The Guardian 8 June, 2005
Dingo bytes
The aim of the Howard government's anti-union laws is to create a huge pool of cheap labour for
companies to exploit and to encourage transnational corporations to invest here. Now Howard has
had to defend a 4.1 percent pay rise for federal politicians. The $85-a-week increase will kick in on
July 1. The average will now be paid $111,150 a year. The government is currently in the Industrial
Relations Commission arguing against a $26.60 per week rise in the minimum wage for low income
earners.
And while on incomes, the St Vincent de Paul Society has blown away Howard's claim that low
income families have thrived under his regime. A study by the charity, The Reality of Income
Inequality in Australia, has found that the incomes of the bottom 10 percent of households have
increased on average only by $26 a week during the last eight years while those in the top income
bracket increased $762 per week. Almost a quarter of the population, 4.5 million people, live on
less than $400 per week. The study states, "There is no doubt that income inequality will grow even
further once the tax cuts and welfare reforms are implemented."
Think the Cold War is over? Well, ASIO doesn't. The secret police agency has set up a new unit to
increase its surveillance of foreign spies, especially those from Russia and China. ASIO got the
funds to set up the new counter-espionage unit last year. It is now fully operational, but its size and
cost remain a secret. Expect some Chinese diplomats to be accused of spying and expelled in the
not-to-distant future.
Sydney is heading toward becoming one big traffic snarl. If there's a breakdown in any of its
numerous freeways or tunnels the traffic grinds to a halt and backs up for kilometres. The Carr
government, hand in glove with developers and construction companies, has come up with a
novelty to open the latest contribution to grid-locking the city: encouraging people at its opening on
June 12 to walk through its new Cross City Tunnel in the name of charity. As Greens MP Lee
Rhiannon put it, "While Bob Carr shows symptoms of motorway madness by championing the
Cross City Tunnel, public transport users across the state will be wondering where the
government's priorities are because the Premier has been closing rail lines left, right and centre
and has done little to encourage bicycle use in the city."
CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: is the federal ALP. To get an idea of how bad their
position on locking up asylum seekers is, this headline in the Sydney Morning Herald last
week referring to the Liberal Party backbencher leading the push for a policy change on mandatory
sentencing, made it clear: "Labor moves closer to backing the Georgiou plan".