24/7
So the five-day week is dead? Anyone could have told you that, but it doesn’t mean the same thing the Prime Minister says it does. He wants to eliminate penalty rates, the excess paid for overtime and shift work and weekends at the office, but wouldn’t it be better to use the demands for a 24/7 lifestyle to create rather than destroy? If the demand for the goods and services is that high, the supply can be raised to meet it, and the workers can be paid to provide it. Tanya Plibersek’s right: there isn’t the child care infrastructure to support Howard’s changes, but that’s just one of the problems working men and women will face once employers have been given the freedoms the PM is proposing. And before anyone claims I’m proclaiming some kind of apocalypse, no, the effects won’t occur overnight; it will take years. And that’s what the Liberals are banking on. By the time the full effect is achieved, the public’s attention will have shifted elsewhere. The time to oppose the change is now. The bill’s already through the House, with Tony Abbott playing standover man to gag debate. 24 working hours isn’t a long time to discuss the effects of over 600 pages of legislation, but it’s on its way to the Senate. Call, write, make yourself heard. By the time Labor gets back in power it’ll be too late.