Bargaining power

CLIMBING THE SUMMIT

We all could be about to make more money after the Albanese government confirmed it would legislate multi-employer bargaining, The Conversation reports. So what does it mean? Basically unions would be able to negotiate pay deals across multiple employers covering a wider net of employees. The idea is it would better level the playing field across an industry, and as union-negotiated agreements usually pay more than non-unionised ones, as Guardian Australia explains, it’s good news for our stagnant wage growth. The Age adds that because they’d all be covered by the same agreement, they could also strike at the same time — like a whole industry at once, for instance. Spicy! Australian Industry Group boss Ines Willox is decidedly not happy, describing multi-employer bargaining as “throwback” to the 1960s and a “job-killer”. The reforms will go to consultation next week as part of changes to the Fair Work Act.

What else have we seen so far from the jobs and skills summit? Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood gave a killer keynote speech — Crikey published it in full here — which Bernard Keane described as “required reading not merely for summit attendees but every economist, commentator, journalist and politician opining on the summit”. Childcare has also been a prominent theme, ABC continues — Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews urged the federal government to get on with reforms that will see every family with a combined income of $80,000 have 90% of their childcare costs covered by the government. More kids in care means more women in the workforce and that’s great news for our labour shortage. The Business Council of Australia and Australian Council of Trade Unions also called for an extension of paid parental leave from 18 to 26 weeks.

[free_worm]

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Victoria Police are being sued in a class action for pepper-spraying protesters outside a mining conference in 2019, The Age reports, as well as an alleged “series of batteries and assaults”. The writ alleges the cops used the spray even though there was no threat to officers or the public — it’s only supposed to be used when someone is “passively resisting” like “hanging limp or refusing to comply with instructions”, according to the police guidelines. The police union said the pepper spray use was lawful and justified, and four officers were injured. But the protesters’ lawyer said the case was about the “rising militarisation” of Victoria Police. The paper added that its photographer received a settlement “worth thousands” when he was sprayed twice by cops while covering an anti-lockdown protest.

From (alleged) crime to punishment now, and NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said he would look into “no body, no parole” laws after Sydney man Chris Dawson, 74, was found guilty of murdering wife Lyn some 40 years ago, The Australian ($) reports. Dawson has never revealed the whereabouts of Lyn’s remains — in Queensland, you can’t get parole without doing so, but in NSW it’s just one part of the parole board’s considerations. The crime was the subject of The Australian’s hit podcast “Teacher’s Pet”. But it’s not over yet — Dawson will seek bail while he prepares an appeal against his conviction. His lawyer says he’s receiving death threats from “a number of prisoners”, Guardian Australia adds. So (for those who haven’t listened to the podcast) why did Dawson do it? Their babysitter. Words like “infatuation” have been used by Nine newspapers (which has since altered the headline), after Marque Lawyers and Grace Tame pointed out is not the right terminology. He “groomed a child and sexually abused her”, the former put it plainly.

HOME TRUTHS

House prices are plummeting at the fastest rate since the ’80s, Guardian Australia reports. CoreLogic’s home value index says prices are down 3.5% since April — Sydney had the biggest fall in August with a 2.3% decline, Brisbane dropped 1.8%, Melbourne 1.2% and Canberra and Hobart 1.7%. Adelaide and Perth fell by 0.1% and 0.2% respectively. But renters are not seeing a fall — rents increased by 9.8% nationally over the past year, the fastest rate on record. It comes as the Reserve Bank is expected to raise the cash rate again on Tuesday, the Guardian adds, something that is increasingly seeing first-home buyers disappear from the market.

