BY GRAHAM MATTHEWS
MELBOURNE On August 20, the Victorian state Liberal Party dumped its parliamentary leader of the last two years, Denis Napthine, and replaced him with former health spokesperson Robert Doyle.
The elevation of Doyle indicates a change in tactics by the Victorian Liberal Party, stepping up its attacks on social values and militant unions.
Shortly following his election as leader, Doyle indicated that he intended attacking the state Labor government, led by Premier Steve Bracks, over minor social reforms, including the provision of in-vitro fertilisation to lesbian couples, tolerance of prostitution and the Labor government's supposed "soft" stance on militant unions.
During its two-and-a-half years in power, the Bracks government has done little to repeal regressive changes made by former Coalition premier Jeff Kennett. Public transport remains in private hands, state budget surpluses have been used to fund tax-cuts to business and funding has not been restored to health or education services.
Doyle's claim that Bracks is supportive of militant unionists is not borne out by fact.
The Bracks government has not implemented all the anti-union measures that federal workplace relations' minister Tony Abbott has requested. Significantly, the state government avoided a confrontation with construction unions around the redevelopment of the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, by failing to agree to implement federal guidelines for industrial relations.
Nevertheless, Bracks has attacked militant union leaderships. In particular, he sent a letter of complaint about the Workers First leadership of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union to AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron, alleging that the union's militancy threatened investment in Victoria.
Rumours persist that the federal Coalition government may be willing to push a confrontation in the Victorian building industry in order to embarrass the state ALP government in the run-up to the next state election.
Doyle, in his first few days in the job, has taken measures to identify the state Liberal Party more closely with the socially conservative union-bashing agenda put forward by its federal counterpart.
Militant union leaderships in Victoria are already being persecuted and it is likely that this pressure will only increase in the run-up to the state election.
From Green Left Weekly, August 28, 2002.
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