Thursday, 31 May 2007

Shipowners take MUA to court - IR BATTLEGROUND, The Australian, 31 May, 2007. Picture Graham Crouch.



Shipowners take MUA to court - IR BATTLEGROUND: [1 All-round Country Edition]

John Stapleton, Tracy Ong. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 May 2007: 2.
Mr Sorensen said the ship used automated equipment to unload cargo and all that was stopping the crew unloading was the refusal of the MUA to move a hopper a few metres to connect with their own equipment. He said the crew were used to unloading cargo using automated equipment and were compensated through their employment contracts.
Unionists claimed yesterday they would not budge until they won the fight. Chairs were set across the entrance to the dock and picketers waved placards including "Save Our Ships" and "Aussie Ships, Aussie Jobs, No Ships of Shame".
A spokeswoman for Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey said any claim that the Government had somehow orchestrated the dispute was "not just farcical" but "another stunt in the unions' $100 million scare campaign against the Government's industrial relations reforms".

Full Text


THE company that chartered a cargo ship stranded by industrial action at Port Kembla has launched a legal challenge against picketing stevedores.
Canadian Steamship Line managing director Chris Sorenson said the Maritime Union of Australia picket of the Malta-registered MV Capo Nico was illegal and the company was seeking an injunction in the Federal Court.
More than 50 dockside workers and unionists at the NSW port on Tuesday blocked the unloading of the foreign-owned and foreign- crewed cargo ship. The MUA claimed this was the first time a foreign- owned operation had tried to avoid employing local workers to unload a cargo.
Mr Sorensen said the ship used automated equipment to unload cargo and all that was stopping the crew unloading was the refusal of the MUA to move a hopper a few metres to connect with their own equipment. He said the crew were used to unloading cargo using automated equipment and were compensated through their employment contracts.
The Capo Noli docked at 6.30pm on Tuesday to a crowd of protesters.
Unionists claimed yesterday they would not budge until they won the fight. Chairs were set across the entrance to the dock and picketers waved placards including "Save Our Ships" and "Aussie Ships, Aussie Jobs, No Ships of Shame".
The cargo of gypsum, loaded at Ceduna in South Australia, is bound for a local cement manufacturer.
South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris said the region had the highest unemployment in the country.
He said the Capo Noli affair was "an outrageous attempt by a multinational to replace our workers with an untrained foreign crew".
An MUA delegation boarded the ship yesterday morning in an attempt to negotiate a resolution.
After talks with the ship's captain, they alleged the Filipino crew were poorly paid and that it was dangerous to allow an untrained crew to unload cargo.
MUA assistant national secretary Rick Newlyn said the Capo Noli was party to international agreements prohibiting it from using seafaring staff for stevedoring work. He said skilled local stevedores were ready to unload the gypsum the minute the company agreed to use them.
He blamed the Howard Government, saying it had signed agreements allowing foreign ships to take over work normally done by Australians. "No wharfie anywhere is going to sit by and let this happen," he said.
A spokeswoman for Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey said any claim that the Government had somehow orchestrated the dispute was "not just farcical" but "another stunt in the unions' $100 million scare campaign against the Government's industrial relations reforms".
A spokeswoman for the Port Kembla Port Corporation said the dispute was not causing a hold-up at the port, with the next ship not due to berth for two weeks yet.
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, 29 May 2007

Battlers in Kelly country changing their tune, The Australian, 29 May, 2007.

Battlers in Kelly country changing their tune: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 29 May 2007: 6.
Show highlighting

