You’re Fired
Shame to use that title, but it’s too appropriate to the growing trend towards the abolishment of unfair dismissal protections. Peter Costello, the man most likely to succeed Howard someday, at least for now, supports eliminating this protection for all, not just Howard’s timid exemption for companies of 100 or fewer employees. While “compassionate conservatism” was never a catch-phrase here, Howard and his ilk are members of that same neoconservative revolution that would eliminate welfare and social justice programs in favor of a return to the debtors prisons and work houses of the Dickensian era. Already it’s been shown that Australia has the worst record in the industrialized world at supporting women’s right to work outside the home, and Howard’s rhetoric and the actions of his government on child care and unemployment benefits for single mothers demonstrates their conviction that women working is immoral and the root cause of the breakdown of society. This latest development in industrial relations isn’t being contemplated by the present government, but make no mistake, it will come back on the agenda. The time to support workers’ rights is now.