Another IR rally happened today. A simply stupidly large number of people flooded the streets of Melbourne. I saw my neighbour, and what might have been an ex, not sure, so many faces, so many ex's. Lot's of standing, waiting for the crowd to move, and then walking a little bit, before more waiting.

Now, protests do nothing, as they stand. They serve as a voice of the people - no one is forced to go, in fact it takes a very large sense of outrage to get any decent number going. Everyone at the rally, whether 80 thousand or 150, is risking their job, risks upsetting management, takes the time and effort to travel to the city, takes their child from their education, risks standing in the ever-present threat of rain of Melbourne, or simply takes time from their day that could be spent doing shopping, banking, whatever - I'd say a protest of 10 thousand would be about the maximum extent of any waxed-on rallyaholics. Anything over that, is normal people - and getting them out onto the claustrophobic packed streets means a great deal.

Rallys suck. They are a massive bumper-to-bumper cluster of people, with flags and banners constantly wavering in danger of eye-plucking, you know you are pissing of commuters and those poor suckers trying to make commission in retail inside the shops that are for all intents and purposes closed for the time the rally goes past, and ultimately, they are not pleasant experiences. Personally, I hate them. But, the history books are written, and attendances are noted - albeit stab in the dark guestimations. Kudos to those who attended.

There were fewer people, but a suprising number considering we've already had two whoppers.

The thing that ticked me off was the the speakers - Kim Beazley and Steve Bracks. I'm getting a little tired of Labor rhetoric. Howard's claims that Labor is being controlled by unions is bollocks, but the reverse is true.

Beazley got up on the podium flatbed, and gave his usual polished script. Now, last time I cringed at his use of words when he proposed what he would do when he won, that he would "rip up this legislation".

I thought "rip up" was a little vague, it gives the suggestion that the laws will be reverted back to pre-WorkChoices clauses in entirety. What words did he use this time?

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley was introduced to the rally as "the next prime minister" and received the biggest cheer of the day when he promised to "rip up these laws" and put in place laws based on true Australian values.

Mid-blog poignant advertising:
Last Xmas, one of the books I received was from the delightful Don Watson, former Paul Keating speech writer, titled: "Weasel Words."

I'm going to state it for the record: Kim Beazley is not going to, nor does he have any intention to, revert workplace legislation to how they were pre-WorkChoices.

It will get modified, twisted, mangled, there will be cries of "it's too difficult", "too complicated" to change it back etc, etc. We will be better off, but we would still have been better off under Howard, pre-WorkChoices. The laws will be "ripped up" - so to speak, the document will get a ceremonial shredding in some form, but I'd estimate that the majority of changes will remain.

"Rip up" is a great example of a weasel word. It gives an almost unanimous impression of total removal/destruction, and yet allows a minor adjustment to be still considered an acceptable interpretation, and not deceitful at all.

Another comment, I believe from Brian Boyd, also ticked me off. Paraphrasing: "and who is supporting James Hardie? JOHN HOWARD!!", and boo goes the crowd. Not mentioned was Labor's NSW Premier Morris Iemma's support.

And then Brack's jumped on the bandwagon as well.

Now, Brack has done some good things in his time as premier - actually, I can only think of one - but standing up for workers is just not one of them. His presence was not welcomed by firefighters especially on the day, for numerous reasons.

Bracks: "We are under the biggest threat we have had for 100 years here in Australia — and we've seen it before. Friends, do you remember 6½ years ago, under the previous (Kennett) government here in Victoria, they stripped away your employment rights? That's exactly what's happening now. We stood up then, we're standing up now."

Yes, Kennett did savage workers. Our state award was removed, public holidays removed, sacked fifty thousand public servants, workers compensation rights, all attacked.

Then Bracks came in, and, as he claims "we stood up then". The state award was... nothing done there. The public holidays? No change. Public servants rehired? No, too expensive, complicated. Workers compensation? Well, we sorta.. OMG look out behind you, WorkChoices legislation is about to maul you!

There's many articles critical of Bracks' worker-friendliness, my favorite is probably this (from the previous secretary of Victorian Trades Hall Council, Leigh Hubbard - now replaced with Brian Boyd):

Why won't Bracks help the workers?

What has the Bracks Labor Government done for workers in its five years in power? While the Government has some runs on the board, unions are becoming impatient that it has no clear agenda for its labour constituency.

Media commentators and opponents of the ALP make loud noises about the Government's "union mates", but as the recent state budget and economic statement show, it's Victoria's business community that is having a love-in with the Bracks Government. It's easy to see why.

Other goodies are "So now, what about the workers?", and "Bracks, the friend of business".

OK, benefit of the doubt, maybe he has a hostile upper house or something - poor guy probably couldn't get anything through. Oh, they control both houses...

OK, I got it - he's simply a member of the Labor Right - it's just unfortunate that he's not a leftie at all, it's a leftie party, but he's just a right-wing member of it... explains the anti-worker policies.

The Labor Right, how Orwellian. Morris Iemma is Labor Right, so is Peter Beattie. So the top 3 states premiers all righties. Also Labor Right is opposition leader Beazley, 38 of the 87 Federal Labor MP's, the majority of shadow ministers, Paul Keating, Labor Right is the dominant controlling faction, and is shifting ever further to the right.

Frankly, Kim, Steve, fuck off from workers rights campaigns.