Limits on free speech in Australia

I largely sympathize with the thinking below. In the usual conservative way, however, I think a balance has to be struck. I don't think there should be ABSOLUTE freedom for journalists and whistleblowers to do as they like but I think a "public benefit" defence should always be allowed to them

The past few days have seen the legal system serve up yet another vivid illustration of the depressing state of free speech in Australia. On Friday the former public servant Allan Kessing copped a nine-month suspended jail sentence for his crime of leaking reports to a newspaper about the chaotic state of security at Sydney Airport.

Yesterday two journalists joined him in the ranks of the criminal class when Chief Judge Michael Rozenes, in Victoria's County Court, ordered convictions be recorded against Melbourne Herald Sun staffers Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus, and fined them $7000 each. They were convicted of contempt of court, but their crime was doing their jobs by telling the public what was really going on, rather than feeding them the spin-doctored version of events the Government had cooked up.

Their story, published in the newspaper in 2004, embarrassed the Government, humiliated the then minister for veterans' affairs, Dana Vale, and provided another reason why the Australian media have formed a Right to Know coalition to lobby for changes to the law. The story was good journalism. It should never have ended up in court. It revealed the Government had opted to accept just five of 65 recommendations on ways to improve benefits for war veterans, thereby saving about $500 million.

What stung was that the journalists got hold of the minister's "speaking notes" which, they wrote, revealed how she would "publicly sugarcoat the Government's offer to veterans and their families". By the time the story was published, a revolt by Government members had killed off the plan. But that didn't stop the Government's pursuit of the leaker.

A public servant, Desmond Patrick Kelly, was accused. During committal proceedings the two journalists were directed to identify their sources for their story. They refused, saying they were acting in accordance with the journalists' code of ethics, which requires journalists to protect the identity of their sources in such circumstances.

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Verbal backdown on union power by Australia's political Left



It would be much more impressive if the backdown were enshrined in the party platform. To understand the cartoon above, you may need to know that Ms Gillard is a redhead. It is also an allusion to several recent stories about abandoned babies

JULIA Gillard has flagged keeping John Howard's tough restrictions on the right of unions to enter workplaces if Labor wins this year's election, a move likely to inflame relations with the union movement.

Federal Labor's deputy leader yesterday gave credit to the Government for limits it had placed on union access to worksites under current laws. Recognising the laws had "in some ways" balanced the rights of employers and unions, Ms Gillard said Labor did not want to jeopardise work performance or cause disruption.

The comments by Ms Gillard, the Opposition's industrial relations spokeswoman, appear aimed at quelling employer fears that Labor will give a greenlight to militants such as West Australian construction union leader Joe McDonald to enter building sites to interfere with operations. Mr McDonald, who has been threatened with expulsion from the ALP over his behaviour, faces multiple trespass charges after repeatedly entering building sites despite having had his permit revoked. The ACTU has raised strong protests about how the Government's Work Choices laws, introduced last year, have made union operations intolerable by effectively wiping out their ability to enter worksites to recruit or negotiate with employers. The Howard Government's laws require union officials to gain entry permits from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission with 24 hours' notice.

Before permits are granted, union officials must prove reasonable grounds to investigate alleged breaches of the law and must have a member on site. Unions are especially irritated that employers can determine the time and place to meet employees during work breaks. Labor's industrial policy, released by Ms Gillard in April, was silent on union right of entry, apart from declaring an important role for unions in keeping workplaces fair and that employees should be free to seek their advice.

Ever since, the Australian Industry Group and other employer bodies have feared a return to relaxed worksite entry rules under Labor, swinging the balance of power back to union bargaining.

After an address to the Melbourne Press Club yesterday, Ms Gillard said the Government's existing right of entry provisions recognised "in some ways" the balance needed between the rights of employers and the rights of unions. "When we look at the current system, obviously it's got permits, it's got limitations on entry, it's got limits that you would expect about disruption to work - obviously not having entry in a way which causes disruption to work," she said. "We would not want to see changes to the right of entry systems that jeopardise work performance. "There's obviously a balance here and current legislation recognises that balance in some ways too, but in a proper and orderly system unions need to have access to union members whilst at the same time the employers have got to be able to go about their business without undue disruptions."

AI Group industrial director Steve Smith told The Australian last night: "If Ms Gillard's comments mean that Labor would retain the existing right-of-entry provisions, we welcome that because they are fair and balanced." Mr Smith said provisions under Work Choices were similar to previous ones - but they tightened up the rules by requiring union officials to specify alleged breaches of workplace laws they wanted to investigate. Mr Smith said employers remained concerned over possible misuse of worksite access under health and safety provisions.

