Labor frontbenchers Julia Gillard and Jenny Macklin
have over the past 48 hours copped the brunt of student anger at the
party’s VSU backdown. So will the uber-pragmatic policy climb down
achieve its aim – put pressure on the Nationals to buck Brendan
Nelson’s more radical agenda, and clear the decks for an assault on
more emblematic issues, like Industrial Relations?

To succeed in
its policy gamble, Labor has to set the terms of the debate which, so
far, has been successfully led by the ACTU. Labor and the unions got a
helping hand on Wednesday when Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane, had
some reckless comparisons to make with our cousins across the Tasman: “Push to cut labour costs to match NZ.”

“We’ve
got to ensure that industrial relations reform continues so we have the
labour prices of New Zealand,” Macfarlane told Alan Jones, getting
carried away. “They reformed their industrial relations system a decade
ago. We’re already a decade behind the New Zealanders. There is no
resting.”

Now, there’s some interesting industrial action
happening in the Shaky Isles that goes to the heart of the New Zealand
industrial revolution: low wages, leading to massive unrest across a
wide range of industry: “Timber workers, journalists, nurses and
beermakers have been among the workers shutting up shop to get more pay
over the last two weeks,” reports the Kiwi media. “Strikes have
affected many sectors as unions step up the pressure for employers to
return to the bargaining table…”

The last time Australian
unions seriously flexed their muscles was way back in the Fraser years,
when John Howard was Treasurer. Now, there’s something for Kim Beazley
to get his teeth into – if he can only call those pesky students off
first.