Sue Bull, Ballarat

On July 30, 500 workers voiced their anger over the federal Coalition government's proposed changes to industrial relations laws at a community rally organised by the Ballarat Trades and Labour Council.

BTLC secretary Graham Shearer called on PM John Howard to consider the impact of the legislation on rural workers and their families.

Australian Council of Social Service president Andrew McCallum warned that the reforms would mostly affect Australia's 2.4 million people living in poverty. “We will become like America — a great underclass of working poor”, he said. “We may have a zero unemployment rate, but people will be working three and four jobs to keep above the poverty line.”

Dan McGlade, a local lawyer, said that people were “living in fantasyland” if they believed Howard's assertion that the proposed legislation would liberate workers to make better deals with their employers. “These reforms will take us back to the 19th century, back to master and servant”, he said.

Local Aboriginal elder Ted Lovett opened the rally and said that ordinary people needed to be treated on equal terms with the wealthy. Local federal and state MPs and church leaders also addressed the rally.

After the rally, the Ballarat branch of the Socialist Alliance screened the film Rocking the Foundations, a history of the NSW Builders Labourers Federation. It was enthusiastically received by the audience, which included former members of the BLF.

From Green Left Weekly, August 10, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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