BY SUE BULL

MELBOURNE — On August 17, nearly 100 people attended a meeting at Trades Hall to launch of the Fair Go campaign. The meeting was sponsored by a coalition of groups including the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC), the Ethnic Communities Council, the Victorian Council of Social Services and various church, political and social justice groups.

Leigh Hubbard, secretary of the VTHC, outlined the aims of the campaign, summarised in its Hands up for a fairer Australia pamphlet, which states: “As community, faith and union organisations we are concerned about where Australia is headed. The divide between rich and poor is increasing, services are being eroded, work is less secure and the destruction of the environment should concern us all. We want to encourage the community to have further dialogue with our politicians to let them know of our concerns.”

Facets of each theme were then taken up by a number of speakers including ACTU president Sharan Burrow and Pat Dodson, former chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

The participants were asked to write to the prime minister or visit their local MP. No dates for any rallies or marches against the federal government's budget cuts and its attacks on unions were put forward.

From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.
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