Australian Political Landscape

cutting fuel tax is economically irresponsible

2008-06-18T06:12:00.002+10:00

Just my thoughts on the Liberal party proposing a reduction in the fuel tax by 5c per litre. (I know I am behind with this but better late than never in commenting)

The Liberal party was always against this policy when it was in power always claiming that it would be economically irresponsible. Now that they are in opposition they seem to be able to make so called promises knowing full well they dont have to committ to them.

My reasons why I believe reducing the fuel tax is not good.

1) The extra money given to people from this will only be spent on other necessecities which could have a negative impact on inflation, thus helping to increase interest rates.

2) It would put a huge dint in the surplus of the government which will result in further cuts needed to be made in the budget just to sustain it.

3) It is actually a very minimal amount in the pocket of consumers. On an average 60 litres of petrol this will only result in $3.00 being in the pocket of consumers.

4) Whats to say that petrol companies wont just raise prices anyway to swallow up the difference?

Fuelwatch could be unconstitutional

2008-06-10T00:53:00.004+10:00

It seems that the Liberal Party has tried to get free legal advice from Malcom Turnbull's father in law, Tom Hughes QC, that the Fuelwatch legislation might be unconstitutional.

This has been reported by Glenn Milne in The Australian. Glenn Milne however has generalised and broadened the legal advice to make a broader statement about "independent retailers"

I quote Glenn's article

In other words, Hughes does not believe the Government has the power to force independent petrol retailers to participate in FuelWatch. That spells big political trouble.

Glenn does not go into further detail in describing what he believes an "independent retailer" to be. Three questions immediately spring to mind.

1) What is Glenn's definition of Independent Retailer?

2) How many of these independent retailers are in fact set up as partnerships or sole traders? Most would be set up as a company to limit the liabilities of the owners anyway.

3) How many of these independent retailers actually exist across the country that are not branded as a big petrol band? Even the most smallest town would have a "Shell" or BP sign at the front thus most probably making them fall under the definition of a sales agent.

Tom Hughes advice was very specific to business's that are not constitutional corporations, not "independent retailers of petrol".

Why can't journalists stop generalising legal advice to suit their commentary and purpose?

Melton Council to consider Webcasting of Council Chambers

2008-06-10T00:04:00.005+10:00

Melton Council is considering a proposal to web cast proceedings of chambers at council meetings on the Internet.

Personally I think this is a great idea. Federal Parliament Question time is televised and all discussion in Parliament is in Hansard as well. State Governments also have a Hansard (I think) of everything that happens in the State Governments.

Would be good to have a permanent record of everything that happens at councils. Some local councillors would be concerned about this permanent record however.

The potential candidates list for the Kororoit by-election for example could be completely different if there was a permanent record of the many councillors that have aspirations for further political careers.

Imagine being able to bring up on the internet everything that has been said by both Natalie Suleyman and Marlene Kairouz in there council meetings to assist people in choosing a candidate and ultimately a member for the seat of Kororoit. Personally I think this would be interesting viewing.

Anything to make councillors in all local councils more accountable and transparent must be a good thing if you ask me.

Opposition Climate Change spokesman burns heaps of carbon to make a point

2008-06-09T23:46:00.004+10:00

Greg Hunt, opposition spokesman on Climate Change, jumped out of a plane skydiving to make a point.

Does anyone see the hypocrisy with the opposition Climate Change spokesman unnecessarily jumping on a plane and in the process burning heaps of carbon to make a point about solar panels?

I wonder if he actually bought carbon credits to offset the plane ride that was not necessary to achieve his job? I also wonder if this stunt will show up somehow as a taxpayer funded expense or whether it has come out of his own pocket?

Hope out tax payer dollars aren't paying for our members of parliament to go skydiving. I would also assume that a climate change spokesman would not make unnecessary plane travel.

Typical liberal hypocrisy at its best.

Why the constant links to Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden in Australia?

2008-06-09T23:24:00.004+10:00

First John Howard stated a few months back that a win for Obama will be a win for Al Qaeda.
Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop won't distance themselves from this.

Now the Sydney Morning Herald (thanks Larvatus Prodeo for the scan) has called Obama Osama in its headlines. Sydney Morning Herald cant seriously argue that its just a typo can they?

S is located on the second row (2nd from left) of letters on a qwerty keyboard, b is located on the bottom of the three rows of letters (5th from left). If they were located right below each other can understand a typo but touch typing has you usually using your other hand to type the letter b.