Meanwhile, 1,043,776 homes are empty in Australia, according to census data — ABC via The Conversation has an interesting analysis this morning about why they are not necessarily a silver bullet for our housing crisis. It says many would’ve been empty on census night because they were mid-sale, and many were probably Airbnbs. It would be better to ditch caps on council rates and treat short-term rentals as commercial properties for the tourism sector, it says.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

The napkins are origami’d, the suits are pressed and the waiters are sneaking a ciggie out the back — no matter how much preparation goes into it, a wedding is really just a huge jumble of things we hope will go right. Someone arrives with the cake, and even if the happy couple did a tasting in the weeks prior, who knows whether the baker nailed the recipe for the day. New Zealand baker Annette Dudley is only too aware of the devastation a dry sponge slice can cause, as Stuff tells it. That’s why she spends painstaking hours making four to five cakes a week for various big days. Her husband, Brent, and her three kids were initially thrilled with her new profession when she began in 2007 — free wedding cake offcuts whenever they wanted it, topped with that luscious sugary white frosting. Cake for lunch, cake for snacks, a spot of cake after dinner.

Fifteen years on, they can’t take it any more. They told mum enough is enough — no more cake, please, for the love of god! Dudley was like — fine. If you don’t appreciate my wedding cakes, I know some folks who will: Snowy, Rosie, Princess Elsa, Fluffy, Cotton, Floppy, Rainbow and Rodger, her sheep. Every day Dudley’s fluffy children get to chow down on slices of rich, buttery wedding cake. They go crazy for the stuff — and who wouldn’t? Dudley is a multi-award-winning Kiwi baker — she’s won the Taranaki Wedding Awards every year since 2017, as voted by newlywed couples. Who knows whether the sheep will soon suffer from the same “too-much-of-a-good-thing” ailment that Brent and the kids fell victim to. For now, every day is a wedding day for the eight happy boys and girls on her farm.

Wishing you the joy of that first bite of cake, and a restful weekend.

SAY WHAT?

In the NSW 2022 budget estimates it was just revealed that the government spends $713,940 per year to hold a child in youth detention. It would be cheaper to send them to Harvard.

David Shoebridge

The Greens senator put the incarceration of children into sharp perspective with his comparison to one of the world’s most elite universities. One person left a tongue-in-cheek reply on Shoebridge’s tweet that it would also be cheaper to send a kid to New York as the new trade commissioner.

CRIKEY RECAP

Greens look to kill Voice — and hand Labor a potent weapon against them

Bernard Keane

Sep 01, 2022

97

“Facing the possible refusal of the Greens to even permit a referendum to happen, the only upside for Labor is that the Greens are thus handing Labor a useful weapon in the 2025 election. In every inner-city electorate, Labor candidates will be able to tell voters they support an Indigenous Voice and wanted a referendum to have already happened — but the Greens blocked it and don’t seem to even support a Voice at all.

“It will be up to Bandt and the Greens to explain to voters something they got away with not explaining in the 2022 election: why they think so many Indigenous groups got it wrong in the development of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Few things could be more helpful in Labor’s quest to portray the Greens as outside the mainstream, extremists committed to purity politics over effective delivery, bitterly divided ideologues …”

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Summit seating plan shows who’s a star and who’s been snubbed

Amber Schultz

Sep 01, 2022

11

“Canberra’s net worth shot up considerably as Australia’s richest man, Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, sat two rows behind the premiers, and Australia’s second-richest man, Visy Recycling boss Anthony Pratt (who scored a shoddy seat in the back row). Forrest told reporters on his arrival he wanted to see vulnerable Australians counted in unemployment figures, but avoided questions relating to climate. Atlassian’s co-founder Scott Farquhar was on the opposite side — behind Employment Minister Tony Burke.

“The government worked hard to ensure a representative guestlist — but disappointingly, attendees were overwhelmingly white. Business leaders and union representatives had an equal number of tickets, and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said more than 50% of participants were women. About 15% of attendees were academics, and another 12% were from lobby groups. Just 14 MPs are attending — most notably, Peter Dutton declined an invite.”

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‘They failed to protect her’: five ways the NSW Education Department let down a teenage rape victim

Amber Schultz

Sep 01, 2022

8

“An internal investigation into the school’s response, while not publicly released, offers little hope. Jane and her family weren’t interviewed and haven’t been given details of it, let alone a copy of the report. Several of their complaints, including allegations of other rapes linked to the school, weren’t investigated.

“It’s yet another example of victim-blaming, inaction and ineptitude in addressing gender-based violence among young people. Serious allegations were downplayed and dismissed, sending a dangerous message to potential victims and abusers. From 2014 to 2019 there were nearly 150,000 victims of sexual assault recorded by police agencies — 63% of whom were aged under 18.”

