payments, essentially 
turning the privatised system into a cheap labour scheme.

Forests

Tasmanian forests will be savaged by the chainsaws of those 
loggers who were conned into supporting the Howard Government 
with his dishonest claim to represent workers and save their 
jobs.

Employers are lined up with their shopping lists. The tax rate 
for big business is set to be reduced to as low as 20 percent. 
The Government intends to reduce the tax paid by those on incomes 
of $85,000 or more while leaving those on average and lower 
incomes without relief.

All this while the Government is spending $55 million a day on 
the military.