Work Choices
The first anniversary of Work Choices is marked by another employer exploiting the Howard government's feudal IR laws to reduce workers' pay and conditions
National retail chain Darrell Lea Chocolate Shops expects its 1509 casual workers to sign a non-negotiable AWA that reduces their hourly pay rate, halves minimum shift hours, strips away penalty rates for weekends and public holidays, paid sick leave and laundry allowance for uniforms and makes no provision for pay increases during the five year term of the "agreement".
According to Darrell Lea CEO John Tolmie, 400 staff have signed the AWA since September 2006 and the miserable conditions will only save the company around $80,000. The laundry allowance alone will strip workers of $112,000 (one garment per worker per week at $5.85).
What cynical timing to gouge workers at Easter, a peak sales period for chocolate retailers. No amount of candy coating will mask the bitter taste of this greedy corporate grab. A company that boasts its long Australian heritage shows contempt for the basic Aussie value of a fair go for all.
Ron Baker
South Brisbane
ALP and uranium
The future of uranium mining in Australia is to be discussed at the ALP national conference at the end of this month. If it decides to change its policy on uranium mining, Australia will be committed by both major parties to an open slather pro-uranium mine platform at the next federal election.
I've made three major films on the nuclear issue. There is no genuine debate in the media showing the downside of mining more uranium and the exponential growth of nuclear power plants overseas.
I have made another documentary, A Hard Rain, that specifically addresses those key issues. You can help to stop uranium mining in Australia by screening A Hard Rain in the lead-up to the ALP conference and beyond.
Sitting on 40% of the world's high-grade uranium reserves, we have a huge responsibility to humankind to make the right decision about what we do with that reserve.
We owe it to our children and our grandchildren, to all species who inherit this land, to be wise and knowledgeable in deciding whether to open Pandora's box still further by allowing more uranium mines to dot the country.
Everything I have learned tells me this will unleash a radioactive tailings nightmare upon Australia. That radioactivity will weep into our water supply and blow in the wind for hundreds of thousands of years. It will create untold extra and unnecessary cancers in this country. Is that the future we really want to bequeath the next generation?
A Hard Rain exposes the myths of the nuclear cycle from uranium mining to nuclear power to waste and weapons. It has been made as a tool to inform the debate on the nuclear issue. I have released it now and made a simplified 20-minute version specifically to convince the ALP that it should not overturn the "no new mines" policy.
If you can commit to organising a screening, please send an email to <ahardrain@aapt.net.au> with your name, postal address and when and where you plan to hold a screening.
David Bradbury
Via email [Abridged]
Embedded journalists
How many readers know that journalists are offered, and often accept, expenses-paid trips to foreign countries to meet big names in their media and government.
I read that Paul Sheehan and Tom Allard have been on a "free" trip to Israel. Their 2006 visit to Israel was reported in the March 30 Australian Jewish News under the headline "Second Kristallnacht ahead, warns Fairfax columnist".
Sheehan's April 2 Sydney Morning Herald article, "Small fry in Iran's big picture" contains possible evidence of his "embedded" visit to Israel, but it is not declared — neither journalist declared in the SMH their visits, expenses paid by a Zionist organisation.
A letter I have received from Sam North, the managing editor of the SMH, explains that Sheehan and Allard "are experienced journalists and we are certain that their professionalism enables them [to] differentiate between information and propaganda". Really?
I think we have seen quite enough "embedded journalism". I believe we must demand that these free ideological trips to Israel, US, Indonesia, or anywhere else, must be made public if they are to be accepted at all.
Stephen Langford
Paddington, NSW
GE food
The "Corn gone wrong" article by Peter Robson (GLW #705) was spot on in emphasising the dilemma that we have with industry self-regulating itself, as in the biotech sector.
Government bodies, such as FSANZ, do not have the finances to do their own research on each and every application presented to them, and therefore just review supplied data from the companies' own research. These studies often amount to a maximum of 90 days feeding trials, and, as was the case with MON863, selected review processes.
The response from the media in regard to the revelation of MON863 was to be expected, with a small article in the SMH and a barely reported media release sent out from WA agriculture minister Kim Chance, who is often seen as a "voice in the wilderness" but we in WA are grateful for his tenacity in standing firm on the state's ban on genetically engineered food.
Australia should see itself in an enviable position, in that it has a GE food moratorium which prevents the commercial production of GE crops. These bans are giving us time to see what happens to the rest of the world that has adopted GM crops, but it also gives us choice.
Geoff Warren (Write On, GLW #705) asks if we are concerned too? Yes, Geoff, we are very concerned. Transparent labelling to expose all GM derived foods is essential and is also part of our demands. Our website address is <http://www.no-gmo.asn.au>.
No, Geoff, you are not alone! We are very much with you!
Janet Grogan
Joondanna, WA {Abridged]
It's time
The time has come for the ALP to show its hand on the nuclear issue. Will the ALP support an expansion in this deadly industry, or will it oppose this industry's expansion?
Will the ALP provide funding for renewable energy so as to reduce our CO2 emissions and mitigate the worst effects of climate change?
Will its policies promote and fund solar power on all new buildings, boosted by wind power generators, fed back into the grid by individual properties? Will its policies call for the investment of taxes into geothermal energy production for industrial uses for energy intensive industry?
Will Labor's policies improve public transport making it reliable and accessible to all? Such a policy will produce the effects of less personal car usage, the flow on being a lesser need for greater road funding thus a saving in our taxes.
Will Labor's policies be based on the best interests of the people it is elected to represent, or will they better reflect the best interests of big business.
Finally, will Labor abolish "Work Choices"?
Anne Goddard
Via email