by that annoying Chirs Berg

If he wins government, Abbott faces a clear choice. He could simply overturn one or two symbolic Gillard-era policies like the carbon tax, and govern moderately. He would not offend any interest groups. In doing so, he'd probably secure a couple of terms in office for himself and the Liberal Party. But would this be a successful government? We don't believe so. The remorseless drift to bigger government and less freedom would not halt, and it would resume with vigour when the Coalition eventually loses office. We hope he grasps the opportunity to fundamentally reshape the political culture and stem the assault on individual liberty.

1 Repeal the carbon tax, and don't replace it. It will be one thing to remove the burden of the carbon tax from the Australian economy. But if it is just replaced by another costly scheme, most of the benefits will be undone.

2 Abolish the Department of Climate Change

3 Abolish the Clean Energy Fund

4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act

5 Abandon Australia's bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council

6 Repeal the renewable energy target

7 Return income taxing powers to the states

8 Abolish the Commonwealth Grants Commission

9 Abolish the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

10 Withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol

11 Introduce fee competition to Australian universities

12 Repeal the National Curriculum

13 Introduce competing private secondary school curriculums

14 Abolish the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)

15 Eliminate laws that require radio and television broadcasters to be balanced'

16 Abolish television spectrum licensing and devolve spectrum management to the common law

17 End local content requirements for Australian television stations

18 Eliminate family tax benefits

19 Abandon the paid parental leave scheme

20 Means-test Medicare

21 End all corporate welfare and subsidies by closing the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education

22 Introduce voluntary voting

23 End mandatory disclosures on political donations

24 End media blackout in final days of election campaigns

25 End public funding to political parties

26 Remove antidumping laws

27 Eliminate media ownership restrictions

28 Abolish the Foreign Investment Review Board

29 Eliminate the National Preventative Health Agency

30 Cease subsidising the car industry

31 Formalise a one-in, one-out approach to regulatory reduction

32 Rule out federal funding for 2018 Commonwealth Games

33 Deregulate the parallel importation of books

34 End preferences for Industry Super Funds in workplace relations laws

35 Legislate a cap on government spending and tax as a percentage of GDP

36 Legislate a balanced budget amendment which strictly limits the size of budget deficits and the period the federal government can be in deficit

37 Force government agencies to put all of their spending online in a searchable database

38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food

39 Reintroduce voluntary student unionism at universities

40Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools

41 Repeal the alcopops tax

42 Introduce a special economic zone in the north of Australia including: 
a) Lower personal income tax for residents 
b) Significantly expanded 457 Visa programs for workers 
c) Encourage the construction of dams

43 Repeal the mining tax

44 Devolve environmental approvals for major projects to the states

45 Introduce a single rate of income tax with a generous tax-free threshold

46 Cut company tax to an internationally competitive rate of 25 per cent

47 Cease funding the Australia Network

48 Privatise Australia Post

49 Privatise Medibank

50 Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function 

51 Privatise SBS 

52 Reduce the size of the public service from current levels of more than 260,000 to at least the 2001 low of 212,784

53 Repeal the Fair Work Act

54 Allow individuals and employers to negotiate directly terms of employment that suit them

55 Encourage independent contracting by overturning new regulations designed to punish contractors

56 Abolish the Baby Bonus

57 Abolish the First Home Owners' Grant

58 Allow the Northern Territory

59 Halve the size of the Coalition front bench from 32 to 16

60 Remove all remaining tariff and non-tariff barriers to international trade

61 Slash top public servant salaries to much lower international standards, like in the United States

62 End all public subsidies to sport and the arts

63 Privatise the Australian Institute of Sport

64 End all hidden protectionist measures, such as preferences for local manufacturers in government tendering

65 Abolish the Office for Film and Literature Classification

66 Rule out any government-supported or mandated internet censorship

67 Means test tertiary student loans 

68 Allow people to opt out of superannuation in exchange for promising to forgo any government income support in retirement

69 Immediately halt construction of the National Broadband Network and privatise any sections that have already been built

70 End all government funded Nanny State advertising

71 Reject proposals for compulsory food and alcohol labelling

72 Privatise the CSIRO

73 Defund Harmony Day

74 Close the Office for Youth

75 Privatise the Snowy-Hydro Scheme

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ALL THESE ITEMS ARE TOTALLY OUR OF LINE

They would promote the kind of political selfishness akin to that of the dark ages. They would kill off social equity to be replaced by "charitable" handouts at the whim and glory of the rich and floggings of workers beyond your imagination...

