Discontent in Australia

I have always been fascinated with Australia. Although I have never been there, the parallels with Canada make it difficult to ignore: former British colony, sad history in dealing with indigenous peoples, the existence of a labour party, the bad accents (trust me, I'm from Norther BC, we can have bad accents!), cool rock bands (AC/DC and Neil Young) and now, labour unrest and an openly hostile government austerity programs! Good lord, its like living under a Harris/Harper clone down under.

To give you some context, recent events in Australia by Prime Minister Howard have driven trade unionists into the streets, literally. You see, straight out of a Mike Harris playbook, Howard has introduced a package of labour reforms that would strip trade unions of existing holiday, pay and pension benefits. The new laws were so draconian that over 500,000 people poured into the streets in protest. You can read more about it here.

Labour Start has also linked to videos of the protest, which you can view here.

Commenting on the sorry legacy of Howard’s government, (which included joining Bush on his “crusade” in Iraq), Australian Council of Trade Unions president Sharan Burrow stated that “We must be the first generation of Australians who leave our kids with fewer rights at work than we inherited.”

I always suspected that Australia and Canada had a lot in common. Now we can both share our disgust for the heavy handedness of right wing governments. What a lousy fraternity to be a part of...