Making Capitalism Acceptable?
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Budget Estimates 2011-12
Senate Standing Committee on Economics ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON NOTICE Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Portfolio Budget Estimates Hearing 2011-12 30 May 2011 AGENCY/DEPARTMENT: INNOVATION, INDUSTRY, SCIENCE AND RESEARCH TOPIC: PMSEIC REFERENCE: Written Question – Senator Colbeck QUESTION No.: BI-132 Senator COLBECK: Is a list of attendees documented for each of the PMSEIC meetings? If so, could these lists be provided for each of the meetings of 23 April 2008, 9 October 2008, 5 June 2009, 18 March 2010 and 4 February 2011? Alternatively, could you please provide a full breakdown of which Departmental secretaries have attended each of these meetings respectively? ANSWER Yes, full lists of attendees are documented for each of the PMSEIC meetings. -
Front Matter
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-13804-8 - Labor’s Conflict: Big Business, Workers and the Politics of Class Tom Bramble and Rick Kuhn Frontmatter More information LABOR’S CONFLICT Big business, workers and the politics of class Once widely regarded as the workers’ greatest hope for a better world, the ALP today would rather project itself as a responsible manager of Australian capitalism. Labor’s Conflict: Big Business, Workers and the Politics of Class provides an insightful account of the transformations in the Party’s policies, performance and structures since its formation. Seasoned political analysts Tom Bramble and Rick Kuhn offer an inci- sive appraisal of the Party’s successes and failures, betrayals and electoral triumphs in terms of its competing ties with bosses and workers. The early chapters outline diverse approaches to understanding the nature of the Party and then assess the ALP’s evolution in response to major social upheavals and events, from the strikes of the 1890s, through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the post-war boom. The records of the Whitlam, Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard governments are then dissected in detail. The compelling conclusion offers alternatives to the Australian Labor Party, for those interested in progressive change. Tom Bramble is Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations in the School of Business at the University of Queensland. Rick Kuhn is Reader in Political Science in the School of Politics and Inter- national Relations at the Australian National University. © in this web -
Corporatism As a Process of Working-Class Containment and Roll-Back: the Recent Experiences of South Africa and South Korea
Corporatism as a process of working-class containment and roll-back: The recent experiences of South Africa and South Korea Tom Bramble School of Business University of Queensland Brisbane Q 4072 AUSTRALIA Email: [email protected] and Neal Ollett This paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Industrial Relations and the final version of this paper will be published in the Journal of Industrial Relations vol. 49, issue 4, September 2007 by Sage Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. © For more information please visit: www.sagepublications.com. ABSTRACT In this article we argue that recent debates in the corporatist literature about whether corporatism is best understood as a process of structured interest representation or political dialogue miss the point as to corporatism’s central task – the shift of material resources and power away from the working class to the capitalist class, in which two processes are evident – containment and roll- back. We discuss these processes in the context of successive waves of corporatism in Western Europe from the 1940s to the 1990s before moving on to an analysis of the contrasting fortunes of corporatism in South Africa and South Korea during democratic transition. We conclude that the ability of corporatism to carry out the processes of containment and roll back in these two cases have been dependent on the existence (or absence) of supportive prior political relationships between organised labour and the state. Corporatism as a process of working-class containment and roll-back: The recent experiences of South Africa and South Korea INTRODUCTION Traditional interpretations of corporatism have focused on institutionalised structures of interest representation (Molina and Rhodes, 2002). -
Resisting Howard's Industrial Relations
