Disunion Over The Existence Of A Higher Power

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 2, 2005

Your editorial ("The balancing of Senate power", Herald, July 1) may muse about the Senate's power and the people's will. However, I fear that it was exceptional prescience (with Australia of July 2005 in mind) that led the distinguished US journalist, Edward R. Murrow, to say: "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."

Mike Clear Penrith

Paul Keating, at least, should be able to relax a little now the "unrepresentative swill" has been taken out of the equation.

Ron Elphick Buff Point

Now that John Howard controls both houses of Parliament, is Barnaby Joyce the new opposition leader?

Brendan Jones Annandale

Tony Heathwood (Letters, July 1) is in an unseemly hurry to consign John Howard to the political scrap heap.

Would that be the scrap heap of achievement already populated by Curtin, Chifley, Menzies and Hawke? Some scrap heap!

Rosemary O'Brien Georges Hall

To quote Lord Acton: "Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end ... Liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition ... The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Could this be a warning to the Coalition in its attempt to abolish unions?

Emma Nair Parramatta

While not convinced of the merits of the Federal Government's industrial relations reform program, I strongly support the teachers' unions in organising stopwork meetings and would recommend them each morning - not necessarily in opposition to John Howard, but because they cut about 20 minutes off my drive to work.

Greg Briscoe-Hough Mortdale

I went to university and was involved in many groups, including union-sponsored groups.

But I still don't understand why we need unions in a country where we have freely elected democratic governments, let alone why they need to be forced on some groups.

Recent events involving unions have made one thing clear: unions don't do much except hinder economic growth and take fees from people who are already struggling.

Steve Morrison Croydon Park

If the economy's going as well as John Howard says, it ain't broke, is it? So why the need to fix it by making everyone less secure in their jobs?

There has scarcely been less justification - or more hypocrisy - behind a piece of legislation.

James Vicars Armidale

Your Radar cover this week (Herald, June 29) cannot go by without a challenge. "[Unions] So 1970s" made me a little sad. I urge you to follow next week with another banner: "No unions ... so 1870s." Even as an employer, I fear the proposed industrial relations changes will set workers' rights back 100 years or more.

Norelle Feehan Sydney

Those who wish for the abolition of unions would do well to read Emile Zola's powerful novel Germinal. Written in 1885, it is just as relevant today as when it was first published - there are still people who would send children down coalmines if it would increase their company's profit.

Technology changes; human nature does not.

Merryl Watkins Blaxland

I believe the union-devised marches are totally unproductive. Many of the marchers are there only because they have probably had it made clear to them that if they do not march, they will lose their jobs and be blackballed from a job in the future in any area where the unions have some control.

In Sydney about a dozen years ago, my wife's entire department had a strong disagreement with the head of management in the section of the major hospital they worked in. The union told the workers, clearly and decisively: "There aren't enough of you to matter to us, so go sort it out yourselves."

The fewer than 100 employees decided, individually, to leave the union that day. They lost their attempts to change management's mind and many resigned.

Geoff Cass Tewantin (Qld)

I have been fortunate to be able to spend more than three years working part-time while my kids were small. This enabled my wife to maintain her career without having to put our kids into long-day care and after-school care all week.

The benefits to our kids in development and happiness are obvious, as is our joy in having precious time with them while they are young.

Will this protection of parents' rights exist under John Howard and Tony Abbott's federal awards? Mr Howard and Mr Abbott are both vocal about the importance of stay-at-home parents. Let us have a clear core promise on this one.

Kevin Fell Cooks Hill

It's ironic that it rained just as the Coalition gained complete control of the Senate. Many people predicted that the sky would fall.

Raymond Miles Surry Hills

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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