Howard Government Industrial Relations Advertising Campaign

I've noticed an awful lot of advertising being done by the Australian Government recently (awful being the qualifying adjective!).

This is being done to try and convince the Australian public that the Industrial Relations reforms the Government is trying to implement is needed and that it is indeed Fair.
I hope, (but am not overly confidant), that the Australian Public will not fall for this deceit.


Article from The Australian

THE federal Government has spent nearly $15 million of taxpayers' money on advertising in the first two weeks of its industrial relations reform campaign, according to a survey to be released today.
The mammoth ad budget has already put the IR campaign on track to become the biggest advertising spending spree in Australian history. With no end in sight to the Government's bid to swing the public behind the IR changes, observers predict it will easily outstrip the GST campaign in 2000, which cost $100 million.

John Sintras, chief executive of Starcom and head of the Media Federation of Australia,

said the campaign and the "staggering" number of ads had been a significant talking point in the industry. "There is a fine line between effective reach and overkill and they have crossed it," he said. "I'm stuffed if I can think of someone who has launched with that kind of weight; $7million is what most people spend in a year. Not even Telstra or Coles spends at that rate."

Now, before I go on I would like to re-affirm my thoughts and standing on the subject of Industrial Relations Reform. It is an ever changing situation, so Reform is an area that needs to be discussed openly. Dialogue between the major parties, IE, the Workers and their bosses and the Governing parties which includes the State and Federal Governments and the respective Unions should happen. Jobs change, as is the way people are employed.
But these Individual Contracts that the vast majority of Workers Do Not want or need are a backward step and has no other purpose than to make more money out of the workers of this country.

The current crop of Taxpayer funded Commercials that have been playing on the TV just recently, (and I mean a seriously lot of air time) bang on about how Workers will still have these rights "by Law" IE, that a Women who becomes pregnant cannot be sacked for that reason etc...But, and this is a very big BUT, all the points made in the Commercials are specifically the rights that employees have by law if they are employed under the Award! Which, incidentally, is the EXACT thing that the Howard Government is trying to get rid of!
That is to have Employees sign Individual Workers Contracts and do away with all the Rights, Benefits and Conditions that were fought so hard, for so many years.
They conveniently omitted that vital piece of information from the advertisements though.


More Here...

Information from the ACTU here...

We ould also lose all our Public Holidays