ACTU spokesman George Wright said last night: "People who are members of unions or want to speak to members in a workplace should be able to do so without interference or impediment, and the Government's laws in many cases don't allow that."

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey said Ms Gillard should put a pledge on union right of entry in writing if she were serious. He also claimed Ms Gillard had committed an "embarrassing gaffe" on a par with Kevin Rudd's comments on productivity last week by wrongly alleging a government spending blow-out on industrial relations. As reported by The Australian yesterday, Ms Gillard attacked the Government for imposing a huge industrial relations bureaucracy under Work Choices, quadrupling spending and boosting staffing by 80 per cent. But Mr Hockey said the increased spending came mainly from the employment "supply" side of his portfolio: welfare-to-work and income support.

In a further reassurance to business, Ms Gillard yesterday insisted that Labor would retain all the existing coercive powers of the Australian Building and Construction Commission until 2010 at least. She said she would hold talks with employers about whether Labor's proposed replacement for the building industry watchdog after 2010 would retain the full suite of coercive powers.

Mr Rudd is leading a push to rid Labor of militant unionists, such as Mr McDonald and Electrical Trades Union secretary Dean Mighell, amid concerns that voters will not vote for a party seen tacitly to endorse union thuggery. Despite being pressured to resign from the ALP for using bad language as he bragged to workers about winning wage deals, Mr Mighell is determined he will not be forgotten. The ETU's Victorian secretary has told members his union will continue to be active with Labor, the Greens or any other minor party representing workers and their families. Mr Mighell makes it clear in a letter to members that he only resigned to "ensure that I could not be used by the Howard Government as a political pawn in this forthcoming election". "Make no mistake, if the ALP wins government, the ETU will continue to campaign without fear of favour to protect our members' interest."

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MORE GLOBAL COOLING

Record chill blitzes Tasmania. If record hot weather anywhere proves global warming (as the newspapers and Greenies so often tell us), then the story below must surely prove global cooling. Or am I missing something?



THE spate of chilly weather is set to ice southern Tasmania's coldest June on record. Grove, just south of Hobart, has had 21 mornings in a row when the mercury plunged to 2C or below, the Bureau of Meteorology said yesterday. And the average minimum for Hobart this month has been just 3.1C -- a dramatic low compared to the usual 5.2C.

A balmy May and 20 years of mild winters made the chill more of a shock, said Ian Barnes-Keoghan, from the bureau's climate section. "It's been very dramatic," he said. "Overnight temperatures have been creeping up in the past couple of decades, so cold nights have become less common and this is a bit of a flashback."

Southern Tasmania's figures were a standout for June. "And May was so warm, the temperature didn't drop below 5C," Mr Barnes-Keoghan said. "A couple of places are on track for the coldest June on record, although the temperatures might pick up during the rest of this week."

The frost has been good for fruit-growers. Huon Valley grower and Fruit Growers Tasmania spokesman Thomas Frankcomb said apples and cherries needed the chill. "It helps the fruit buds mature so when they pop in the spring they pop evenly and with good, strong flowers," Mr Frankcomb said.

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South Australian public health system in big trouble

SOUTH Australian psychiatrists have threatened to resign en masse from the state system next week, dramatically widening the public sector revolt against the Rann Government's bid to rein in costs and pay growth. Up to 50 psychiatrists are believed to be ready to quit the system on Monday if the Government does not fund 20 extra specialists to provide what their union calls a "minimum" adequate level of service and pay.

Treasurer Kevin Foley sought to rein in public sector unions last month by warning a wage breakout would tear a $190million hole in the budget if it was 1 per cent above what the Government had allowed for.

Public sector psychiatrists have now joined teachers, ambulance officers, nurses and dentists in threatening industrial action to back their demands for more financial resources than the Government is willing to commit. "This is not some idle threat, dangling out there to impress people," said Andrew Murray from the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association, the union representing the mental health sector. In other industrial moves:

* South Australian dentists in the public system - seeking a 35per cent pay rise over three years - took unprecedented industrial action by refusing to charge public patients gap fees.

* State schools will shut early on Thursday to allow teachers to deliver protest letters to their local MPs.

* Ambulance officers could introduce work bans today.

Mental Health Minister Gail Gago said negotiations with psychiatrists were at an "extremely sensitive stage".

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