Foreign Correspondence

[fuagf]

Australia PM defiant as popularity plunges
AFP June 28, 2011, 11:50 am

SYDNEY, June 28, 2011 (AFP) - - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard vowed to push on with her agenda Tuesday despite a poll showing she has sunk below opposition leader Tony Abbott as preferred leader for the first time.

The country's first female prime minister, who wrested power a year ago by ousting Kevin Rudd, vowed not to back away from her controversial plan for a tax on carbon pollution, a move that has badly hurt her popularity.

"I'm determined to push on with the agenda because it's the right thing to do for the country's future," she told ABC television.

"We need to tackle climate change, we need to cut the amount of carbon we put in the atmosphere.

"I'm not going to put this country's future in the too-hard (to tackle) basket and just hope that it will go away."

Climate change has been a thorny issue in Australian politics, with former prime minister Rudd's shelving of his emissions trading scheme helping pave the way for Gillard to replace him in a backroom party coup.

Her defiant comments come after a Newspoll for The Australian newspaper, conducted last weekend, showed only 39 percent favoured her as prime minister against 41 percent for Abbott.

The telephone poll of 1,158 voters also showed just 28 percent were satisfied with the Welsh-born Gillard, her lowest level since taking office.

Dissatisfaction with her performance leapt to 62 percent, making Gillard the most unpopular modern leader since Paul Keating at his worst in the mid 1990s.

According to the poll, her government was faring no better with Labor's share of first preference votes crashing to a record low of 30 percent.

The conservative opposition's support was steady at 46 percent, with the Greens on 11 percent.

Gillard brokered her way into office with the support of minority lawmakers after last year's election ended in deadlock and Abbott said the carbon tax, Rudd, and her alliance with Greens leader Bob Brown were to blame for her dismal polling.

He told Fairfax Radio voters recognised it was a "bad government getting worse".

"I think it's about the carbon tax, it's about the fact that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard don't talk to each other and the fact that Bob Brown seems to be setting the agenda... and the people are responding," he said.

Gillard's deputy Wayne Swan said governments always struggled in the polls when they introduced important changes.

"Big reforms are always tough," said Swan, who is also treasurer.

"They're always hard fought... but the prime minister's got more leadership in her little finger than Tony Abbott has in his entire body."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/world/9723755/australia-pm-defiant-as-popularity-plunges/

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Gillard has more leadership qualities in her little toe, than opposition leader, Tony Abbot, has in his wildest dreams.

Abbot supported a carbon pricing scheme when, Malcom Turnbull, leader of the Liberal (aussi conservatives) back a bit, was negotiating with Gillard couple? of years ago, then switched in a coup against Turnbull, now as leader of the opposition just obstructs.

This tells you more of what a scheming, azzhole, Tony Abbott, is ..

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Furious Reith hits out at Abbott

ANDREW PROBYN FEDERAL POLITICAL EDITOR, The West Australian June 28, 2011, 5:52 am

A seething Peter Reith has accused Tony Abbott of acting like a Labor factional heavy by showing how he was voting in the secret ballot to decide the Federal presidency of the Liberal Party.

The former Howard government industrial relations minister, who lost on Saturday by one vote to incumbent Alan Stockdale, has vowed to agitate for workplace reform, as "too many people are too worried about WorkChoices".

Mr Reith revealed he promised Mr Abbott he would suspend his interest in industrial relations reform if he won the presidency ballot but his defeat meant the deal was off.

He said the Opposition Leader should follow Liberal premiers Ted Baillieu and Barry O'Farrell in not being deterred by a union "scare campaign". He hit out at Premier Colin Barnett for not challenging one of Australia's "most over-regulated, pro-union" State industrial relations system.

Mr Reith's comments echo growing calls inside coalition ranks for the Opposition to re-embrace workplace reform but Mr Abbott, who declared WorkChoices "dead, buried and cremated" during the election campaign, fears that could cruel his political supremacy.

Despite encouraging Mr Reith to run for president, Mr Abbott at the last moment voted for Mr Stockdale, who won by 57 votes to 56.

_The West Australian _ understands Mr Abbott believed Mr Reith would win but voted for Mr Stockdale in a bid to stop an outbreak of factionalism between the party moderates and conservatives. With television cameras rolling, Mr Abbott showed Mr Stockdale and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop his ballot paper before lodging it - a move met with incredulity by other Liberals.

It is understood that when the result became known, Mr Abbott turned to Ms Bishop and said: "Hell! I thought Reith would win."

Ms Bishop, who voted for Mr Reith, was overheard replying: "Yeah. He lost by one vote, Tony."

Mr Reith condemned Mr Abbott's "show and tell". "This is the opposite of a secret ballot and much favoured by Labor Party factional bosses who like to see the ballots to make sure that their lackeys vote as directed or as agreed in a deal," he writes in _The West Australian _ today.

Mr Abbott's backers said he had never wanted a contest for the presidency and Mr Reith had misconstrued his unwillingness to declare support for a particular candidate.

Mr Reith's supporters say their man was humiliated and he would not have contested the position without Mr Abbott's support.

They point out that Mr Abbott appointed Mr Reith last year to review the Liberals' last election campaign and Mr Abbott had enthused about the "dynamism" Mr Reith could bring to the party in implementing his reforms, including giving grassroot members more say in preselections.

Mr Reith told _The West Australian _yesterday: "I was sad about what happened and how it happened. On the WA side, Julie Bishop is a straight shooter and I highly value her political judgment."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/9719887/furious-reith-hits-out-at-abbott/

Reith's biggest moment was as Murdoch type union buster in 1998.. LOLOLOL .. 'ookat THIS!!!! .. an F6 copycat! .. links galore!

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Who is who in the War on the Wharfies

This is a listing of many of the more prominent players in the rightwing union busting attack on the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). Most of these entries have been collated from the news summaries on the War on the Wharfies webpage. Any corrections or additions can be emailed to: [e-mail] for consideration. .. continued.. http://www.takver.com/wharfie/who.htm

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Showdown on the Waterfront

THE WAR ON THE WATERFRONT - REPORT ON THE ONGOING WATERFRONT DISPUTE AT MELBOURNE'S WEBB DOCK. VARIOUS INTERVIEWS.

JIM WALEY - PRESENTER:
Now to our cover story, the battle for control of the Australian waterfront. Last December a secret attempt to train union-busting mercenaries in Dubai collapsed when it became public. Now a stevedoring company linked with the Dubai fiasco has found another ally against the Maritime Union, the National Farmers' Federation.

The NFF has leased Melbourne's Webb Dock, where it plans to try to raise productivity by allowing non-union labour to work on the wharf. The wharfies say it's just trying to smash their union's power. Each side has some very heavy weaponry; the NFF a large war-chest and a battery of industrial lawyers, the union can call on international support that could cripple Australia's export drive.

The war on the waterfront is reported by Sunday's Ross Coulthart.

ROSS COULTHART - REPORTER:
It was a moment many farmers and businessmen had dreamt of for a long time - an Australian wharf free of the restraints imposed by one of this country's most militant trade unions, the Maritime Union. The National Farmers' Federation claims it will soon transform Melbourne's number five Webb Dock into Australia's most internationally competitive stevedoring business.

The morning after the NFF's dramatic move onto the docks nearly two weeks ago, industrial warrior, Paul Houlihan, dodged the picketers to survey his latest battlefield. It's a gamble, isn't it?

PAUL HOULIHAN - P&C STEVEDORES: Of course it's a gamble. .. continued ..
http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_175.asp

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1998 Australian waterfront dispute .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Australian_waterfront_dispute

IT WAS A REAL INDUSTRIAL WAR