The Liberals are still trying to justify the Iraq war. Dr Nelson by not distancing himself from John Howard (AC if you dont mind) they are in fact endorsing John McCain without saying it directly. Only reason for this is to help out Johnny's (AC) best buddy's party.

Johnny (AC) cant help but put his two bob in, even in retirement, on the disbelief that Australia has withdrawn combat troops from Iraq. He can easily say these comments while posing with a Bentleigh in Yorkshire far away from the troops who are glad to be back home with there families.

Is the SMH still supporting Johnny and the Libs with the "typo" in the headline on Obama?

All the leaders that made the decision to invade are out of politics (the last only has a few months remaining). Hopefully Obama will bring in the change in the USA as well.

Anyone notice a common theme ? Fresh Thinking and Change?

ALP Candidate decided for Kororoit

2008-06-05T20:20:00.005+10:00

UPDATE: I HAVE LEFT THIS POST ON HERE FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES ONLY NOW. IT IS NOW UNSURE WHO THE CANDIDATE WILL BE DUE TO NATIONAL EXECUTIVE OVERRIDING THE STATE EXECUTIVE.

MORE TO COME ON WHETHER MARLENE IS SUCCESSFULL AFTER THE LOCAL MEMBERS VOTE

Marlene Kairouz, former Mayor of Darebin and strongly supported by the SDA Union has been declared the candidate for the State seat of Kororoit. The administrative committee of the Victorian ALP has met tonight and chosen to refer to the national executive to have her declared the candidate without a local vote.

Apparently local factions were unable to agree between themselves on a quality candidate.

Further comment: My previous posts have suggested that it would be ideal to have a local person declared the candidate. However the infighting currently occurring within certain groups of the western suburbs ALP needs to stop, so this could be the start of the long overdue change needed.

It is suggested that some will appeal the decision for their own political gain.
Certain people should think they were not selected as a candidate because despite having "numbers" and supporters they seem to have forgotten about the many others they have gotten offside.
It seems that National Executive approval is merely a formality. Why not accept the decision and support the decisions of their executive? They MIGHT slowly start to regain some respect that they have worked so hard to lose over the years. Some might argue that these potential candidates never gained respect in the first place.
Hopefully they might look at themselves before starting to blame others and get behind their party in a unified matter. If they dont it will just prove the concerns of their dejectors.

Is Hillary Clintons office going to look like Johnny's soon?

2008-06-05T01:55:00.005+10:00

This photo is taken from larvatus prodeo who took it from someone else!

Is Hillary's office going to look like Johnny's soon? A picture tells a thousand words.

Just one thought came to mind about the US Democratic Nomination Campaign.

Is Hillary Clinton similar to John Howard in not knowing when the time is right to call it quits?

Like good old Johnny did, despite all the writing on the wall and the actual sealing of the candidature for Barack O'Bama who will most probably become the first African American President, Hillary still has not called it quits.

Is this showing desperation on her part, or is it just a case of denial?
Maybe she needs to visit some episodes of the West Wing when the candidates were fighting for pre-selection. For the sake of your political party stop trying to keep attracting the publicity and let O'Bama get on with the job of attacking The Republicans.

Kororoit By Election update

2008-06-05T00:10:00.005+10:00

The Liberal Party has decided to actually contest one of the safest labor seats in Victoria. Will be interesting whom they chose knowing full well they will not win the seat.

This is the first test for the Victorian ALP since John Brumby took over as leader.

Regarding the ALP Preselection numerous press reports have Natalie Sulleyman as a firm favourite to becoming the candidate for the seat.

However there are obviously a larger number of people that are interested in the seat at the moment. These include former upper house MP Sang Nguyen .

The SDA Union is also throwing their support behind Darebin councillor and former mayor Marlene Kairouz.

Surprisingly another former Mayor in Justin Mammarrella (This time from Melton Shire Council) could be considering a move according to The Other Cheek .

Obviously some other names are being thrown out especially with the good old fashioned policy of being promised things for doing something or other in the past by people that probably know they cannot deliver on their promises.

Rather quiet in the newspapers but surely very active behind the scenes is George Seitz whom is believed to have a rather large block of votes and influence in the area. Either way the next week should give some insight into who the powerbrokers of the west are.

