EMBARGO: 8.00PM
FOR MEDIA 20 FEBRUARY, 1983
LABOR'S ABDICATION GOVERNMENT BY THE UNIONS FOR THE UNIONS
Finally we have Labor's real policy speech. Last week
speech at the Opera House just gave us Labor's starting
price of $ 2750 million.
Labor's so-called prices and incomes policy, set out in the
Statement of Accord by the Australian Labor Party and the
Australian Council of Trade Unions regarding Economic Policy,
dated February 1983, is in every sense a blueprint for union
government. It means government by the unions for the unions.
Union Veto
This 324 page document dots the I's and crosses the T's on
the greatest ever attempted sell-out to left-wing union
control of the national government and economy.
From the moment Mr Hawke signs this blueprint he becomes the
puppet leader of a Labor Party subject to union veto in
respect of virtually every significant decision of national
government. This is made totally plain by the statement " the policies
detailed in this document are agreed between the parties
rather than imposed by the government". 6)
The document not only makes it plain that the policies it
covers are agreed between the parties, but that modifications
to those policies must also be agreed or else the compact is
broken. That gives the union militants the right of veto across a
broad range of government policy. They would have a veto over
laws to regulate union behaviour ( pp 15-16), levels of protection
20), the number of migrants 23), even over assistance
to non-achieving students in primary schools 29). This
would paralyse democratic government and transfer power from
Parliament to the Gallaghers, Carmichaels and Halfpernny's of
this world.
In one stroke ti-is dockiment has given the ecoIiiununist~ s and
fellow travellers rrore than they could ever have got fromi
the ballot box. ' Phis document has giv ' en them real political
power but without any pUhlic accountability.
Now we know why M~ r flawke is so 1; een about his Economic Smni
He wants to lift the ACTU to parity. with the national qovcinm( neTt
and give it equivalent power.
WAGES SRTUPID1TY
Once again Labor and the u. nion leaders have xejected the need
for wage restraint; once again they have shown callous
disregard for the interests of the unemployedi. Their w'age
propcosals are economic madness.
The document states categorically that systern of full
cost of living adjustments will be strongly supported in
tripartite consul tation~ s and before inaus trial tribunals".
9) The words " will be supported" obviously mean by the
Labor Party and tlie unions. A Labor Government would be
the adviocate of the traoe unions in industrial tribuntals.
Th ere would be no one to argue the case for all Australians.
Their approach to wages would set in concrete Australia's
excessive labour costs and ouor lack of international
competitiveness. Their approach to wages would cost
Australians ten$ of thousands of jobs. l' 1I> Dolart said
last January don' t wanit to sour d cynical abou). t this
and I'm definitely norjt trying to, but _ Nhile ' hreare*
of workers uncmployed, . there Are 90% itl. c-rploynient."
In the battle for survival against adverse economic conditions,
employers would be faced by the corRbined weight of unionsand
Government, not only in the wage tribunals but also in
negotiations about over award payments. " Where over award
payments exist the Government will support the maintenance
of those levels in real termrs Simll businessmen
would be bankrupted; big businesn would be crippled.
Ioflationi would be institutional ised and tinerployment would
be a permanent fact of life for vast nurabers of Austra-ianfs-.
There is abSOlutely TLO way that Australia's manufacturing
inatustry, already unpompetiti\' e after last year's wage
explosion, could survive full wage inaexation.
On top of all that, the disastrous thrust for shorter working
houirs would be supported by a Labor Government. " Bargaining
based upon achieving increased procluctivity via changer. in
work: practices or procedures as a means of redu4ci ng hours
at negligible cost increases, will continue to be
supported
Everyone knows that shorter hours mean higher costs; everyone
knows that the drive for shorter hours has contributed
materially to Australia's current economic difficulties.
Labor and the union leaders either refuse to learn the lessons
of our recent past, or simply do not care, This would
institutionalize the wage-price, spiral and worsen unemployment.
TAXATION A Labor Government's taxation pol'icy would be subject to
control by militant union leaders.
This document outlines precisely what a Labor Government would
be required to do.
_ s well as a general desire for lower income tax, the unions
have also directed that Labor should endeavour to reduce
the relative incidence of indirect taxation. 12)
Labor has already offered massive spending increases. Cutting
both direct and indirect taxes as well would bankrupt Australia.
