PM Transcripts

PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA MONDAY, 21 FEBRUARY 1983
PRICES AND INCOMES POLICY
Democracy in Australia has never been more seriously
challenged than it is now by the ALP and the unions'
so-called.-prices and incomes policy.
Labor is not satisfied with putting unions above
the law, under the prices and incomes policy, Labor
would require union consent to make the law.
The agreement has given the unions a right of veto
over a Labor Government's economic policy. It
has given the militant trade union leaders the
right to decide what policies Would govern all
Australians in almost every major area of Government,~
in education, health, social security, taxation and
trade just to name a few. Government decisions
would be made by the faceless men of the union
executives. In no other country in the western world have
militant trade unionists been promised so much power.
They have achieved overnight what they would never.
achieve through the ballot box in a thousand
years. Recently we saw a picture of Mssrs, Carmichael and
Halfpenny handing over a $ 50,000 ' cheque to Mr Hawke.
They indeed paid a small price to buy Government
under Labor. To vote for Labor, is to put these
communist trade union leaders into power.