Graham Matthews

Workers to bear budget pain

The federal budget will be presented to parliament by Treasurer Wayne Swan on May 12. While Swan has been officially tight-lipped about its contents, he has already released significant details about the cuts to programs and government jobs the budget will hand down.

New laws gut workplace safety

On April 4, 2008, federal workplace minister Julia Gillard announced a review into occupational health and safety (OH&S) laws. The government said the review was aimed at harmonising OH&S laws across Australia.

Who pays for the recession?

On April 21, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd finally conceded that “it’s inevitable that Australia … will be dragged into recession”.

Government savages job centres

In the biggest shake-up of job centres since the Howard government’s replacement of the Commonwealth Employment Service (CES) with the privatised Job Network in 1998, the federal Labor government has created a new Job Services Australia (JSA) network. It halves the number of not-for-profit agencies involved and cuts thousands of jobs.

A handbook for the downturn

The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences
By John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff
Monthly Review Press, 2009
160 pages, $25
Available from <http://www.resistancebooks.com>

Safe as houses?

The federal government is hoping those who receive their $900 “stimulus package” payment from April 6 spend and spend big.

Not quite Brideshead

Easy Virtue
Directed by Stephan Eliot
Written by Stephan Eliot and Sheridan Jobbins
With Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas & Colin Firth
In cinemas

Wage justice for low-paid workers

The federal ALP government, in league with employer organisations and conservative economists, wants workers — in particular the lowest paid and most vulnerable — to pay for the economic downturn.

Justice for Africans

Soubhi Iskander is a leading member of the Sudanese Australia Human Rights Association, a committee based in Sydney’s west, that campaigns for the rights of Sudanese refugees. SAHRA is also an affiliate of the Socialist Alliance.

Gov't scapegoats migrants, cuts quota

On March 16, federal immigration minister Chris Evans announced that the Rudd government would cut the skilled migration intake for the current financial year by 18,500. This, claimed Evans in a ministerial statement, would “protect local jobs”.

Jobs and housing crisis looming

The economic outlook for working people is becoming even bleaker.

Who pays for the downturn?

National accounts figures, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on March 4, showed that the Australian economy contracted by 0.5% in the three months to December, despite the federal government’s $10.6 billion stimulus package, which was paid out to pensioners and families before Christmas.