It is economic lunacy.
The madness doesn't stop there, A Labor Government couldn't
change taxation rates at any time without the permission of
union Teaders,
Furthermore, the document says that a Labor Government,
in conjunction with the trade union movement, will
annually review the tax scale so that the tax burden will not rise
automatically with inflation". ( p. 11/ 12) and it also states
that the Government would discuss any " general rise in
taxation" with the unions -efore " seeking to give effect to ( p. 13
Clearly again, the unions would control the tax policy of a
tabor -Go-vernment.
By regulating the incomes of unincorporated enterprises
10), that is the self-employed, shopkeepers, builders
and tradesmun, the Labor Party and unions will strike at
the heart of incentive and enterprise. In their determination
to increase the powers of the unions over the economy, Labor and
the unions would destroy the self-employed and small business
people who are not -uqionised and never want to be.
MASSIVE INTERVENTION AND SURVEILLANCE
Trade-union involvement is to be enforced in every aspect
of economic advice, economic planning and detailed
economic control of every sector of activity. The only
group who is to be immone from intervention and immune
from the law are the trade union leaders themselves.
-4-
The document says that " comprehensive" and " closely ponitored"
interventionist policies are neccessary to achieve the desircd level
of gz-vth, with a * planinirtq rr~:~ vtism to assist " the tvansition of the
e-OrIOfnY -into -a Planned framework". ( pp 17-18)
The lives and incom~ es of " shopkeeqpers, self-emnployed builders
aind tradesmen etc. 4, are-to be subject to a whole new riaige
of government controls.
Business enterprise is to he suppressed, with bureaucratic
control andl government int : vention ta~ ing over from the mnarke~ tplace
at every level. No one will escape from the largest companies
to the smallest corner shop or Luilding sub-con tractor. Suibjec t
to the permission of union leadcrs at every turn, a Labor Government
bound by this dloclupent Would embark on a program of massive
interv. ention and surveillance to convert Australia into a
planned socialist economy for the benefit of the powerful unions.
All sectors of inclustry, both public and private, are to
he integrated 18), and there is to be wide-ranging
regulation of manufacturing activity., There will be a
pricing authority operating under legislative criteria
" designed to ensure that enterprises do ) iot earn profit
beyond levels necessary for the maintenance and expansion
of the enterprise..." And the States would be asked
to use their*. kinlimited constitutional powe. r" t~ o assist
in "... regilating prices charged by important sections of
the non-corporate area". 11).
CONCLUSION Wage increases, hours reductions, extensive * intervention
and regulation, massive spending, both direct and indirect
tax cuts, and huge Budget deficits: that's what this
document promises the union leadership. What it promises
the people of* Australia is higher inflation, higher interest
rates, no investment, no growth anid no jobs. Economic
insanity is the only way to desordlhe it Bankruptcy can be
its only result.
The document lays down that the role of Government shall
be " accommodatin'g and supportive" 7) Accomiodating
and supportive to whom Obviously the militant trade
union leadership._______
The Australian community, and ordinary rank and file trade
unions are ignored. Mr Hawke has not only given the
unions. everything. they could have possibly wanted in wage
adjustments, in Government support for wage madness, but
on top of that chiaritable gesture he has handed to* the
union -leadership the specific written power of veto over
Government decision-making..
Now we kriow why he said there was no prices and irngomi S
policy in Britain. The British Labor Party never offered
this total and absolute abdication.
Mr Joel Barnett, the Labor Government's Chief Secretary
to the Treasury, had this to say about the British social
contract: we went much further in the way we co-operated
under the terms of the qLuaJntly titled Social
Contract, supposedly cnshrining a ncwrelaUio3] ship
between g overnrment and unio~ is. To my mind, the
only give and take in the contract was that the
Government gave and the unions took".
' IWe were, after all, stil1 in the middle of the
disastrous ' Social Contract' it may have helped
to secure our election victory but it did nothing
to prevent some would argue it ensured the 27%
growth in earnings ( in 1974)".
What Mr Hawke is trying to sell to Australians would have
far more damaging consequences.
Mr Hawke's real policy speech, to be signed and sealed
tomorrow, does not seek a mandate to govern for all
Australians. It seeks a mandate to hand over the r
Australia to the powerful unions.
There is no way in the world Australians will have a
bar of that kind of Government. -ooo00ooo---