Labor party plans major disruption for employers

A great way to make employers reluctant to hire. Who needs jobs? There is always a kind government ready to pay you

PARENTS would have the legal right to demand flexible working hours in the first five years of their children's lives in a radical work policy unveiled by federal Labor yesterday. The policy, unashamedly pitched at the Coalition's voter heartland of working families, would also give working parents the right to up to 24 months of unpaid parental leave.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd announced a Labor government would overhaul the industrial relations system to enshrine workers' rights in law and toss out the Government's system of workplace agreements. In the rallying speech to Labor's national conference in Sydney, Mr Rudd accused Prime Minister John Howard of ditching family values by abandoning working families to exploitative bosses. He pledged that Labor would legislate to guarantee 10 employment entitlements for workers, with another 10 included in awards tailored to particular industries and occupations. The centrepiece of Labor's safety net provisions would be a guaranteed right for parents to request flexible work arrangements until their children reached school age. Employers would only be able to refuse those requests on "reasonable business grounds".

Another guaranteed right for both parents would be separate periods of up to 12 months of unpaid leave associated with the birth of a baby. But if one parent wanted to take up to two years, he or she would be legally entitled to request from their employer up to another 12 months of unpaid leave, on top of the first year. This means a couple could legally request up to 24 months of unpaid leave - but it must be taken within the first two years of the child's life.

Labor is also committed to retaining and boosting the baby bonus, now about $5000 a child, and has previously committed to pursuing a mandatory right of 16 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout immediately slammed the policy as being "loaded against business". She said it would add a burdensome layer of cost and compliance, and an onerous level of surveillance. She said many employers were committed to working with their employees to provide a family-friendly work place. Labor's move to legislate those approaches as legal standards would be disruptive and expensive for employers.

The other guaranteed standards a federal Labor government would introduce include:

* A working week for full-time employees of 38 hours. Workers could not be required to work ``unreasonable additional hours''.

* Four weeks' paid annual leave. Part-time workers would be entitled to four weeks pro rata, and shift workers would be guaranteed an additional paid week of leave.

* 10 days paid personal and carers' leave a year for full-time employees, plus two days' paid compassionate leave on the death or serious illness of a family member.

* Leave for community service such as emergency services and jury duty.

* Reinstatement of all public holidays, such as Christmas and Boxing Days.

* `Fair notice'' of termination, dependent on length of service, from one week to at least four weeks.

* Redundancy payments including the reinstatement of provisions for workforces with fewer than 15 employees of up to 14 weeks for 10 years of service.

* Long service leave, which would be determined with the states.

A new awards system would contain a further 10 minimum employment standards, including a minimum wage, overtime and penalty rates, leave loadings and superannuation. Mr Rudd said he would use constitutional powers to legislate national industrial relations laws, sending a message to reluctant state Labor regimes that he is prepared to fight them to take control of a central system.

Source





Wrangle over 'white maggot'

FOOTY fans face a ban on calling umpires "white maggots". AFL Umpires Association chief Bill Deller has called for spectators who use the time-honoured sledge at any AFL match to be thrown out. The Gabba has ruled fans who yell the age-old term at Brisbane Lions' games will be evicted instantly. Mr Deller said the ban should be introduced across Australia. "It's not fun and it's not tradition. It's pathetic and I would welcome a ban on its use across the country," Mr Deller said this week.

The Gabba's surprise move is part of a zero tolerance approach to crowd behaviour at the stadium. Officials have told Brisbane Lions member Garry Edwards, 58, that fans will be evicted if they use the term. But the ban has prompted widespread anger.

Well-known Collingwood supporter Joffa Corfe described Gabba officials as "the Gestapo" and said the term should not be compared with use of foul language. And the Salvation Army has backed him. Fans at every ground in the country have used the words "white maggot" to describe umpires for generations. But Mr Deller will have none of it. "It's not affectionate. It's abuse, plain and simple, and it's bad for both the recruitment and retention of umpires," he said.

Mr Corfe disagreed. "Calling an umpire a white maggot is as Australian as having a barbecue. They'll need to start giving away Band-Aids at the gate so we can stick them over our gobs." Mr Corfe said he was evicted from the Gabba two years ago for the offence of standing up. "I've had my run-in with the Gestapo at the Gabba. A four-foot-nothing usher had me thrown out by Queensland police for standing up and supporting one of our boys in the goal square," he said. "So this doesn't surprise me, but it would be a tragedy if it spread round the country. These people are catering for the theatregoer, not the footy fan. "The problem with umpires nowadays is that they think the game is about them. It's not."