"Interest rates have gone up, petrol prices have gone up, mortgages, house expenses, everyone is coming in complaining, people don't have money to spend any more," he said.
"The IR laws have gone too far," Ms [Kim Mestroni] said. "I have four children, two are in the age bracket affected by IR, trying to get casual jobs."
Mark Morgan, 39, was begging in the streets of Penrith yesterday. He has been sleeping in his Commodore station wagon with his four children for the past four months. "What have they ever done for me? Bring back Bob Hawke. At least then a blackfella had a go."
THEY'VE been seen as Howard's battlers, but voters in the Liberals' unlikely heartland of western Sydney say the benefits of economic growth are not being passed down to them.
And with local member Jackie Kelly getting out of politics at the next election, the seat of Lindsay has just got a lot tougher for the Liberals to retain without one of Howard's heroes of 1996.
The most striking thing about the interviews The Australian conducted yesterday in the streets of Penrith, in the heart of Lindsay, were the number of people who had previously voted Liberal but would not be voting for John Howard at the election due late this year.
Nima Nicholas, 44, owner of Exclusive Hairdressing, said while politicians talked about how wealthy the country was, small businesses right across the electorate were doing it tough and business had got progressively worse over the past three years.
"The average income around here is about $35,000," he said.
"Many of my customers ring me up and apologise but say they just can't afford to get their hair professionally coloured any more.
"The Government talks about the economy going up, but every day our business gets worse. I have had to drop staff.
"Interest rates have gone up, petrol prices have gone up, mortgages, house expenses, everyone is coming in complaining, people don't have money to spend any more," he said.
"A lot of people say they voted Liberal before, but not this time. I have had enough of the Liberals, I am trying something else and maybe it will get better."
The seat of Lindsay covers an area of 351sqkm across far-western Sydney. It is a bellwether seat, which Mr Howard -- who hailed Ms Kelly as a hero for wresting it from Labor in 1996 -- badly needs to retain.
Margaret Pirret, 68, and her daughter Kim Mestroni, 47, both voted Liberal at the last election, but won't be doing so this time.
"The IR laws have gone too far," Ms Mestroni said. "I have four children, two are in the age bracket affected by IR, trying to get casual jobs."
Ms Pirret said she was not happy about Work Choices, the "shocking" treatment of asylum-seekers or Iraq.
Mark Morgan, 39, was begging in the streets of Penrith yesterday. He has been sleeping in his Commodore station wagon with his four children for the past four months. "What have they ever done for me? Bring back Bob Hawke. At least then a blackfella had a go."
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, 28 May 2007

Education Geography 28 May 2007 The Australian

MAY 28 2007
John Stapleton
Justine Ferrari
THESE eight boys are all alarmed about the future of the planet; their heads full of concerns about climate change, globalisation, terrorism, the impact of of Western development on the Third World, racism, the extinction of plant and animal species and the numerous threats to arid, wetland and urban environments.
Amongst other things.
They are vying to be part of a team of three that will represent Australia at the upcoming National Geographic Society's bi-annual World Championship, aimed at selecting the world's best geography student.
Each of these boys have topped their state in the National Geographic Channel's Australian Geography Competition.
Today  they will play off against each other in a national final at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, with broadcaster George Negus as compere, for a position in the team, which will travel to San Diego in the US in July.
Teachers have renewed their calls for geography to be made compulsory in the so-called ``middle years'' of high school in light of the poor performance of Australian students on the international stage. Geography has become a ``non-core'' subject in school curriculums across the country over the past 20 years.
While every state and territory offers geography as a separate subject in years 11 and 12, for the past decade it has been taught as part of a catch-all subject called Studies of Society and Environment, along with other areas such as history and economics.
Margaret McIvor, Vice-Chair of the Australian Geography Teachers Association, said geography was the only subject in the school curriculum which linked the humanities and the sciences.
``The geography of terrorism, disease and war are all fundamental to an understanding of the world we live in,'' she said. ``Geography helps us to make judgements about the big issues affecting the quality of our lives and landscapes.''
Tasmanian winner Jacob Atkins, 15, supported the call for geography to be made compulsory again, saying it helped students to understand ``the way the world runs, economically and socially''.
WA winner Patrick Mackenzie, 14, said ``you live here, surely you need to understand there are other values and other cultures out there, and geography helps.''
NSW winner David Vasak, 14, said understanding the world was essential `to make well informed, educated decisions in everything from voting to business''.
Education consultant with National Geographic Channel Anne Chesher said teachers nation wide were witnessing attitude changes in students as they were bombarded with doom and gloom messages about the future of the planet. ``They are all developing green and social consciences, but this needs to be grounded in fact and making geography compulsory would be an excellent way of achieving this.''
  