It would aso propel the problem of global warming at twice the speed... But I have the feeling Berg does not believe the science, his god being Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones... And what about the bias on the ABC? he can talk... He's more a guest of the drum than any other dudes like me... The hypocrite.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's $1 billion jobs plan is an obvious sop to the protectionist wing of the union movement, writes [ultra right Conservative from the IPA] Chris Berg.

Timing is everything. On Sunday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced her "plan for Australian jobs" at the Boeing factory in Melbourne: $1 billion "to make sure that we are a manufacturing nation".

The next day, the nation's largest manufacturing union assembled for its national conference on the Gold Coast. Australian Workers' Union (AWU) chief Paul Howes announced he backed her leadership "110 per cent".

This is as good a way to measure public policy success as any.

Gillard's jobs plan (formally titled the Industry and Innovation Statement) is an obvious sop to the protectionist wing of the union movement.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4527240.html?WT.svl=theDrum

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Blah blah blah from Berg... Go and take a cold shower Chris...:

On the same bloody front, you can see that "big business" is bleeding this country of its resoures with a TAX CONCESSION to boot... Removing this tax concession is not the end of the world and it's levelling the playing field unlike those in the US:

Actually, farming no longer resembles the hardscrabble family enterprise of so much mawkish marketing. Much of it is dominated by large operators supplying not only the U.S. dinner table but also far-flung export markets. Notwithstanding a major drought, net farm income for 2012 reached $112.8 billion, according to the Agriculture Department, down only slightly from the previous year’s record of $117.9 billion in 2011. USDA expects farm income to hit a post-1973 high of $128.2 billion in 2013.

The department also forecasts that 2013 net equity in the farm sector will exceed $2 trillion (in constant 2005 dollars). Land prices are booming because of strong crop prices and the Federal Reserve’s low-interest-rate policy. Large agriculture-related companies are swarming Midwest campuses, snapping up agricultural science students: The Wall Street Journal reports that ag students enjoy the third-lowest unemployment rate of any undergraduate major.

Farmers are wealthy, the U.S. food supply is not remotely at risk — and yet the government still piles on the subsidies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/growing-wealthy-on-the-farm/2013/02/18/b7e2fdee-77b3-11e2-8f84-3e4b513b1a13_print.html

AND IF YOU HAVE NOT GOT THE MESSAGE, Chris:

Nuclear power: ministers offer reactor deal until 2050

Energy firms may get 40-year backing after government U-turn on subsidies

The coalition agreement reached between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in 2010 promised that nuclear power stations would be built only if the industry got no public subsidy, but costly overruns for new reactors overseas and the exit of several major utilities from the UK programme, most recently Centrica, have driven ministers and officials to backtrack on that pledge and accept they will have to provide financial support.

The Guardian has learned that ministers, intent on keeping the guaranteed wholesale cost of each unit of energy below the politically crucial figure of £100 per megawatt hour, are proposing to extend contracts from the 20 years originally envisaged to at least 30 and possibly as long as 40 years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/18/nuclear-power-ministers-reactor/print

Why does the nuke energy needs subsidies? Because in general it's a very costly energy to manufacture, far more than renewables... This industry NEVER MADE ONE CENT OF PROFIT ever in the entire world. It has always been dependant of government hand-outs.

Better than expected company results helped the share market to close at a fresh four-and-a-half year high today.

The All Ordinaries added 18 points to 5,102, while the ASX 200 matched that gain, closing at 5,082.

Coca Cola Amatil suffered a 22 per cent fall in full-year profit to $450 million, dragged down by the strong Australian dollar and weakness in its tinned food business.

It has offered shareholders a special dividend of 3.5 cents to offset the part franking of its increased 59.5 cent dividend. Shares in the company rose 2 per cent.

Steel and mining company Arrium, formerly known as OneSteel, battled on with another $500 million loss for the half year due to asset writedowns, taxes and restructuring costs.

But underlying profit came in at $51 million, matching the prior result. Shares in the company were down 2 per cent.