No matter who the candidate is hopefully a LOCAL is chosen that lives somewhere in the electorate that covers a number of different suburbs and spans two different councils. Or will the executive try to parachute in a foreigner whom will have everyone in the west offside from the beginning?

What concerns me is all the talk seems to be about who is aligned with whom and typical factional alliances. Not one mention is being made into the actual depth and qualifications (if any) of the prospective candidates.

Are these candidates the best the ALP has to offer in the seat of Kororoit ?
Andre Haermeyer mentioned to the media wanting to give "new blood" a chance in the area as to one of the reasons in resigning.
Are people that have been working with and heavily influenced in their thinking and actions by the old guard in the west really "new blood" or just the same old mentality with a younger face?

Only time will tell.
Once the candidates are chosen expect to see John Brumby and Ted Baillieu making numerous visits to the electorate. In the end the candidates will just be a sideshow to the John V Ted Show that is about to hit the electorate of Kororoit

Finally a comment about Fuelwatch

2008-06-03T23:10:00.000+10:00

I have been wanting to steer clear of this debate as I think the press it is receiving is absolutely unbelievable.

The Coalition is now claiming that Fuelwatch might be breaching the constitution.

I quote from the article

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne says the Opposition has different advice and there is a big hole in the Government's plan.
"Basically the Commonwealth doesn't have control over prices, they have no constitutional basis to control prices and FuelWatch seeks to control prices for 24 hours," he said

Firstly Christopher Pyne should realise that it is against the spirit of the ACCC and in fact against the Trade Practices Act for anyone to control prices. When has the government ever said that Fuelwatch will control prices?

Since when does wanting to give consumers transparency and the ability to make better choices in purchasing equate to trying to control prices?

Liberal's as usual want to support big business over the rights of consumers.

Regarding the constitutional issue it is funny how the liberals are now using the can of worm's they opened up with Workchoices and its implications on the constiution. They were happy to take over jurisdiction to a federal level when it suited them but now are opposed to the ALP using the same powers?

John Howard reported to International Criminal Court

2008-06-03T23:01:00.000+10:00

As originally noted on Not A Hedgehog article entitled The Price of Victory

It seems a group of legal think tanks led by John Valder AO has sent a 55 page page brief that builds a case of John Howard having committed war crimes has been sent to The Hague's International Criminal Court's (ICC) Chief Prosecutor on 30 May 2008.

John Valder is a former Liberal Party National President.

More informaiton is available here on ICCAction.com. Reading further down the page it seems that the former PM Howard was given legal advice that invading Iraq would breach international war crime laws.

Dont think anything will come of this but still an eye opening read. If anyone actually gets round to reading the 55 page document would love to hear there thoughts.

latest polls and how they should not be read

2008-06-03T22:11:00.000+10:00

It seems that a number of blogs and newspapers are discussing latest polls and as usual they are looking at the personal ratings of the two leaders.

Only six months into the new government and everyone cares about the polls already?

Dr Nelson is at 17%. So what I say? More than likely he wont be in the position come the time of the next election. Lets not forget an important fact here 83% of people still dissaprove of him!

Kevin Rudd's personal rating has dropped to 66%. Right wing liberals are apparently all over this in their writings. Personally, I believe that if Rudd's rating did NOT drop I would be worried. A Prime Minsiter and government party in the early days of progressive change is bound to upset some people along the lines. So a drop in poll numbers is a good thing. Can be a sign that they are actually doing something apart from worrying about polls.

Rudd and team, forget about the polls, forget about trying to please everyone and get on with doing the job (as a whole team) that you were elected to do. Put that legacy into place that you were all dreaming about when in opposition.

The only polls the two parties should be looking at the moment (but just in passing) is the two party prefferred which has stayed steady.

Just one point in follow up to the point I made about forgetting to try to please everyone, whatever you do, DO NOT bring back the arrogance that was the former liberal government.

UPDATE: Blogocracy seems to agree that this poll is no biggie. It also has a link to the actual data if anyone is interested

Australia 2020 summit final report now out

2008-06-03T21:57:00.000+10:00

The 2020 summit final report has now been released.

The index to the report is now available.

You can also access a direct link to the pdf file of the final report . Caution that the PDF file link here is 5MB long and may take a while to download. Comes to a whopping 400 plus pages.

Stay tuned for some thoughts on the final 2020 summit report. Might take away to sift through it all so I will just be blogging on individual issues as I go through them on a sporadic basis.