The Salvation Army is opposed to any move to make the ban national. Spokesman Major Brad Halse said: "Sometimes political correctness runs mad in this country and there is over sanitisation in a lot of areas and this is one of them. I think it's extraordinary. "The AFL should concentrate on outlawing obscene language, not a term like 'white maggot'."

A spokesman for Telstra Dome refused to comment on the issue, referring the Sunday Herald Sun to the ground's website, which includes the following: "Patrons must refrain from using foul or abusive language and from making racial or threatening remarks or gestures." Two MCG spokesmen failed to respond to several requests for comment.

Source





Black refugees being trained for jihad

CLAIMS young Somalis are being recruited in Melbourne by terror groups are being investigated by Australia's intelligence agencies. Somalian scholar Dr Hersie Hilole said more than 20 Somalis had trained in Melbourne and returned to fight for the Islamic cause in Somalia's civil war. Two Melbourne-based Somalis have been killed fighting with Islamic militias in Africa and one of the deaths has sparked a police investigation. The investigations will focus on Melbourne's 15,000-strong Somalian population that lives mainly in housing commission complexes in Carlton, North Melbourne and Flemington.

It also has emerged that radical Islamic cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran has been preaching to local Somalian Muslims. Arabic and African Muslim communities in Melbourne generally live separate lives. But the Jordanian-born cleric regularly gives outdoor addresses to large sections of the Somalian Muslim community.

ASIO would not comment on the investigation into Melbourne's Somalian community. But a source said: "There are real security threats in Australia and this is one of them." Dr Hilole said Sheik Omran had established links with the Somalis through a radical group of Lebanese Salafists or Wahhabists. "A number of young people have either trained here or have been recruited," he said. Mogadishu-born Dr Hilole is a member of Sydney's Somalian Community Council and has been an outspoken critic of Abdurahman Osman, the president of Somali Community of Victoria. He said Mr Osman's mosque in Racecourse Rd, Flemington, was under siege by Lebanese Salafists.

Dr Hilole said Sheik Omran had created a link with the young Somalis after 18 alleged terrorists were arrested in nationwide raids in November 2005 under Operation Pendennis. Leaders at a popular North Melbourne mosque, home to about 300 African Muslims, yesterday refused to comment on alleged radicals. But a spokesman said Somalian Muslims in Melbourne's north planned to hold a meeting with police and politicians to discuss the issue. Victorian Somali Social Club president Osman Ali said local sheiks and imams urged followers not to rejoin the fight in Somalia. Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia last year to push the radical Islamic Courts movement from power.

Source




The nuclear argument

With their usual adherence to high principle, the Left say that it is OK to mine uranium but not to use it!

Labor has attacked Prime Minister John Howard's plans for a nuclear energy industry in Australia, after its own national conference dumped a long-standing ban on new uranium mines. Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's motion to scrap the 'no new mines' policy was passed by a slender 15 votes at the ALP national conference, with environment spokesman Peter Garret among those voting to maintain the ban.

But the move was overshadowed by Mr Howard's outlining of a future nuclear energy industry for Australia. Speaking at the Victorian Liberal Party conference, Mr Howard said Australia needed to rethink its energy production in the face of climate change, and the only feasible options were clean coal technology and nuclear power. "Part of the solution must be to admit the use, in years to come, of nuclear power," he said. "If we're fair dinkum about this climate change debate we have to open our minds to the use of nuclear power."

Shortly after the Labor conference vote Mr Garrett went on the offensive against Mr Howard's nuclear proposal. "He has plans for nuclear power plants to be dotted around this country," he said. "He's taking us down a road and a path which I think is very dangerous."

Mr Howard said the Government would invest in research on the setting up of a nuclear power industry while Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said legislative barriers would be removed. And Mr Macfarlane accused Labor of debating "last century's policy" on uranium mining.

Mr Garrett says he accepts the conference vote on uranium mines but others in the party are less happy. Some are angry with union leader and Federal candidate Bill Shorten, who linked the vote to support for Mr Rudd. "If you think that rolling the leader is a great idea then go ahead and vote for the Albanese-Garrett amendment," Mr Shorten told the debate. Critics of Mr Shorten say the tactic was immature, naive and damaging.

Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter says there will be no uranium mining in his state while he was in government. "I don't feel under any pressure whatsoever," he said. "The West Australian economy is powering ahead, we've got the highest economic growth figures and the lowest unemployment figures, we don't desperately need for economic reasons or any other reasons to pursue uranium mining."

Source