BHP Billiton rose 0.9 per cent ahead of its first-half results, which are due tomorrow morning.

Shares in Rio Tinto were down 0.5 per cent.

The Reserve Bank's minutes from its February meeting were released today, however the wow factor was taken out of them by last week's release of the Statement on Monetary Policy.

The Australian dollar rose slightly on the the back of the release, with economists tipping there will not be an interest rate cut for several months.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-19/share-market-closes-at-four-year-high/4528304

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So according to the oppostion and the news media led by the merde-och press, the economy is stuffed has been tanking since rattus has been booted out!!... The swines...

The "adrenaline-charged economy" promised by Mr Abbott scares me to death — like the prospect of a mad athlete on steroid, bashing his good lady with a baseball bat and using a gun to make sure the deed is done... Yep, the Rimmer-like Abbott is mad, vain and idiotic beyond redemption... ready to bash workers... But we like pain, don't we?

And I suppose we could also blame the lack of bubbles in the Coke-Amatil bottles on the sad news that a New Zealand lady drank herself to death by swilling ten big bottles of coke a day... That would have hurt... 

Gordonstone mine, 50km from Emerald, was opened in 1991 with the claim that it was the “most technologically advanced mine in the world”. The company was owned and operated by the USA owned ARCO, who was the senior partner with an 80% share in the mine. The other 20% being made up of Mitsui, a Japanese coal trader and an Australian company, MLC.

By 1996, the unionised workforce represented by the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union: Mining and Energy Division) had record-breaking world production records for underground coal mining. The owners of the mine were so impressed by their employees, they erected a two metre statue in the workers’ honour declaring the workforce “the best miners in the world”.

On the 1 October 1997, Arco sacked all 302 Gordonstone miners in contravention of clause 24 of an enterprise agreement entered into between the union and Arco management on 23 April 1996 and which came into force on 13 August 1996.  The U.S. based company’s intention was to “re-employ” 190 non-union workers under AWA’s provided for by the Howard Governments new industrial relations policy.

This action by Arco was entirely illegal and set in train one of the most protracted miners’ strikes – some 20 months and involving a 24/7 continuously manned picket line – which resulted in the miners winning the biggest unfair mass dismissal outcome ($4.65m) in Australian industrial relations history.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-forthcoming-assault-on-workers-rights/

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No matter how populous or unpopular one Julia and one Tony is or isn't, the fact is that the Liberals (conservatives) should NOT BE elected to govern this country... Their record in regard to workers, working conditions and pay has always been abysmal... Their record on environmental matters has always been abysmal... Their record on all other matters has been ABYSMAL.

The fact is : popularity is controlled by the media in a great part... and despite some people blaming the government for not communicating enough about stuff, the media drowns, with massive amount of disinformation, any good news...:

The left may have a host of number crunchers, graph bloggers and fact checkers, but as the conservative political machine knows best, you don't need the truth on your side to win an argument, writes Jonathan Green.

The conventional wisdom has it (a wisdom somewhat sensitive to the aspirations of Labor, it must be said) that the ALP's great electoral deficiency lies in its inability to sell a compelling message.

If only, the argument goes, the Australian voting public could glimpse the abundant good works of this Government. If it could but feel the width of the legislation, the solidity of the economic management, the vaulting agenda of constructive social reform ... if voters could truly see these things, how could they contemplate any vote other than a Julia Gillard vote?

What works politically is in fact a compelling, ahem, narrative - whether it be manufactured from fact or fiction is not really to the point.

Which is what the left and Labor doesn't get. Fact checks, the record-correcting fleets of the blogosphere ... these things have right on their side but they are not making the winning argument.

--------------------------

One cannot win a war with the media, especially when it's tightly controlled by Mr Murdoch... A government can go blue in the face with facts and reality, but truth always comes a poor last when porkies are spruiked from high by the media... This is where "social and internet medium" needs to spread like wild fire and figuratively burn effigies of Satan Murdoch daily...

In the article at top, I wrote: 

And finally let me deride all those jockers on some of the media-circuit including those at The Project... They would not have a clue... but then these (not-so) funnymen and (not so) funnywomen are now spruiking hard for the fascist newsman Murdoch, even if they don't know so...