Also should be updating on the upcoming preselection battle for Kororoit. However if your going to look for rumor and innuendo on this issue go to other dirt file blogs that you might know about because you wont get it from me.

Andre Haermeyer resigns from Victorian State Politics

2008-06-03T00:24:00.000+10:00

Andre Haermeyer the Victorian State member for Korroroit has retired after 16 years in Parliament as reported in The Age.

No matter what anyone says about politicians on both sides it is a really hard decision to decide to leave a job that you have been doing for such a long period stepping into the unknown. Offering yourself to public service can sometimes have more negatives than positives. Andre should be proud of his accomplishments over the years despite the negativity he has received in recent times.

Andre, like his former mentor Robert Ray and Steve Bracks whom Andre helped elevate to the Labor leadership , has been able to choose the timing of his departure rather than being forced out in the future.
He has also been credited with reconstructing a depleted police force in Victoria after the former liberal leader Jeff Kennett ripped it to shreds.

Current news reports have Natalie Sulleyman, former Brimbank Mayor as a front runner although The Age and one blog in particular (I do not want to give this blog any credit however as it is nothing but a rumor dirt file) believe that it will not be such a clear cut pre selection campaign based on numbers that could be controlled by George Seitz.
Should make for an interesting few weeks in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.

I hope that Andre enjoys more quality time with his family and friends before venturing into something new. It will be a well deserved break.

NSW Young Liberals blaming left wing thinking for poor uni results

2008-06-02T01:32:00.000+10:00

According to Leon Bertrand the Young Liberals are crying foul about left wing bias which are causing them to get bad results at university.

Leon in his article supports this with some apparent examples of left wing bias that he received whilst he was studying at Griffith University's law school. He believes that his beliefs were the reason he got poor marks in subjects. He does not entertain the fact that maybe he just did not compose or write a good legal argument.

One example he uses is in 2006 with regard to family law and being criticized for using a biased journalist as a reference in his argument for joint custody. He thinks it is because of the lecturers left wing bias. He fails to mention in the story that legal arguments need to have precedent from common law cases or if you are going to reference outside of case law or legislation it should really come from peer reviewed journal articles.

Maybe Leon Bertrand should stop blaming others for being too lazy to read through case law to try to find some judgements to support his case. Using a newspaper article in a legal argument is just lazy!

Im back again.

2008-06-02T00:48:00.000+10:00

Hmmm. Dont think anyone will be reading as I cannot get into a regular pattern with this thing.

Hope to start blogging again soon!

Just want to say that started reading some blogs again and they are infuriating me enough to the point that I am going to start typing again!

is this the start to the end of the liberal party in australia?

2007-12-09T22:33:00.000+11:00

It seems the libs have been living on borrowed times for at least the last year.

All of those that were wanting to run our country only a few months ago are retreating in droves to spend the next few years planning there life after politics.

The state liberal parties are starting to crack at the seams as well. Forgot which state but pick a box leader shows no sign of any of them having faith in one another.

John Howard stated during the campaign that the country will change if you change government. Talk about stating the obvious and Australians were ready to change the direction. The out of touch former government just couldnt quite work it out.

finally back online - start of new govt finally

2007-12-04T01:11:00.000+11:00

Okay finally starting this thing back up.

The first ever time i got a virus on my home computer was in the lead up weeks to the election. Do I maybe sense a liberal party hack out there that wasnt liking what i was saying?

Due to no home pc and definitely absolutely no chance of being able to make comments from a work computer I was left silent in the final two weeks.

Never mind, the end result was the result needed.

Anyway going to try to get active on this thing addictive blog thing.

Would improved broadband have saved Tony Abbott?

2007-11-02T00:38:00.000+11:00

Just imagine if our broadband was for more high speed than it currently is the Prime Minister and Health Minister could have done a great joint press conference in different states.

High speed broadband would allow hospitals to have more effective cross communication methods to share information and conference on issues. Surely that could of been used to jointly release a press conference.

In this day and age why do people have to be at the same place to do a joint press conference? Sure would of made sure Tony Abbott was not late for his appointment with the National Press Club. I would of thought an ex journalist would have made a higher importance to this debate rather than a publicity stunt.

Also I would of thought the Health debate would of been the ideal place to issue a policy release.

comment on the debates (all of them)

2007-11-02T00:23:00.000+11:00

Good to see there is debates of all the major portfolios.