If you or someone you know has been or is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. Survivors of abuse can find support by calling Bravehearts on1800 272 831 or the Blue Knot Foundation at 1300 657 380. The Kids Helpline is 1800 55 1800. In an emergency, call 000.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Russian oil firm chief Maganov dies after hospital window fall (Al Jazeera)

Google employee resigns saying company ‘silences Palestinians’ (Al Jazeera)

Want to buy a Banksy? This building comes with it. (The New York Times)

US sought records on Binance CEO for crypto money laundering probe (Reuters)

China has been dealt a damning UN report on its alleged human rights abuses (SBS)

UN inspects Russian-held nuclear plant in Ukraine (BBC)

France cracks down on junk mail with trial opt-in system (The Guardian)

How Reagan and Bush overcame scepticism to collaborate with Gorbachev (The New York Times)

Poland to demand €1.3 trillion from Germany in WWII reparations (EuroNews)

Chinese city of 21m locked down over COVID cases (BBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Aboriginal women are dying, it’s not racist to discuss it — Judith Kelly (The Australian) ($): Aboriginal people still make up about 30% of the NT’s population and still make up between 80 and 90% of the prison population — and a significant percentage of that prison population are Aboriginal men in prison for serious crimes of violence against Aboriginal women. Returning to my second theme — the difficulties being experienced in even talking about the problem: talking honestly about the problems that exist and encouraging honest and open public debate would have to be a good start. And by speaking honestly about the problem I mean not self-censoring for fear of being branded a racist by the ideologues of the new anti-racism religion.

“Eschew the invidious terms institutional racism and systemic racism unless there is at least some evidence the institution in question does actually have racist policies — that is, systematically treats Aboriginal people less favourably on the basis of their race. Ascribing all disadvantage to racism is unhelpful and dishonest; it is simplistic and it trivialises genuine racism, which should never be tolerated. There is racism and there are racists in our community, and we should call them out. In the past, Australian governments had racist policies and a significant portion of the community had unthinking racist attitudes. These things should be acknowledged, and those times have left a legacy of disadvantage, but the fact that some contemporary problems have been caused or contributed to by racism in the past does not mean that they are the result of racism today.”

Tyrant winter is dead, long live summer! (That’s right, I’m skipping spring this year) — Jack Vening (Guardian Australia): “We needed to be handled tenderly, and the tyrant winter said: eat my ass. But now we look to a new era, free of losers. Don’t fret about rumours that La Niña is threatening another sequel to the two lamest summers on record (nothing wrong with a shorter bushfire season), or that the northern hemisphere’s game of choose-your-own-apocalypse isn’t inspiring the greatest vibe (not my hemisphere, not my problem), or that news out of the US is that there’s no official drink of the summer (allow me to introduce you to a little thing I invented called ‘the shandy’).

“This is what winter trains us for — to take whatever small moments of grace we can and hold on to them, swallow them if we have to, keep them inside our bellies like a stone. The modern world is an increasingly bonkers place to try to make a life in, and you’ve probably realised by now that things aren’t going to get less bonkers any time soon. So I’m not going to spend another moment thinking about the lamest season on earth. I don’t care what those communists at the Bureau of Meteorology say the temperature is — from now on it’s summer. The days will be long and our fans will struggle to make a dent. At night the cicadas will continue their eternal tantrum. Everything will be beautiful once more.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• National Mental Health Commission’s Christine Morgan, Black Dog Institute’s Samuel Harvey, and Nous Group’s Tim Marney will discuss how we can keep the momentum going beyond the National Partnership Agreement for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan — in a webinar.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Rachel Noble will give a Lowy Institute address about women in the ASD at the institute.

Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)

• The Finders Keepers Brisbane Market kicks off today with independent art, design, food stalls and a bar, in the Exhibition Building at the Brisbane Showgrounds.

• Author Rhiannon Wilde will chat about her new young adult novel, Where You Left Us, at Avid Reader bookshop. You can also catch this one online.