Now let me say this: It appears that last night the dudes at The Project avoided climbing on the media bandwagon that's on the road to assassinate Julia... Good one fellas... 10 points.

The Panthers have been informed that they have an ''extremely low'' involvement in the report because of a minor link to a key person in the investigation.

''There is no doubt that this has been damaging, not just here at Panthers, but to other people - Australian sport and most clubs have been implicated in it,'' Gould said.

''It smears the name and the brand of a lot of innocent people. That's something you don't get back in a hurry. We are bitterly disappointed..."  [Phil Gould]

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/gould-leads-panthers-in-show-of-unity-against-doping-report-20130219-2epm4.html#ixzz2LOY0Z9Tp

Gus to Gus: Welcome to the club, Phil... You are suffering from what the media has been doing to Labor for yonks... 
Some sections of the media DELIBERATELY "smear(s) the name and the brand of a lot of innocent people." AND YES "That's something you don't get back in a hurry..."  
The TURDY media people who do this, know it... BUT then MOST OF THE PEOPLE in the media ARE NOT INVOLVED in that sort of original caper, but the few who do GET THE HEADLINES... and the POWER to destroy... and the repeats from the opposition and the other dummies in the media bandwagon, including the ABC... Destroying Labor is the name of their game to promote Tony Abbott...
Cleaning up drug from sports is the other game...
You would know as much as I do, that all you need is one strong dude on high-performance drug on the day to tip the result of a game in favour of his club... Meanwhile all the other dudes on the field are on protein and carb supplements to the max... as well as painkillers...
In Labor's case, a few "rotten apple" does the job for the media, with flame fanning from the roaring opposition... Obeid for example becomes a front man for the Labor ethos, while HE IS NOT!!!.
And if there aren't enough "rotten apples" in the basket, the Libs (conservatives) will increase the sauce constantly, with a complicit  front-end media, by, say, heap loads of guilty sentiments on Craig Thomson with no proofs OR FAKE PROOFS, while he has not been proven so for seven year of any wrong-doing.
It has been CLEARLY shown that the Slipper/Ashby affair was a TOTALLY politically motivated saga, so the dung JOURNOS (and their proprietors) LOST INTEREST in the story because their poster boy, Tonicchio, did not get the result he (they) wanted. Mal Brough should be investigated, Pyne should be investigated, Tony Abbott should be investigated — all under oath.
So, here we go, Phil, sharpen you pens and pencils, and blast those idiots dedicated to sully the reputation of most by pointing the finger at a few... Kick some arses at News Limited... Kick Hadley, Jones and Bolt, in the budgies... and while you're at it, whack Miranda, Janet and Mirabella, on the head with a tight bunch of dead roses...
But you like their work, don't you... Ah.... the summit of conflicting ideologies that can turn elephants into hypocritical hyppos....

One can only assume that the Australian Labor Party as a whole was intimidated by the orchestrated right-wing hysteria of the Whitlam years and by the neoliberal campaign that culminated in accessions to power in Britain in 1979 by Margaret Thatcher and the US in 1980 by Ronald Reagan. Otherwise, why would the Party abandon its reason for existing, which was to look out for the interests of ordinary people? Labor apologists claim there was no alternative, as Margaret Thatcher famously proclaimed, but that just shows how uncritically they swallowed the neoliberal propaganda. Of course, there are always those in politics whose addiction to power overcomes any ideal or principle they might once have espoused.

Eventually, this spectacle of a Labor Party implementing laissez-faire, big-business-friendly policies was papered over by the British New Labour movement of Tony Blair, under the guise of the so-called Third Way. The Third Way was supposed to be a middle path between neoliberal excesses and Labor’s founding concern for ordinary people, but of course that simply describes the social democracy that had prevailed in the Western world since World War II. The Third Way, rather, conceded the fundamental power in society to neoliberalism, and confined itself to applying band aids to some of the wounds neoliberalism systematically inflicted in the social fabric.

Hawke and Keating between them ruled from 1983 to 1996. They implemented much of the neoliberal agenda by privatising many publicly-owned, and profitable, enterprises, deregulating business and finance, imposing a “competition policy” by decree, and diminishing the rights and power of employees. They were succeeded by the Liberal Party’s John Howard, an un-apologetic neoliberal who continued the same agenda.

