Ron Perkins, Perth
Following the surprise resignation last month of Geoff Gallop as WA premier, a by-election for his vacated seat of Victoria Park will be held on March 11.
Victoria Park has been held by the ALP continuously since 1953. In such a safe Labor seat, party faction heads have been working overtime clamouring for the candidacy. The right faction's Ben Wyatt, a 31-year-old lawyer with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and director of Indigenous Business Australia, got the nod, defeating the left faction's Helen Creed, the national president of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union.
The Liberals, who would need a swing of 16% to win the seat, are standing 59-year-old real-estate agent and local deputy mayor Bruce Stevenson. Former senator and WA MLC, Dee Margetts, will stand for the WA Greens.
The Perth branch of Socialist Alliance will also contest the seat, standing trade union activist John Tattersall. A sheet-metal worker by trade and father of two, Tattersall is angry about the increasing difficulties faced by working people in WA, especially securing full-time permanent employment, as the federal Work Choices laws kick in against a backdrop of the unfettered growth of labour hire companies under WA Labor.
Tattersall, a Victoria Park resident, says that the job of constructing a working-class alternative to the ALP is urgent. "It's about time workers had some real representation in government", Tattersall told Green Left Weekly. "The Liberals are on the rampage nationally, trying to force people onto individual contracts, but after two terms in office WA Labor hasn't introduced any legislation to protect casual workers or control the excesses of labour hire companies.
"In fact, we've seen labour hire grow as companies use them more and more to attack working conditions. In effect, we are already getting here, under Labor, what Howard is trying to make law for all Australian workers."
Despite having only casual, and therefore insecure, employment for the last three years, Tattersall has been an active trade unionist in his various workplaces. "Workers need to support each other and not be intimidated into remaining silent", he told GLW. "Our unions need to be more active, take on companies that use outsourcing and labour hire outfits."
Tattersall argues that the federal Work Choices legislation needs to be attacked head on if it is to be stopped and, as part of the election campaign, will be circulating an open letter to the WA Labor government calling on it to refuse to implement or cooperate with any aspect of Howard's IR laws.
For more information, visit < http://www.socialist-A HREF="mailto:alliance.org"><alliance.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, February 15, 2006.
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