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, 26 May 2007

Pressure forces Kelly out - Federal MP quits politics for family - HOWARD VS RUDD, Weekend Australian, 26 May, 2997.

Pressure forces Kelly out - Federal MP quits politics for family - HOWARD VS RUDD: [2 All-round First Edition]

D.D. McNicoll, John Stapleton. Weekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 26 May 2007: 7.
Show highlighting
CITING pressure on her family from the public spotlight and a desire to spend more time with her children, Jackie Kelly -- the former sports minister and champion for John Howard's so-called "battlers" -- announced her resignation from federal parliament yesterday.
"The unions set up an office across the road from my office and my husband was drawn into the media. He was not a fair target," she said.
"Personally I thought how was our relationship going to weather another three years -- it was a big factor." Asked if she thought politics was too tough a profession for a young mother, Ms Kelly smiled grimly. "Politics is an uncompromising lifestyle, a very disruptive lifestyle. It is a completely non-routine lifestyle and children really need routine.
CITING pressure on her family from the public spotlight and a desire to spend more time with her children, Jackie Kelly -- the former sports minister and champion for John Howard's so-called "battlers" -- announced her resignation from federal parliament yesterday.
Dressed in a tracksuit and wearing sneakers before heading off to coach her son Lachlan's soccer team, Ms Kelly said her resignation would not come as a surprise for the Liberal Party as she had raised the possibility last Christmas.
The 43-year-old said after 12 years in politics she wanted to spend more time with her children -- Lachlan, 5, and daughter Dominique, 7.
"It is the high point of my day," she said of her coaching duties.
Ms Kelly said that her Penrith-based electorate of Lindsay was always going to be a tough seat but recent union action that had targeted her husband and family in the workplace debate had prompted her to consider resignation.
"The unions set up an office across the road from my office and my husband was drawn into the media. He was not a fair target," she said.
Ms Kelly said the pressure being put on her family was such that she feared for the future of her marriage to orthodontist Gary Clark.
"Personally I thought how was our relationship going to weather another three years -- it was a big factor." Asked if she thought politics was too tough a profession for a young mother, Ms Kelly smiled grimly. "Politics is an uncompromising lifestyle, a very disruptive lifestyle. It is a completely non-routine lifestyle and children really need routine.
"They need consistency in their lives and that has been a very difficult thing to deliver for my two little ones."
Ms Kelly follows in a line of high-profile female politicians who have or will walk away from their careers forthe sake of family and personal happiness.
In 2006, then senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, the youngest woman ever to be elected to the AustralianParliament, announced after an ectopic pregnancy she would not be re-contesting her position in this year's election so as to spend more time with her family. She described being on the front bench and having a small child as very stressful.
And former NSW education minister Carmel Tebbutt departed the ministry in the week following the NSW election in March to spend more time with her six-year-old son Nathan. Ms Tebbutt had been a minister for eight years and was regarded as on track to become the state's first woman premier.
Ms Kelly said her daughter was going into Year 3 next year and she felt it was time to focus more on her children's wellbeing and education.
She said both the children and her husband were delighted with her decision to quit politics.
See Jackie Kelly's career highlights at www.theaustralian.com.au
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, 25 May 2007

Motel boss's hell after Gillard attack, The Australian, 25 May, 2007. Page One. Picture Alan Pryke.






Motel boss's hell after Gillard attack: [2 All-round First Edition]

John Stapleton, Cath Hart. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 25 May 2007: 1.
Show highlighting
"It is not how I operate as a person," Ms [JOANN Doolan] said. "We are good people. I need my side of the story to be put, otherwise people would believe what they read. It has been at huge cost to me. I am not the sort of person I have been portrayed as. I am not going to sack you if you sneeze."
"There is a human cost to this story," Mr Hockey said, adding that he would "not pass judgments" on the agreements until the Office of Workplace Services provided him with more details.
Ms [Nerida Corby] said staff had been upset and protective of the Doolans, concerned at the distress the controversy was causing them. "It is not just them affected," she said. "If they don't get the business we don't get the jobs."