Howard was not, however simply a neoliberal. He was a cunning and adroit politician who did not hesitate to do anything that would continue his hold on power. He was in fact a big-taxing, big-spendingLiberal, because he implemented the regressive Goods and Services Tax (GST), passed most of the proceeds to the states and spent the rest of his tax take to electoral advantage.

The GST was highly unpopular and Howard would almost certainly have lost the 2001 election were it not for two fortuitous circumstances that he took unprincipled advantage of. The first was a small flow by boat of asylum-seeking refugees who were being vilified by a vocal minority of reactionary xenophobes. In August 2001, Howard suddenly decided to block their access to Australian territory, implemented by his unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Norwegian vessel Tampa from delivering rescued refugees to Christmas Island.

Howard then joined and increased the vilification of legal asylum seekers. This culminated, just before the November election, in his government alleging that refugees had thrown their children overboard to force the Australian navy to rescue them. This was a whopping lie built on an early misunderstanding. The misunderstanding was quickly corrected by navy personnel, but the Government did not want to know. The election was held in the midst of the ensuing hysteria.

It became clear after the election that there had been a large conspiracy among some senior military, public service and government people to preserve the appearance that Howard did not learn the truth before the election. None of those involved in this “truth overboard” was ever brought to account. Gus Note: Peter Reith was in the thick of it.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-rise-of-the-radical-right/

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is threatening to bypass state governments and directly fund local hospitals amid a new row over health budgets.

The Commonwealth and Victorian governments have been involved in a long-running feud over $107 million that was cut from the state's allocation of health funding, resulting in bed closures and a blowout in elective surgery waiting times.

Ms Gillard says the funding adjustment was based on revised population figures, but last night she wrote to Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu to say the money would now be given directly to local hospital networks.

"That money won't pass through Premier Baillieu's hands," Ms Gillard told reporters in Adelaide.

"And what we will do to balance the books is we will cut $107 million off other sources of funding to the Victorian Government."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-21/gillard-threatens-to-bypass-states-on-health-funding/4532420?WT.svl=news0

Mr Howes told the gathering: ''I might get the odd attack for appearing once or twice too many times on television or being a bit too blunt about [former Rio Tinto chief] Tom Albanese or former prime ministers or going on shows like Lateline on that particular night and maybe that's right, but we say what we do, we have the guts to put our names to what we mean, we don't background.
''We get out on the front foot and we say it loudly and clearly.''
Mr Howes said he had a message for Labor members who were trying to undermine the cause.
''Grow a pair and put your name to what you're saying and have the fight out here publicly. Don't go slinking around the back rooms of the press gallery on a daily basis. Come out and articulate your case. Make your message. Have the discussion with the Australian people. Get out there and argue your point.''
The warning came after Mr Howes warned that unionists faced ''the fight of their lives'' to prevent the election of an ''extreme'' Tony Abbott-led government.Mr Howes launched a full-throttle attack on Mr Abbott as he reaffirmed plans to send advocates into key marginal electorates to promote the struggling Gillard government.
The move ties into a broader union movement strategy to use word of mouth in the workplace in an attempt to turn the electoral tide in the face of opinion polls pointing to a landslide Labor defeat.
As the four-day AWU conference wrapped up on Thursday, hundreds of delegates signed a pledge vowing to ''stop Tony Abbott in his tracks''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/howes-lashes-antigillard-leakers-20130221-2et33.html#ixzz2LVvKRzHZ

From the ABC

...

Look at the candidates for pre-selection in the safe Melbourne seat held until September 14 by Nicola Roxon.

As Fairfax reports:

Among the candidates are Tim Watts, a former staffer of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and now manager of Telstra's corporate affairs; acting general manager of the embattled Health Services Union Victorian No. 1 branch Kimberley Kitching; and Ms Roxon's former staffer Katie Hall.

Two former staffers and a union official. No regeneration, no self-awareness ... just an internally focussed appointment process for the next generation of political professionals.

Nice work if you can keep on getting it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-28/green-is-the-alp-really-too-big-to-fail/4598780

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What a cheap shot from the ABC via Jonathan Green.... No regeneration?... Who do you think the ALP should give the job to? Peter Costello? a Christopher Pyne twin? Mal Brough??? People who have nil experience at managing anything but are good at bake-offs? Joe the Butcher because his pork chops are nice?... Mrs Smith of accounting because she can add numbers?

