PRESS STATEMENT.

.. *u

BY TOM UREN, MP LABOR SPOKESMAN ON URBAN. AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS

13Â·. June 197 9 .  Â·

ANTI- UNION LEGISLATION

The arrest of trade union officials in Western Australia for calling

an industrial meeting in a public place is certain to cause a

reaction by the trade union movement across Australia. And rightly

so.  .

The incidents in Western Australia need to b e .understood in the

context of a whole series of attacks on the rights of trade unions

in particular and on the civil liberties of the people of Australia

in general.  .  .  .  -

Over the past three years, a package of repressive legislation has

been built up by the Commonwealth Government and also by the State

Governments in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. .  .

The affect of this legislative package has been not so much to wind

the clock back - though the new laws represent a retreat from the

civilised.conditions that were being developed - but rather to

prepare the ground for future economic conditions in Australia.

The big transnational corporations operating in. .Australia see our

role as providing agricultural and mineral exports to complement

their production in other parts of the world. In their world-wide

plans,. Australia is to specialise in energy-intensive resource

processing industries, such, as aluminium smelters that will not

provide many jobs,  will cause further problems of pollution and

congestion in our cities and will demand further transfers of public

funds to the private sector, by way of subsidies, incentives, tax

concessions and the provision of infrastructure. .

2 .

As a result, more jobs' wi.ll be lost in Australian .manufacturing- '

industries on top of the 2Q0,000 jobs lost since. 1974. The

technologies that are being exported by the advanced nations will

lead to an even greater loss of jobs in the tertiary sector and greater

centralised control of the Australian economy by the transnational

corporations. And the "social wage" will be reduced, along with

other attacks on the real wage of workers in order to pay the costs

of the necessary "adjustments". .  .

It is obvious that this strategy will bring about a strong reaction

.from the trade unions and progressive people, especially as they Â·

see a wealthy elite growing richer and big profits being sent

overseas. -  ‘

'It is clear that conservative governments are gearing up for such

a reaction. That is what this package of repressive legislation

is all about. It is intended to intimidate people from asserting

their just demands.  If necessary, these unjust and immoral laws

will be used, with the force ,of the police to enforce.-compliance. . Â· ' -  .

to the designs of the corporations. It is no good Premier Court

saying he did not call the police, he set the legislative tone for

police action.

So it is Queensland and Western Australia - States at the forefront

of the mining economy - that the most repressive legislation has

first been acted upon: restrictions on the right to march in

Queensland and on the right to assemble in Western Australia. .

These general restrictions on civil liberties in the States are

backed, up by a package of anti-union laws on the national level.

The Concilation and Arbitration Act and the Trade Practices Act Â·

attack the rights of unions to take direct and indirect industrial

action, imposing severe penalties on union members who breach these

laws and .increasing the. power of the courts to control union funds

and to interfere in union activities,

The Commonwealth. Employees1  Act imposed direct threats on public

sector workers.  The Atomic Energy Act provides the courts with

increased powers to gaol people on suspicion of involvement even

indirectly related to opposition, to uranium mining and. processing.

The proposed ASIO Act gives the agency increased'powers to enter

premises, record conversations, confiscate files and maintain .

vast records on the activities of individuals.

None of these new laws is concerned with restricting the rights of

foreign corporations to under-mine the national economy, avoid tax"Â·,

dismiss workers, penalties for polluting, and bribing

Government officials. The plans of the corporations cannot be

confiscated. Company directors cannot be gaoled for closing down

a plant. ,  .  .

In fact, the new laws are intended to let the foreign corporations

do what they x^ant and to hold down the Australian people for trying

to protect the" nat

This is not the kind of legislation that will provide stability,

peace and freedom in Australia. It is the kind of legislation that

will bring about conflict, violence and repression. This .

legislation must be resisted. The kind of future it threatens for

Australia is too alarming. .

Canberra

13 June 1979