RESISTING HOWARD’S INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ‘REFORMS’: AN ASSESSMENT OF ACTU STRATEGY Tom Bramble ‘We are facing the fight of our lives. The trade union movement will be judged on how effectively we meet this challenge’ (AMWU National Secretary, Doug Cameron, May 2005). Howard’s planned industrial relations (IR) legislation confronts Australian unions with their worst nightmare. This is obviously the case for rank and file members who face a savage attack on their conditions, but the legislation is also terrifying for the union bureaucracy. Since Federation, Australian capitalism has operated on the basis of mediating class conflict at the workplace through arbitration and conciliation. This did not mean that class conflict was absent, or that the arbitration system was not itself a weapon in this conflict, only that at the base of any such conflict was a recognition by employers and the state of the legitimacy of the union bureaucracy in the industrial relations process. With its WorkChoices legislation, the Howard government has signalled an onslaught on this entire system and, with it, the central role of union officials in the system of structured class relationships. The purpose of this article is to provide a critical assessment of the strategy drawn up by the ACTU to resist WorkChoices. Although there are differences of emphasis within their ranks, the ACTU executive and office bearers have pursued a strategy with five main components. First, to convince employers that they are wrong to break from the system that has served them well for a century. Second, to lobby the ALP at state and federal levels. -
Terry Mccrann: Which Is It Labor … Are We in Recession Or Can We Afford Higher Power Prices? Terry Mccrann, Herald Sun, March 11, 2019 8:00Pm Subscriber Only
Terry McCrann: Which is it Labor … are we in recession or can we afford higher power prices? Terry McCrann, Herald Sun, March 11, 2019 8:00pm Subscriber only Labor’s top duo Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen want to have it both ways. On the one hand, they say the economy is in deep trouble — indeed, that it has actually already slid into recession, according to Bowen, in “per capita” (per person) terms. MORE MCCRANN: WHY BOWEN’S RECESSION CALL IS RUBBISH JAMES CAMPBELL: SCOMO IS ROLLING THE DICE ON BOATS Yet on the other, that households — and even more, small and medium-sized businesses — who are already paying cripplingly high gas and electricity prices, are actually in such great financial shape that they can happily pay higher and higher prices yet. And further, that an incoming Labor government can hit investors with over $200 billion of new taxes and the economy will just keep riding smoothly on. Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen says Australia is already in a “per capita” recession. At least they can’t be accused of hiding any of this. The disastrous economic managers they promise to be — especially Bowen who is on the record as thinking Wayne Swan was one of Australia’s greatest treasurers — is ‘hiding’ not just in plain sight, but in right-in-your face sight. The so-called “per capita recession” that Bowen came out with last week was just rubbish. Yes, the economy slowed in the second half of last year. In the first half, GDP — the measure of Australia’s economic output — was growing at close to a 4 per cent annual rate. -
Trends in Australian Political Opinion Results from the Australian Election Study 1987– 2019
Trends in Australian Political Opinion Results from the Australian Election Study 1987– 2019 Sarah Cameron & Ian McAllister School of Politics & International Relations ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences australianelectionstudy.org Trends in Australian Political Opinion Results from the Australian Election Study 1987– 2019 Sarah Cameron Ian McAllister December, 2019 Sarah Cameron School of Social and Political Sciences The University of Sydney E [email protected] Ian McAllister School of Politics and International Relations The Australian National University E [email protected] Contents Introduction 5 The election campaign 7 Voting and partisanship 17 Election issues 31 The economy 51 Politics and political parties 71 The left-right dimension 81 The political leaders 85 Democracy and institutions 97 Trade unions, business and wealth 107 Social issues 115 Defence and foreign affairs 129 References 143 Appendix: Methodology 147 Introduction The Liberal-National Coalition The results also highlight how In 2019 two further surveys are win in the 2019 Australian federal voter attitudes contributed available to complement the election came as a surprise to the to the election result. Factors AES. The first is Module 5 of the nation. The media and the polls advantaging the Coalition in the Comparative Study of Electoral australianelectionstudy.org had provided a consistent narrative 2019 election include: the focus Systems project (www.cses. in the lead up to election day that on economic issues (p. 32), an org). This survey used the Social > Access complete data files and Labor was headed for victory. area in which the Coalition has Research Centre’s ‘Life in Australia’ documentation to conduct your When we have unexpected election a strong advantage over Labor panel and was fielded just after the own analysis results, how do we make sense of (p. -
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY and the "FAILURE" of the ACCORD Tom