The people who have been staffers have a certain inkling about the work of government... Former" "union officials" have a wealth of understanding how things work, how to run a quorum and how to manage a bunch of disparate troops who may have various views under difficult situations... 

This ABC article is a disgrace and should be removed holus bolus including all the numerous inane comments attached to it...

Nice work if you can get it? Talking about your own fucking job at the ABC, Jonathan Green...?

Tony Abbott should end his cynical ideological war on unions and instead find a way to step foreign multimillionaires pilfering taxpayers money, declares Rodney E. Lever.

TONY ABBOTT MANAGED TO ACHIEVE his long ambition to become prime minister of Australia a few months ago — partly through his good fortune of being the only senior member of the Liberal Party who could possibly be accepted by the voters and partly through a pattern of unashamed misogyny that made women all over the country squirm with fury.

Misogyny is a form of male behaviour that includes sexual discrimination, the general denigration of women, violence against women and treating women solely as objects of sexual gratification. The moment Julia Gillard was elevated to become the leader of the Labor Party, replacing Kevin Rudd, was a moment that Abbott seemed to relish and he bit like a rabid dog.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/tony-abbotts-war-on-the-union-movement,6216

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meanwhile :

"It's a scene of total carnage," he said. "We're lucky we didn't have multiple fatalities down here this afternoon.

"There would have been a lot of workers on this site, a lot of building workers who can count their lucky stars they are going home this afternoon."

Mr Kera said CFMEU inspectors visited the site in December and had raised safety concerns about the scaffolding.

NSW Fire and Rescue Superintendent Ian Krimmer said the scaffolding was in the process of being dismantled from the side of an apartment block when it collapsed.

The block itself is 14 storeys high although the scaffolding was only up to about level five when it fell, he said.

O'Riordan Street is closed in both directions between Joyce Drive and Gardeners Road because of the scaffolding and fallen wires.

Motorists are advised to use Southern Cross Drive, Botany Road and Joyce Drive instead.

A NSW Fire and Rescue spokeswoman told AAP: "They're saying all members that were on site have been accounted for."

He praised firefighters for managing to protect the structural integrity of the 20-storey crane, which could have been brought down by the blaze.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch says yesterday's significant traffic delays were regrettable but unavoidable.

"The whole basis of those road closures was in the interests of public safety, a matter upon which neither the police or Fire and Rescue NSW will compromise," he said.

Unions New South Wales is calling for a safety audit of all major building sites in Sydney following the blaze.

Spokesman Mark Lennon says there are clearly problems with construction safety in the city.

"This is the third major incident on a building site in Sydney in the last 16 months," he said.

"We're lucky that not only a worker hasn't been killed, but a member of the public hasn't been killed."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-13/crane-to-go-after-barangaroo-fire-in-sydney-cbd/5317218

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) said the incident, a clear breach of basic safety precautions, almost led to the fourth fatality on a Sydney construction site in less than a fortnight.

"It is an industry standard that electricians use special padlocks to 'lock out' switch boards and other electrical equipment, preventing power from being restored to circuits that are currently being worked on," ETU secretary Steve Butler said.

"These large padlocks include a written warning explaining that the circuit is locked out, with only the electrician that installed the lock authorised to remove it, for obvious safety reasons.

"It is extremely concerning that a Lend Lease foreman would deliberately breach this procedure by ordering a worker to cut the lock off and restore power, with no warning to electricians that this had taken place."

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-22/electrical-trades-union-calls-for-investigation-of-safety-breach/5911564

In another lifetime, this foreman would be sacked and his employers fined with a hefty penalty. Then proper procedures would be reinstated.

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bourgeois ‘justice’ …..

The following is a statement on 21 November 2014 from John Setka, Secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in Victoria, from their Facebook site CFMEU Vic.

Statement re penalties for Grocon Wall Collapse

Today Grocon was fined just $250,000 after pleading guilty to its role in the deaths of three innocent people.

When a wall on Grocon’s Swanston St development toppled on 28 March 2013, brother and sister Alexander and Bridget Jones as well as French researcher, Marie-Faith Fiawoo were crushed to death. The tragedy occurred opposite the CFMEU’s office and our officials and staff were among the first on the scene.