Prime Minister debate

The worm stole the show and made us all forget about the debate. Kevin won the round in my opinion. Its a shame that there wont be a round two.

Maybe the Kevin07 team should follow the prime minister and make an impromptu debate on the campaign trail by just showing up at the same place and ask the Prime Minister questions like a journalist would.

Also as we are being asked to accept a two leader concept with a transition most of the way through term I sure would love to see a Costello / Rudd debate.

Treasurers Debate

Pretty even contest with monotonous debate from both sides. I wish someone would have asked what transition arrangements are in place for when Costello becomes Prime Minister. Surely we all have a right to know who would be running the treasury next?

Health Debate

Is the way Tony Abbott's day was planned a sign of the way planning occurs for this country? A favourite saying that I heard recently from a friend (told by his 13 year old son to him) is advice Tony should of taken. It is:

If you arrive on time your running late but if you arrive early you are running on time.

Anyway once again policy was thrown out the window because of the behavior of the health minister.

Ideal debate

Leaders of all the major parties include the minor parties discussing questions and issues. No prior announcement to participant on topics. To be chaired by the Chaser team!

a long day for Tony Abbott

2007-11-02T00:12:00.000+11:00

First can I just say that the idea of starting a blog during the middle of exam preparation is a not a good idea!

Come to think of it having the election announced just before uni exams could be a way of ensuring students dont get too involved in the campaign for the first month or so!

Anyway in case you have been hiding under a rock Tony Abbott had his day of hell the other day. Cant believe our society allows the Health Minister to insult a dying a man and then have the Prime Minister say lets just forget about it. Morals and respect seem to have been thrown out the window! What can I say its hard to change habits. However the coalition is trying to say lets all forget about the past because the government suddenly cares. Tony Abbott has just proven that government arrogance will not go away.

Regarding the swearing bit all I can say is they should not forget they are in a room miked up everywhere. How can he not think he would be heard!

Anyway Tony Abbott has just shown that he hasnt got the empathy levels needed to be the Health Minister. Empathy, the thing that has been lost in our society today!

A long day for John Howard in Bennelong

2007-10-20T19:48:00.000+10:00

Looks like John Howard has decided to call his constituents "Mr Speaker".
We all are speakers in the end on election day but what about Ms and Mrs Speaker and the junior speakers??

Also a picture tells a thousand words (when I figure out where this pic came from I will source it) Maxine McKew is looking rather confident but John Howard seems to be in disbelief.

Labor Party Tax Policy released

2007-10-19T19:13:00.001+10:00

Just thought I would give my comment on this based on the minimal amount of information that I have through normal media outlets.

The policies seem almost identical in some aspects as already argued by Peter Costello. However the main difference which is great policy is the fact that more is being focused on the education of children, thus directing spending to this area.

Personally I think this is better than blanket cuts across the board that are most beneficial to the high income earners. It also ensures parents are more responsible with spending on their children rather than just an extra money at their own discretion.

A full copy of the policy can be found on ALP website including ALP comparison between their policy and the coalition.

news.com.au also has an excellent analysis on differences between the two policies.

more Liberal ministers former unionists

2007-10-19T17:50:00.001+10:00

More liberal ministers have been found to be unionist. Peter Martin in his blog entitled Spin Doctor has made mention in one of his entries of the following all having roles in unions (or associations) to represent there fellow members.

The list is as follows for employment

Brendan Nelson: Former head of AMA who represent doctors
Andrew Robb: Former head of Cattle Council and Farmers Federation
Tony Abbott: Former active member of journalist union (and he called for a strike!)
Malcolm Turnbull: Asked for union representation when working at Sydney Fruit Market.

The list for student association presidents

Joe Hockey: Sydney University Students Association
Gary Humphries: ANU Students Association
Peter Costello: General Secretary - Monash Association of students

(Peter Martin in his blog article is accredited for the research on this)

Lets get past this childish issue of it being a problem that you were a union member and concentrate on the real issues this country faces.

Added later: The list seems to keep growing. Apparently now it seems the liberal member for Indi, Sophie Mirabella, was an active student union member too.

the prime minister responds to the chaser

2007-10-19T17:31:00.000+10:00

John Howard has come out attacking The Chaser team during there latest stunt being dressed as white bunny rabbits.

