why should we trust a union dominated labour gov ?

Answer 1

Good Question, Labor have always been Unionist and biggets, imagine working as a teacher and being harassed and threatened for not being a Union member untill you leave out of disgust because you dont want to waste your life and become one of those cynical biggots and gutless Labor Unionist. Biggets, yeh they really look after their own at everyone elses expence. I hate Unions !

Answer 2

Because the unions and the ALP are responsible for the greatest support that business in Australia has had: The Accord.

The Accord was an agreement between the unions and ALP government. The Unions agreed to keep wage demands and industrial action to a minimum and the government agreed to act to minimise price rises. In this way, productivity was increased but high living standards were maintained.

When interest rates did hit 17% for some borrowers (most were capped at 13.5%) the combination of low inflation, very low industrial disputes and a high social safety net with medicare direct-billing (aka bulk-billing) for health, mortgagees were in a much stronger position than they are now with a mere 8% bank rate. (Yes, the official cash rate is 6.50%, but no-one pays that on their home loan.)

So what if about 70% of a future ALP cabinet have been associated with unions. About 70% have law degrees. About 70% have economics degrees. About 70% have been to a Wiggles concert. Which of those statements is relevant to the economy and ALP's approach to business?

I'm not saying that The Accord will return. In fact, why would anyone believe that a party in power until March 1996 would introduce policies from the 1960's and 70's?

I'd trust a Labor Government because it would not be dominated by unions. So there.

Answer 3

One of Australia's most popular Prime Minister's , Bob Hawke was a union leader (as were many members of his cabinet) and he was PM for 10 years. The backgrounds of our members of parliament are not as important as what they do when they are in Government. The Hawke Government, with Paul Keating as Treasurer, put the Australian economy on a solid path. His initiative in floating the Australian dollar and the Superannuation retirement scheme are the foundation of the Australian economy, the only thing of major influence that the coalition has done is to introduce the not to be introduced (one of John Howard's many lies) GST.and then over tax the Australian public and now they offer, before an election, a long overdue tax cut which should have been done when the GST was implemented. Why should we trust the coalition to act responsibly in regard to global warming, aboriginal reconciliation, home ownership, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Work Choices, which by the way has seen wages and benefits reduced under the coalition.. Why? Just Why? They have had the opportunity to address these issues for 6 years or more and have taken no action. They have let Australia burn while they wasted tax payers money on wars and political advertising. They are too smug, too arrogant and too conservative to take a modern realistic approach in an ever changing world.John Howard didn't even know how much the Reserve Bank interest rate was and Peter Costello could not answer a question on how they had calculated how much extra interest would be paid under a Labor government. Yet it was published on the internet. Are they really good economic managers? More likely they are lucky that they had such a big GST windfall and that they withheld tax deductions until this election. Interest rates have already risen six times during this government's term and there is another one on the horizen for next month and if the coalition is re-elected and they go ahead with the tax deductions other interest rate rises will take place too in order to dampen inflation. And do you honestly think that the State governments' don't have union members in their governments, of course they do and they have all been re-elected because they have been judged to be better than the Liberals and Nationals. And please remember that the coalition is associated with the Business Council of Australia, the Farmers Federation of Australia and right leaning religious groups and puts their causes before those of the Australian public. The Liberals stand for big business and the Nationals for themselves (country Australia). If the general public fails in their small business ventures are they helped out by the government? Of course not, so why are farmers who are also small business workers. To answer your question why should we trust a union dominated Labor government? The answer is simply because they will do a much better job than the Liberals and Nationals have done in the last 6 years of their 11.5 years in government. A new broom cleans better than a wornout one.

Answer 4

The Labor Party's industrial policy is not one the Unions were happy with.

The Labor Party was in government for years during the 80s and it did not implement a union program. In fact, it got the unions to compromise on their preferred program and put in place a lot of the measures that have underpinned our economic growth.

For example, floating the dollar and letting foreign banks into Australia were key economic reforms that the Liberal Party did not have the courage to implement. Howard was Treasurer and didn't bite the bullet on these things.