Our officials are all too aware of the dangers faced by construction workers every day but the deaths of Bridget, Alexander and Marie-Faith were particularly traumatic.

As one of the first on the scene CFMEU Assistant Secretary Shaun Reardon said: “The images of that day still haunt me and will remain with me forever. As a father, all I can think of is the impact that this tragedy has had on the families. This is something no parent should have to bear.”

Having spent time with Bridget and Alexander’s parents, I know they will never recover from their loss.

The tragic events are a shocking reminder of the need to fight every day to make the construction industry safe.

Today’s sentence also brings into stark contrast the approaches our governments take to industrial disputes and criminal liability for workplace fatalities.

Our industrial dispute with Grocon has always been about safety.

When we fight to protect the safety of building workers and the public, Liberal politicians call for our deregistration.

Yet when Grocon pleads guilty to its role in the deaths of three young people, the same politicians are silent. Tony Abbott embraces Daniel Grollo as a member of his Government’s Business Advisory Council.

Three young lives were lost because of the failures of Grocon to properly ensure workplace safety and the company was fined $250,000. In contrast, the CFMEU was fined $1.25 million over a dispute with Grocon about serious safety breaches.

Grocon’s guilty plea would bring more comfort to the families of the deceased if it wasn’t cheapened by comments made by Mr Grollo’s wife, who suggested this week the wall collapse was due to sabotage.

Our staff and officials will never forget that day.

Our thoughts are very much with the families of Alexander and Bridget and Marie-Faith, and all those whose lives have been scarred forever.

John Setka

CFMEU Secretary

The safety of construction sites across Sydney has been questioned after a crane on a site where a worker died was found to have breached safety standards.

Crane driver Martin Hawes, 66, died while working on a Leighton Constructions site on the Pacific Highway in North Sydney.

He suffered massive head injuries after falling down at least one ladder inside a crane shaft.

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Uunion NSW secretary Brian Parker said the union was concerned about the safety of cranes for workers on building sites across Sydney.

"There's a possibility that if you fall, you may go through the next section," Mr Parker told 702 ABC Sydney.

"We're very concerned about issues relating to cranes right across Sydney."

The union said inspection showed the crane, which belongs to a contractor, did not meet national safety standards.

"The ladder access to the crane was around 240mm in width," Mr Parker said.

"The standards say it should be no less than 300mm.

"We've also found that in the spot the fall took place, there is a possibility that he could have fallen through two sections of the crane after falling through a manhole."

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-26/union-says-crane-breached-safety-standards/5919176

See picture of another crane at top...

A worker is lucky to be alive after the roof of the Sydney Entertainment Centre collapsed on top of him.

The man was underneath the structure as it came crashing down during demolition works on Saturday morning.

The construction union says the worker survived thanks only to being shielded by the excavation machinery he was operating at the time.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union’s NSW secretary, Brian Parker, claimed worker safety on the project was coming a distant second to deadlines and profits.

Parker said if the roof had come down on a weekday, up to 65 workers could have been working underneath.

“It’s only a matter of time until we lose another construction worker in yet another avoidable workplace incident like this,” he said.

SafeWork NSW has launched an investigation into the incident.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/20/investigation-launched-after-sydney-entertainment-centre-roof-collapses-on-worker

As a well seasoned conspiracy theorist, I believe it was calculated by the god of demolition the roof would collapse on the weekend... No-one thought that someone could have been working underneath. Wink wink... Any engineer in nappies would have to know when structures are unstable, self-supporting or going down. I suspect the calculationers forgot to include a couple of tonnes extra in their flimsy estimates due to the RAIN and the sunshine. I have had trees in their prime cut in half by rain. I know trees are not like a structured roof, but the water accumulates in places and make branches "heavy". Cut a few pipes, water runs down and boom.

Or it could be simple miscalculation by the demolitioners. Something was not allowed for, obviously... The spirit of the place is fighting against the demise.

The Maritime Union of Australia says it was recently prevented from conducting a safety inspection at the construction site at Sydney's Barangaroo where a 30-year-old worker was killed yesterday afternoon.

The man was crushed to death when a large metal beam fell on top of him at the Barangaroo Ferry Hub worksite.

