Does anyone else find this new industrial relations laws just a little frightening. Now we’ve all heard the controversy (unless you’re not Australian, in which case you probably don’t know me, in which case you’ve aready exited imediately upon seeing our site). Anyway, Court brought up a good argument today. If you’re on the dole, by choice or circumstance, and you’re offered a job… you must take it. If you do not you lose all benefits. It makes a certain amount of sense as any job is better than no job… a certain amount of sense. Not total.
Now with this new system of ‘negotiating a individual contract’ you are obligated to accept anything they offer you if you’re on the dole. No over time pay or holidays? Ever? Well fuck, if I don’t sign I lose my payments and therefore would be anally violated by debt collectors. Offer me a job where I work a 78hour week for a little over what my dole payments are anyway? Shit, sign me up! What can you negotiate with? Take the job or lose everything. No matter what amount of shit they offer you, basically unless you have another job to fall back on… you’re butt fucked.
Court says her dad is going to lose his overtime. They’ve already got it set, ready for the new agreements. He’s a conservative suporter so has no reason to lie about it. The problem is he’s an ambo… so there’s thousands of them. If he doesn’t want the job who cares. Only one person down. Easily replace him. Now if everyone has to deal on a person to person basis, there’s no unity. Worker will fight worker, and the employers are gonna be loving it.
And why is everyone in those ads a labourer. Are these the sort of jobs where people are going to get fucked by these new agreements? Are you admitting the poorer part of Australia is going to get de-virginised in the bum bum? Or we just going to create lots more labouring jobs. Has anyone thought that maybe there’s a manual skills shortage as they get paid like scum. Sure some do pretty good, especially with the booming housing market, but you don’t hear many ‘living out their dream’ as a steel worker. Or ‘finally getting their chance’ as a warehouse manager… oh wait.
Damn.
On a more light-hearted topic, isn’t Brisbane looking beautiful at the moment? A few days of rain and suddenly the desert that was our city, has turned a deep green. The mornings are misty and cold. The flowers are blooming. The bush looks like a rainforest has sprung up. The air is electric with the sounds of new life… unfortunately this wont last long. We used to get summer lightning storms basically every afternoon 20 years ago. Now we’re lucky if we get a few rain storms a year. It’s too bad… it really is looking great. Even the median strips between the highway looks like the most productive dairy pasture. I’ll miss it when it’s gone.