Page 2290 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 August 2006
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Other action included strong petitions, such as the one sent to Barnaby Joyce, requesting him to cross the floor on John Howard’s WorkChoices legislation. Those petitions included a staggering 85,189 signatures. Orange Day resulted in thousands of workers wearing orange to work and the Sea of Orange resulted in thousands of small orange flags covering the lawns of Parliament House. An assortment of Your Rights at Work merchandise was produced—for example, T-shirts, hats, jumpers, lollies, stubby holders, and keyrings, all with the “Your Rights at Work-Worth Fighting For” emblem proudly printed on them.
In a unique move UnionsACT has begun Jammin’ for Justice, the largest battle of the bands style competition in history, with prizes to the value of $15,000. One of the major prizes is a recording package. The first heat is to be held on 24 August—an event that is sure to receive much public attention. In June UnionsACT and the Canberra Raiders came together to hold a community event in support of the Your Rights at Work campaign. That hugely successful day resulted in the Canberra stadium being filled with footy fans wearing orange.
Next year the entire Canberra Raiders team will have CFMEU logos on the front of their jerseys. This is the first time in Canberra’s history that a union has sponsored a local sporting team. On top of this, many trade unions have published information packs and booklets such as the Health Services Union’s Fact Pack, a seven-page booklet with the Health Services Union’s: Your Rights at Work” badge on it. The CPSU published a brochure entitled Your Questions Answered, a comprehensive troubleshooting-style document. Almost all unions are electronically publishing ongoing regular bulletins and newspapers, updating workers on a particular union’s progress and breakthroughs in the Your Rights at Work campaign.
This is just the beginning of the Your Rights at Work campaign. We can expect to see more as long as John Howard’s WorkChoices legislation continues to hurt Australians. We often fail to realise that the people most in danger are our children, those aged between 15 and 25 years, the youth of Australia and our future. These members of our community are often easy targets for employers to take advantage of due to the fact that it is their first job and often they are not informed of their rights. The ACTU and all Australia’s trade unions will endeavour to send this important message to the workers of Australia: WorkChoices will hurt Australians.
Estimates 2006-2007—Select Committee
MR SMYTH (Ginninderra) (6.14): I am pleased that Mr Gentleman is still in the chamber. Last night when I went home I read with great interest his additional comments and dissenting report to the report produced by the Select Committee on Estimates. It is fabulous. Paragraph 2.1 of Mr Gentleman’s report shows how hard he worked to address some of the unfair comments, but he still keeps making them. When he tables documents in the Assembly those documents have to be truthful.
Mr Gentleman refers in his dissenting report to discrepancies. He said that I asked questions that somehow confused or misled those who were being questioned. I asked the Chief Minister a question but he could not answer so I asked Mr Harris, the head of
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