Emergency services were called to a barge — near one of the city's main areas of water traffic — about 4:40pm.

The man left behind a young family.

MUA spokesman Paul Keating said he attempted to inspect the site when his union was notified in November 2016 about concerns that the barge being used on the site did not comply with maritime standards.

"At the time I came down with another official to speak with the workers to have a look at the barge to assess if it was up to maritime standard and to make sure that the operation was safe," he said.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-02/barangaroo-death-union-claims-insp...

Please note that Gus is an expert on cranes and lifting heavy things — and few other stuff such as nuclear energy... and pencil drawing. Sincere condolences to the family of the young man.

See: 

Picture at top by Gus leonisky

A crane operating off a barge at Milsons Point has toppled into Sydney Harbour, with stunned witnesses reporting a loud bang, and seeing a cable fly off into nearby Luna Park.

Police are on the scene, and Safework New South Wales confirmed there were no injuries.

One witness said he "thought a bomb had gone off" while others reported seeing a cable go flying through the air and come to rest on Luna Park's iconic smiling entry face.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-29/crane-topples-into-sydney-harbour/...

I have mentioned "my days" with cranes and safe working loads, possibly in dear donald ... but this below is worth having a look at... No union labour here...:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiImD325Yuo

See image at top... 

Note: a crane cable snapping could rip your head off before you know it... Lucky no one got hurt. From the pictures, it looks that the cable had "passed its used by date"...

Police are investigating the blaze, which sparked the evacuation of several nearby office buildings and Circular Quay train station. 

Emergency services sent 16 fire crews and more than 60 fire fighters to battle the fire after reports of a building fire about 8.50am, a Fire and Rescue NSW spokeswoman said.

Read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/explosions-fire-at-construction-site-in-circul...

Don't quote me on this... I suspect that the demolition team at the site is not unionised and is "cheap labour"... This was my "impression" a couple of weeks ago when I actually took a few pictures of this building being demolished, because I felt, it was an accident waiting to happen. Trust me, I do welding and steel cutting from time to time — and I MAKE SURE THAT SPARKS ARE NOT GOING TO SEND MY (WIFE'S) LOVELY PLACE on fire... It's a given. I could be wrong, though, in regard to the old Goldfield building fire...

Read from top.

...

The two survived the incident.

But according to Judge Andrew Scotting its impact has been "life-changing". 

Mr Wilson sustained fractures to his right shoulder, right tibia, left knee, ribs, jaw and teeth — which required 30 dental visits to repair — as well as head and spinal injuries and a punctured lung.

The fall caused Mr Acero-Castellanos's spine to fracture, with spinal cord decompression. He also suffered a fractured ankle and a dislocated finger.

In his judgement, Judge Andrew Scotting told the court about Mr Acero-Castellanos's ongoing back pain and how he had suffered "humiliation and depression" following the incident.

"I will not set out the matters he stated in the victim impact statement to save him further embarrassment, but I consider those matters to be substantial and life-changing," Judge Scotting said. 

"The incident has placed his family under considerable financial strain."

The platform, which was unique to the building, was due to have a major 10-year inspection worth $2,000 — which Building Maintenance Unit Service was aware of — but it was not carried out.

Building Maintenance Unit Service was engaged by Investa Asset Management — one of Australia's largest office real estate companies — to carry out the maintenance.

An investigation into the incident found it collapsed because the right-hand bolt within the connection box fractured, causing a sudden transfer of load to the left-hand bolt, which then became twisted and also failed. 

It found the fracture was the result of extensive cracking in each of the bolts, caused by "recurring cyclical loading of the plant during operation".

"More than one worker was exposed to the risk," Judge Scotting said.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-23/window-cleaner-company-hit-with-f...

Read from top.

As a failed (un-diplomed) engineer, Gus can point out that "relying on two bolts to hold the cage" "could have been" a design fault. THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN a safety back-up device (chains — like when towing a caravan for example) or BIGGER BOLTS. In my long life, dealing with cranes, buildings, crafts and bullshit, I have used HIGH-TENSILE bolts many times, including big ones (7/8") to fit in 1" holes in steel, concrete and hardwood. 

Picture at top by Gus leonisky.

See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/27944

and

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/australias-lo...