The Labor government will be very moderate and measured in its approach.

This whole negative campaign by the Liberals is put forward because they have little that is positive to say and because their Workchoices laws have been so unpopular.

Trust is not a word I would normally associate with John Howard - Iraq, Wheat Board, Workchoices, children overboard, non core promises all spring to mind.

Answer 5

Union dominated? Interesting concept. Union membership is at about 22 per cent of the workforce, but almost 50 per cent of voters put Labor first last election.

Are you suggesting 22 per cent of workers shouldn't have a voice in the way the country is run, or that 28 per cent of people belong to unions but no-one (including the unions) knows it?

We could just as well say, why should we trust a lawyer and banker dominated Liberal party? I mean, who trusts lawyers, lol?

Don't listen to everything you hear ~ the 'union domination' of the ALP is one of Howard's mythologies. It hasn't been true for a long time and will continue to not be true, as collective bargaining takes a back seat to more modern workplace practices.

Cheers :-)

Answer 6

Firstly its spelt LABOR (wrong spelling I know, but that is the way they spell it)

Why are unions considered to be such a bad thing? Even if the party was union dominated (which I do not believe it is) a union is simply a group of workers who joint together to collectively bargain for fair wages and conditions.

OMG. People who want fair wages and conditions in GOVERNMENT?!? That cannot be! Lets put a stop to it now!!!

Why are people parroting the concerns that have been fed to them through Liberal party press releases?

I know from my experience, and the experiences of others that the anti-union Liberal government's industrial relations policies (even prior to Workchoices, thanks Mr Kiereth) have led to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

I do not want something for nothing, I want fair pay for a hard day's work and the opportunity to buy a house and provide financial security for my family. I believe that in this particular election, the Labor party provides the best opportunities for this.

Answer 7

Why should I NOT trust a union dominated gov?.first that question is a lot ofcrap.may I THAN say why trust a CONFIRMED LIAR there is enoguh evidence that John Howard is just that,also include con man

Answer 8

Thats a good question. It is a fact that a large number of the Labor party members have ties to the unions, not to mention the long history of affiliation that the labor party has with the unions.
People want to call Howard a lier, guess what, all politicians are liers, don't go thinking that the Labor party will be different in that respect.
People want to complain about the wars we are currently fighting, well did you know that Kevin Rudd was NOT one of them, he was in support of going to war and only changed his mind when he became opposition leader, thats not at all hypocritical is it?
To those of you complaining about transport, hospitals and education, go whinge to your state premier, cause those issues are state issues, the federal government has no say in how the states choose to manage those facilities, oh and while i'm on the topic of state governments i'd like to point out that they are all LABOR governments, so if you are not happy with your hospitals, schools and transport systems, maybe you should have voted Liberal at your last state election.
As for work choices, heaps of people were already on individual agreements, and if people are telling you that you can be forced to sign one then they are lying.
What work choices enables is for people to be able to negociate better work conditions on an individual basis, after all if you are better at your job and work harder than the other people you're working with, why shouldn't you get paid more than them.
If you want to look at the resumes of the two parties, the LIBERAL gov got us OUT of massive DEBT that the country was left in by the previous LABOR gov, people are complaining about interest rates, they were alot higher under labor and didn't go up by a 1/4% at a time but by 1 or 2%. Labor have a histroy of sending the country into massive debt and of providing interest rates of around 17%.
Oh and one last thing, when Kevin Rudd was health minister for QLD, he had more paper pushers employed in the health sector than there were hospital beds, he did a crap job as a state health minister and people want to trust him with the whole country, what a SCARY thought.

Answer 9

I would have asked why should we trust a Liberal/National government in the pockets of Big Business. Seriously I wonder how many people from either party are going to put out questions on Answers that are best described as propaganda!

Answer 10

because they have working families best interests at heart.... unlike the policies of the libs who with the help of big business created work choices,, where it became law to strip the take home pay off workers ,, a far more dangerous 2some than labours relationship with unions..... cheers.. andrew