Labor has lost its way
WHO is voting Labor?
The population of Australia in 1921 was about 5.5 million people. Of these, 703,000 were members of a union.
In 1984, 3,028,500 members of a 24 million population were members of a union.
So what has happened since 1984? Australia’s population is nearly 24 million people with only 15 per cent, or 1.8 million people, members of a union.
The Labor Party formed under the Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891 is not the Labor of today.
According to history, that Labor Party was formed to fight for workers, wages, jobs, conditions and the entire betterment of society. Yet now we have unions affiliated with the Labor Party, so surely that affiliation should have resulted in better worker conditions, better wages and most importantly, jobs for Australian workers before any other.
A temporary Long Stay visa was introduced by the Liberals in 1996. Since then we have seen a fall in union membership, bottom of the harbour wages growth, unemployment reach record levels, offshore jobs and manufacturing grow to excessive levels and a drop in living standards for Australian workers.
From 2007 to 2013 we had Labor prime ministers in the Lodge.
Yet at no time did any Labor government offer to cancel 457 visas, or act to change the offshore job mentality that had reduced our country to not even being able to make a saucepan, let alone a sauce bottle.
The Australian worker is becoming the equivalent of an endangered species.
Joining a union will not stop you being sacked because your company has offshored your job.
Prior to Arthur Calwell’s retirement in 1967, Labor opposed immigration on the grounds that new immigrants would compete with Australian workers. So what has changed? Unions back in the day would have gone on strike, demanded better and got it.
Fact 1. We have wages stagnation. Fact 2. We make nearly nothing here any more. Fact 3. Australian workers can hardly afford a home.
So if unions are supposed to protect workers, please tell me it is coming soon because Labor Queensland wants to charge retirees tax on a caravan, make graziers pay for rain and turn coal away. Queensland has rural workers, mine workers and regional workers who are not even being considered.
So if the unions are affiliated with Labor, and this is the result, can you imagine what would happen if the unions told the Labor Party to go take a hike, and actually affiliated with a party that wanted to protect workers and workers’ rights?
Wow, we would all benefit from that.