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND THE "FAILURE" OF THE ACCORD Tom Bramble School of Business University of Queensland Brisbane Q 4072 AUSTRALIA [email protected] Published in K. Wilson, J. Bradford, and M. Fitzpatrick (eds) (2000): Australia in Accord: An Evaluation of the Prices and Incomes Accord in the Hawke-Keating Years, South Pacific Publishing, Melbourne, pp.243-64. 2 SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND THE "FAILURE" OF THE ACCORD1 INTRODUCTION Most sections of the industrial relations academic community (broadly defined) started with favourable impressions of the ALP-ACTU Prices and Incomes Accord. Amongst its keenest and most articulate supporters were academics and unionists writing from an explicitly social democratic perspective. Frequently drawing on the German and Scandinavian experiences, writers such as Hughes (1981), Hartnett (1981), Higgins (1978, 1980, 1985), Stilwell (1982), Burford (1983), Ogden (1984), Mathews (1986), and Clegg et al (1986) argued that the Accord would enable the union movement to break out of its labourist straitjacket to encompass broader political concerns and to develop a social role well beyond the ranks of organised labour.2 Similarly it was the left unions such as the Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU) and Metal Workers Union (AMWU) who were most successful in developing an ideological underpinning for the Accord within the labour movement and who were most influential in winning support for it amongst workers who had the capacity to render it impotent. Opponents of the Accord at the time were almost entirely limited to Left organisations outside the Labor and Communist Parties (below) and a minority of right-wing commentators (for example Terry McCrann in The Age), the former on the basis that it represented an attack on wages and workers' rights under the rubric of social justice, the latter that it did not attack unions hard enough. -
Labor's Debt Timebomb
Labor’s debt timebomb A BANK is very happy to lend you money when you don't need it. It's only when you get into trouble that the bank makes it hard to get a loan. Before 2008 there was no limit on the amount the federal government could borrow. There was no need. The government wasn't borrowing. It was in the business of repaying its debts. It was the government of Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan that introduced the debt limit, initially $75 billion. They explained that they did not want to spend all this money, that it was just to help financial traders who wanted to be able to trade more Commonwealth bonds. When he moved the legislation in the House of Representatives, the ever-so-serious Chris Bowen (then the assistant treasurer and now the shadow treasurer) assured the public: "The government's commitment to strong fiscal discipline means that there is no need to issue debt securities to finance spending." Back then no one could imagine the government would actually spend a loan of $75 billion. Until it did. So in 2009, Labor increased the debt ceiling to $200 billion - just to be sure it could borrow enough money to cover all its spending proposals. It spent its way up to that. So in 2011 it raised the limit to $250 billion. Last year it was increased further to $300 billion and pretty soon - possibly in a few days - the government will spend its way up to that limit as well. So the argument is whether the debt ceiling should go to $400 billion as Bowen says, or $500 billion as Hockey says, or to no limit as the Greens say. -
The Rudd Government Australian Commonwealth Administration 2007–2010
The Rudd Government Australian Commonwealth Administration 2007–2010 The Rudd Government Australian Commonwealth Administration 2007–2010 Edited by Chris Aulich and Mark Evans Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/rudd_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: The Rudd government : Australian Commonwealth administration 2007 - 2010 / edited by Chris Aulich and Mark Evans. ISBN: 9781921862069 (pbk.) 9781921862076 (eBook) Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Rudd, Kevin, 1957---Political and social views. Australian Labor Party. Public administration--Australia. Australia--Politics and government--2001- Other Authors/Contributors: Aulich, Chris, 1947- Evans, Mark Dr. Dewey Number: 324.29407 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by ANU E Press Illustrations by David Pope, The Canberra Times Printed by Griffin Press Funding for this monograph series has been provided by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Program. This edition © 2010 ANU E Press Contents Acknowledgments . vii Contributors . ix Part I. Introduction 1 . It was the best of times; it was the worst of times . 3 Chris Aulich 2 . Issues and agendas for the term . 17 John Wanna Part II. The Institutions of Government 3 . The Australian Public Service: new agendas and reform . 35 John Halligan 4 . Continuity and change in the outer public sector . -