John Howard was overheard saying "You guys should pick on someone who is alive" in regard to there latest controversial song.

To see the video footage please go to the news.com.au article entitled Howard sprays the Chaser team

Labor View from Broome: John Howard: not, not... responsible!

2007-10-19T01:40:00.000+10:00

Labor View from Broome: John Howard: not, not... responsible!

Always love the new videos that come up to give normal peoples views of the governments history.

This one is to voice of Peter Garrett singing forgotten years!

tony abbott a former unionist

2007-10-18T19:19:00.000+10:00

Tony Abbott has admitted on ABC that

"I was a union member for a while when I was a journalist, I was a member of the Australian Journalists' Association," he said.
"In fact I moved a resolution to go on strike one day after consolidated press management sacked the whole photographic department."

It seems that if the organisation has the word association next to it rather than union it is acceptable.

the makeup of the liberal frontbench

2007-10-18T17:37:00.000+10:00

Below is a quote from a recent entry to a blog called Peregrine.

His entry is entitled Irregular Joes

I note one particularly well-informed blogger has already found the Liberal/National front bench is 64% lawyer. We all know how well they're received in the community. An individual's background may well inform their ability to understand the challenges faced by their community, but surely the existence of clear and coherent policy ideas that address today and future challenges is more important than a mere numbers game. That really would be a triumph of narrow-minded form over substance

64% Lawyer compared to an alleged 70% union (whom a lot of are lawyers anyway). Would be interesting if anyone could find out how many of the liberal front bench has been a member of an employer association (the unions of the employers).

The entry also made mention that Joe Hockey thinks unions are no longer relevant. Following that theory would this also make employer associations irrelevant too? How would the likes of ACCI think about being called irrelevant?

Simon Crean has responded to the claims that unions are now dead.

Reprimand for Labor pamphlet

2007-10-18T17:11:00.000+10:00

The labor party faithful in Wakefield (SA) have been reprimanded from Kevin Rudd about a brochure that was currently being printed.

The reprimand is about stating that the liberal candidate who is drinking champagne out of a glass dressed in a black tie has lost touch with reality.

Can I just say that even your common average folk do on the odd occasion have a black tie event to attend. Does that automatically mean that if you own a tuxedo you have lost touch?

Anyway it is good to see Kevin has pulled the pin on this.

disposable income (ie tax cuts) v social income

2007-10-18T16:49:00.000+10:00

Just wanted to say that the Liberal Party is the same predictable self when it comes to election promises.

They seem to think the answer at every election is tax cuts. Dont get me wrong the idea of more money in your pocket is great, but what could be done instead to improve our way of life?

34 billion dollars which has the greatest benefit to high income earners could build a lot of infrastructure and address the problems of the last 11 years of government. The country needs to focus on improved infrastructure and increase in social services made available.

An extra $20-$30 a week that has been swallowed up by increased fuel costs, increased medical costs and increased public transport costs. The increased costs have also been met with reduction of services as well. Pay more and get less. I would rather forsake that $20 a week to improve hospitals and education.

The first liberal party policy to come out is trying to bribe the voters again. Where is the big visions for this country's future?

Magic Bellybutton: Union attacks

2007-10-18T16:33:00.000+10:00

Magic Bellybutton: Union attacks

In response to Magic Bellybutton who claims that you must be a member of a union to be a member of the ALP, this is the response I posted to her original blog

"I would like to just say that it is not a condition of being a member of the ALP that you must be a member of a union.

I have recently joined a union for my new role, as just like you, a public servant as realistically one individual is not capable of negotiating with the government.

However prior to obtaining this job I was not a member of a union but am a member of the ALP.

Julia Gillard for example has never been a union member (just worked for them) and Kevin Rudd has not been either so that is proof you DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER OF A UNION TO BE AN ALP MEMBER."

Magic Bellybutton says her grandfather would be turning in her grave with the current situation of people not wanting protections from unions. I have to agree with that sentiment from my father whom was heavily involved in unions in the past in a peaceful way that did not involve strikes.

My fathers favourite saying is "The day you stop paying membership fees for the union, is when most likely something will arise where you need there representation the most"

Magic Bellybutton is also right in her statements that unions do not know how to promote themselves positively. Employers are represented through Employer Associations (not any different to a union if you ask me). A single individual on their own is not able to go up against all the resources available to employers.

Join a union because you just do not know the day you will need them.