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Summer 2004

The People have Spoken by Chris Brown, HACSU State Secretary

The Australian people have spoken, and although a significant majority (54%) of Tasmanians voted against John Howard’s Government, that’s what we must now work with.

I personally didn't vote for John Howard, but I believe it is pointless to go into a doom and gloom, bunker mentality. Democracy means sometimes accepting that the will of others prevails, at least until the next election. We need to look and plan positively, prepare for the challenges ahead, and keep building on our strengths.

Importantly, through good strategic decisions in the past, most HACSU members are covered by State awards and will largely be insulated from the radical free market industrial experiment on
which John Howard is about to embark.

There is a possibility, however, that John Howard may try to abolish state industrial relations systems or get at State-award covered workers through the Trade Practices Act, and this would make it a whole different ball game.

The one area that will have a widespread impact on HACSU members is the proposed abolition of unfair dismissal laws.

In June next year, when John Howard's Government will control both houses of Federal Parliament, the old unfair dismissal laws will be overturned. Any employer with less than 20 employees will be able to dismiss an employee without having to give any reasons and the employee will have no comeback.

This will affect many members in the private sector. There are also about five million small business employees across Australia who will be affected. This will be an appalling law, and we'll be doing everything we can to highlight its unfairness.

I do, however, feel encouraged about statements from some state governments and the Federal
Government over reforms to our hospital system. Without doubt our hospital system could be significantly improved.

There is chronic overlapping of responsibilities, duplication and blame shifting. For example, there are about 4,000 health bureaucrats in Canberra and a huge health administration in each state. Decisions are made or not made according to what the State or Federal Governments think the next move or counter move might be. It's a game of health chess, not the practise of efficient health services delivery. There's got to be better ways of doing things!

John Howard has said he will have a serious look at this. Whether he comes up with good solutions, and has the ability to actually implement change, is yet to be seen.

There are equally big challenges ahead in the aged care sector, in getting bulk billing rates up, in housing affordability, and in tackling the growing problems in mental health services.

With all of this looming, there's one thing we can do to ensure we are protected. That's to make sure we are organised, that people are in the union and informed about what is going on.

The single biggest factor in Australian history in developing our way of a fair go, and for working people to get ahead as a group, has been the Australian union movement. Nobody yet has come up with a better way of moving forward as a community of working people. The better organised we are, the more we will progress.