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 Home News Industrial Relations
Kevin Rudd will get rid of Work Choices14 October 2007Workplace Express reported that Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has today pledged to repeal Work Choices if Labor is elected on November 24 and warned that if the Howard Government is returned the laws "would be made even worse". Speaking at his first media conference since John Howard's announcement today of the November 24 election date, Rudd said he would "abolish" Work Choices, the harshest workplace laws Australia had ever seen, which had passed into law as a result of the Government's abuse of its power in the Senate. He said that working families under the Howard Government had experienced childcare cost rises of 12% a year, mortgage interest rate rises, increasing rents and big rises in grocery and petrol prices. But the icing on the cake for working families, on top of the cost of living pressures, he said, was Work Choices, which had stripped away penalty rates, overtime and basic conditions. "So when Mr Howard says to that group of working Australians - and they are in provincial cities and towns as much as they are in the cities and suburbs - when he says to them, 'working families have never been better off', they know, as they try and balance their family budget, that that's simply not true" He said the greatest risk to Australia's future would occur if the Howard Government was re-elected and nothing changed on issues including Work Choices. Labor, he said, would get the balance right in the workplace. Rudd said the Prime Minister's promise to reduce unemployment to below 4% should be considered in the light of his interest rate promise at the same stage of the last election campaign, and the five interest rate rises since then. He said that Labor was committed to full employment He said the unemployment rate target announced by Howard was "the right goal for Australia if you have a strategy achieve it". Rudd said Howard didn't have a plan to keep interest rates low. To see the whole article, visit Workplace Express at http://www.workplaceexpress.com.au/nav?id=35027&no=327782666 |
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© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU) |
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