Ebook Download the Stalking of Julia Gillard: How the Media and Team
THE STALKING OF JULIA GILLARD: HOW THE MEDIA AND TEAM RUDD BROUGHT DOWN THE PRIME MINISTER PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Kerry-Anne Walsh | 320 pages | 15 Feb 2014 | Allen & Unwin | 9781742379227 | English | Sydney, Australia The Stalking of Julia Gillard: How the Media and Team Rudd Brought Down the Prime Minister PDF Book July 11, at pm. It reminds one that journalists have often been compared to used car salesmen, the sale is the important thing not the truth. On this point Walsh remarks: One wonders if their bile and venom would be directed at a man; the disrespect they show Gillard and the office of prime minister is unprecedented. Disastrous because the book is just as quickly out of date as soon as it arrives on shelves. I've also heard good things about "Downfall". Does Walshe hold out her book as the definitive work or did she make and break a pact with MH that she would write a book to suit his wants on this? And the Daily Telegraph and The Age have never been the bastions of truth - ummm der! Given the negotiation that would have had to happen to get any legislation passed, this can only be seen as successful and a testament to their ability to negotiate with independents and other members of parliament. Leaks, rumours, polls and deniability: Kerry-Anne Walsh paints an ugly picture of Kevin Rudds road back to the prime ministership. It is about a politician who was never given a fair go; not in the media, not by Rudd, not by some in caucus. -
Workers and Unions Under the Employment Contracts Act
Gay and MacLean: Six Years Hard Labor: Workers and Unions under the Employment Con SIx YEARS HARD LABOR: WORKERS AND UNIONS UNDER THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS ACT MAXINE GAY* MALCOLM MACLEAN** The passage of the Employment Contracts Act (ECA) in 1991 indicated that the neo-liberal assault on the welfarist consensus that dominated New Zealand's parliamentary politics since 1943 was moving into its final stage. Claims of the success of the ECA from government and business circles have been quite staggering. The ECA, they claim, has been responsible for lowering unemployment, promoting growth, reducing employer costs, re- ducing wage inflation, and reducing strikes. A modem day miracle! The ef- fect of the ECA on New Zealand workers and their organizations has not re- ceived anything close to the same attention. The workers' story is about increasing casualization, the destruction of collective bargaining, lowering of real wages, and massive deunionization. That story is also about the dif- ferent responses of organized labor to the monetarist assault. This Paper has two parts. The first describes the trade union landscape immediately prior to and following the passage of the ECA. It also describes the formation and response of the New Zealand Trade Union Federation (TUF) to the post-ECA industrial world. The second part is derived from a recent speech of Maxine Gay to a seminar on the role and usefulness of the New Zealand Employment Court. This form of presentation gives readers both a background to the formation of the TUF and a feel of the culture, passion, and at times irreverence of the organization and its new President. -
Kevin Rudd: a Professional Profile 59 the Queensland Office of the Cabinet 61 the Council of Australian Governments 69 Conclusion 77
The Entrepreneurial Bureaucrat A Study of Policy Entrepreneurship in the Formation of a National Strategy to Create an Asia-Literate Australia Christopher fames Mackenzie Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by research in Victoria University of Technology August 2001 .. 11 Contents .. Contents 11 . Declarations V1 .. Acknowledgements V11 Abstract Vlll . Abbreviations lX Introduction Policy Entrepreneurship and the NALSAS Strategy 1 Context of the Study 5 Microeconomic, Public Sector and Intergovernmental Reform in Australia 5 Engagement with Asia and the Significance of Asian Studies 8 Significance of the Study 10 Research Methodology 12 The Case Study 12 Interview Data and Documentary Evidence 13 Data Analysis 19 Summary of Methodology 21 Preview of the Organisation of the Study 21 Chapter One: Entrepreneurship in Policy Making: Theoretical Perspectives Introduction 24 Policy Entrepreneurs 27 Placing the Entrepreneur in a Theoretical Framework 32 Theories of Policy Entrepreneurship 39 Conclusion 52 Chapter Two: The Entrepreneur: Location and Context Introduction 57 111 Kevin Rudd: A Professional Profile 59 The Queensland Office of the Cabinet 61 The Council of Australian Governments 69 Conclusion 77 Chapter Three: The Development of Asian Studies in Australian Schools Introduction 78 Making Education Policy in Australia 79 The Teaching of Asian Languages in Australia 81 The Auchmuty Report 83 The Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) 86 The National Policy on Languages 91 The Asian