JOANN Doolan has been to hell and back since the motel she owns and operates with her husband, Don, was catapulted into the IR debate this week.
The Doolans own the Lilac City Motor Inn in north Goulburn, a 26- room establishment with pink and red geraniums in its neat garden.
Since Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard, drawing on a media report, accused them of slashing staff pay and conditions when they introduced AustralianWorkplace Agreements, the family has been inundated with hate mail and abusive phone calls.
But the Doolans, who bought the motel in 2005, say they pay all of their staff more than the minimum wage and have a good relationship with them.
The award for a grade-one hospitality services employee is $13.91 an hour, or $14.57 for a grade-two employee.
Nerida Corby, 32, has worked for the Doolans as a receptionist, waitress and general handywoman for the past three months. The mother of two children under five said the Doolans were excellent employers -- flexible and considerate.
She told The Australian that she earned well above the $13.91 an hour minimum. "My pay is perfectly reasonable for what I do," Ms Corby said.
"I am happy to be working here. They are great, they are very nice people. They are just a young family trying to run a business."
In the media maelstrom, the Doolans were accused of instructing staff not to wear perfume or aftershave, nor to rub their nose or even "pull at a slipping bra strap". But Ms Doolan said she was disturbed by the way she had been depicted -- and the hate mail that followed.
"It is not how I operate as a person," Ms Doolan said. "We are good people. I need my side of the story to be put, otherwise people would believe what they read. It has been at huge cost to me. I am not the sort of person I have been portrayed as. I am not going to sack you if you sneeze."
Labor leader Kevin Rudd defended Ms Gillard yesterday, saying she had not mentioned the motor inn by name when she attacked the AWAs the owners had offered staff.
On Wednesday during question time, Ms Gillard, the Opposition's industrial relations spokeswoman, repeatedly waved a copy of the AWAs given to staff at theLilac City Motor Inn at John Howard.
"Mr Howard would be proud of this effort," Ms Gillard said.
"It means that a worker can be paid the minimum wage, $13.47 an hour, and that's it. No penalty rates. No overtime. No rest breaks. No shift allowance. No leave loading. No public holiday pay.
"It goes on and on: $13.47 an hour and you lose every condition that
Continued -- Page 2
From Page 1
workers have historically relied on in this industry as part of their pay packet," Ms Gillard added.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey said yesterday the ALP should have done more to check its facts before airing the allegations.
"There is a human cost to this story," Mr Hockey said, adding that he would "not pass judgments" on the agreements until the Office of Workplace Services provided him with more details.
"Whenever serious allegations are raised, we will properly investigate them, but we are mindful of the fact that when allegations are made, you have to check thefacts," he said.
"When the Labor Party and the trade union movement try to make a political point next time, they should bear in mind that businesses like this help to prop up the Australian economy."
The Doolans have two boys, aged four and seven, and have worked hard to build the motel into a successful business. Mrs Doolan was forced to talk to her sons' primary school to ensure that they were not bullied as a result of all the attention.
Emails condemning their conduct have come from as far afield as Norway. "I would rather stay in the park than stay at your motel," one emailer said.
From The Netherlands, one outraged person wrote: "Your workplace agreement is a disgrace. Do you not realise your employees are people? Do you never yawn, rub your head and nose and adjust your bra?"
Ms Corby said staff had been upset and protective of the Doolans, concerned at the distress the controversy was causing them. "It is not just them affected," she said. "If they don't get the business we don't get the jobs."
The Hotels Motels and Accommodation Association, which drew up the AWAs, said they were legitimate when lodged.
Posted by at No comments:

