The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of
the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, March 12, 2003.
Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia.
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Better manager of the system
The 20th anniversary of the election of the Hawke Labor Government on
March 5, 1983 has been marked by feature articles in the daily
newspapers. The most extensive coverage was carried by the Australian
Financial Review (AFR) which is not surprising. Hawke always claimed
that the Labor Party was a better manager of the system than the
Liberals. And by "the system", he meant the capitalist system.
The AFR writes, "The Hawke-Keating government unleashed a business
revolution that dramatically reshaped the Australian economy". This
"revolution" was the adoption of economic rationalist policies -
competition policy, deregulation, privatisation, "free trade", floating
the dollar, the sidelining of Awards in favour of enterprise bargaining,
superannuation, abandonment of wage indexation to name a few.
Says the AFR: "the Hawke-Keating reforms were overwhelmingly positive
for business."
Before becoming Prime Minister, Hawke was the President of the ACTU and
in that position became notorious as a "Mr Fixxit". A case in point was
the South East Queensland Electricity Board (SEQEB) strike struggle over
the introduction of individual work contracts. The Electricity workers
waged a long struggle with widespread popular and trade union support.
At a critical point, Hawke intervened and on the basis of promises the
dispute was "settled" but the workers were sold out. The airlines
dispute was another. Hawke introduced Airforce pilots and assisted the
entry of foreign pilots to scab on the Ansett pilots to defeat their
demands.
Superannuation was sold to the trade union movement as the means by
which workers could guarantee an income in their retirement. But it had
other objectives. The first was to reduce the Government's obligation to
pay old age pensions. The second was to provide investment capital for
the finance sector, where the workers' savings were put at risk, rather
than the private capital of those doing the investment.
Superannuation funds have accumulated billions of dollars out of
workers' pockets - money that should have been paid as wages. Much of it
has been invested by fund managers on the share markets and has become
an enormous source of capital investments. As an AFR article says,
"Workers weaned off pension[s], on to stocks".
But as the value of stocks has plummeted so have super funds. In the
last year $50 billion has been lopped off the value of superannuation
funds as a result of the slump in share values. In the event of a
serious economic slump some funds and every cent of the money put aside
by workers could be wiped out.
"Competition policy" was going to ensure "competition" between companies
and lower prices. The hidden agenda of competition policy was to
deregulate industry (e.g. milk and wheat marketing) and privatise the
then existing public enterprises. It was claimed that public enterprises
had an unfair advantage over private companies and that there had to be
a "level playing field". Using these arguments the Commonwealth Bank,
Qantas, government insurance offices, pubic transport, water supply,
electricity, etc, have been privatised.
Have prices been controlled or gone down? Everyone knows that this is a
cruel joke.
The agreement between the Labor Government and the ACTU known as the
Accord was a cornerstone of the Labor Party's real agenda. It was sold
by claiming that the trade union movement could achieve its claims if
they sat around the table and co-operated with the employers. Many fell
for this nonsense including some who claimed to be left-wing trade union
officials.
This unsound approach opened the door to the gutting of the award
system, the reduction of real wages, the loss of working conditions and
undermining of health and safety in the workplace. Unpaid overtime
became widespread together with massive casualisation and part-time
work. Progress made on women's wages and putting an end to
discrimination was reversed. The trade union movement was weakened in
the eyes of many workers. Trade Unions were seen to be unable and often
unwilling to defend and fight for the needs of their members. Trade
Union membership slumped from about 55 percent of the employed workforce
to the present 20-25 percent.
The Hawke-Keating Governments were a bonanza for business and a pain for
workers. But then, that is what being a better manager of the system is
all about. There is little for workers to commemorate!
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