Ray Seidler The Australian 25 May 2007

MAY 25 2007 
John Stapleton
ONE of the country's leading experts on drug addiction, Dr Raymond Seilder, has found himself at the centre of controversy following an expose of the state's methadone program on the ABC last night.
Dr Seilder has been working in the field for more than 25 years, has written widely on the subject and is widely respected both within the medical profession and amongst social workers for his philosophy of always treating addicts as individuals.
He is known for taking on cases that many other doctors baulk at.
His surgery at Kings Cross in Sydney is infamous for the startling range of people who enter its doors, from high-flying professionals and celebrities to down and out street junkies.
The ABC program aired complaints from two anonymous informants, one a former patient and one a former nurse involved with Clinic 36 and Regent House, both in inner-Sydney. The clinics are jointly owned by Dr Seidler and a Dr Keith Roberts.
The program also claimed that an internal briefing note from the NSW government found an audit had shown that 34 litres of methadone had not been properly accounted for.
Yesterday Dr Seidler dismissed the story as ``not true'' and a ``beat up''.
The program quoted a male informant who was disbarred from the program at Clinic 36 after he organised a petition raising complaints about its operation. He claimed the clinics were ``full of these people you don't want to be around''. He also claimed that other clients had told him their methadone was being watered down and they had said they had proof of this.
A second anonymous informant, who said she had worked as a nurse at the clinics, claimed the methadone accounting procedures were slack. ``You didn't know how much you should have left at the day,'' she said. ``Accountability is everything.''
She also claimed staff at Regent House were unsympathetic to the clients, describing them as criminals and pathological liars. ``There but for the grace of God goes me or any of my family,'' she said. ``I want to see the clients treated with the respect they deserve and not judged for their past.''
Lawyers for Dr Seilder told the ABC there had been no watering down of methadone, no missing methadone and they had complied with government regulations.
A statement issued by the NSW Health Department said the matters were still the subject of investigation. It said an investigation by the Pharmaceutical Services Branch led to the tightening of licensing conditions in 2006. However Regent House and Clinic 36 were allowed to continue operating because any potential system shortcomings had been rectified and the treatment of 750 former addicts would be jeopardised if they were shut down.

Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, 24 May 2007

Victoria 'holding NSW farmers to ransom', The Australian, 24 May, 2007. Picture Richard Cisar-Wright





Victoria `holding NSW farmers to ransom': [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 24 May 2007: 4.
Show highlighting
"We are running on empty," Mr [Doug Miell] said. "We have as bad a problem as has ever been confronted in the [Murray-Darling], and we've got Stephen Bracks playing politics."
"The drought has highlighted the over-allocation of water in the river system and shown how much we need a unified scheme to fix the problems," Mr O'[Connor] said. "I am disappointed that what seems like a good long-term solution proposed by the federal Government is going to be chopped off by thebloody-mindedness of the Victorian Government."

PETER O'Connor wants to send Victorian Premier Steve Bracks a clear message: stop holding him and hundreds of other irrigators to ransom for the sake of politics.
Mr O'Connor, 50, farms two blocks in the Coleambally district in the NSW Riverina and faces the prospect of no water allocations for the coming season.
With his income depleted by the five years of drought, he now looks out to 1.5m-deep cracks across his paddocks.
"The drought has highlighted the over-allocation of water in the river system and shown how much we need a unified scheme to fix the problems," Mr O'Connor said. "I am disappointed that what seems like a good long-term solution proposed by the federal Government is going to be chopped off by the bloody-mindedness of the Victorian Government."
He accused Mr Bracks of acting parochially at the expense of others in the Murray-Darling Basin. "If you have got the Queensland, South Australian, Victorian and NSW governments all looking after their own, you can't have a solution to a national problem," he said.
"The Victorian Government has spat the dummy ... because they can't get exactly what they want. Everyone else in the basin is going to have to bear the pain."
Mr O'Connor grows a mix of wheat, barley, hay and fat lambs, and said that although there had been good rains in the past month, he needed water to finish off the wheat and barley crops he had just planted.
"In the last 12 months our income was down to around 40 per cent of normal because of the lack of water to produce crops," he said. "I have increased my overdraft each year for the past three years just to stay in business. There are 400 irrigators in Coleambally alone who should be generating hundreds of millions for the national economy."
Mr O'Connor said the Victorian irrigation systems, owned and run by the Victorian Government, had been neglected and were in disrepair. "If the Victorians won't come to the party, the federal Government should fix what it can," he said.
NSW Irrigators Council chief executive Doug Miell said major irrigators in NSW were disappointed at the obstructionist approach of the Victorian Government.
"We are running on empty," Mr Miell said. "We have as bad a problem as has ever been confronted in the Murray-Darling, and we've got Stephen Bracks playing politics."
Mr Miell said their question to the Prime Minister was: "How much longer are you going to allow Victoria to rule the roost?"
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)