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Back in July John Howard was kissing the arse of Gerard Henderson and the corporate highfliers who frequent Gerard’s quaint little knitting circle, the Sydney Institute. Firmly nailing his colours to the mast, Howard declared that no commentator “possessed a sharper eye or pen” than the great GH. Howard was attending Gerard’s little shebang to spout one of the neoliberal mantras, this time what is loosely referred to as “industrial relations reform”.
Howard was in full flight a little more that one paragraph into his speech and by half way through his second paragraph almost choked in pleasure as he pronounced “we [being his government and the assembled corporate profiteers] must unleash a new burst of productivity growth to secure our future prosperity”. I can almost hear the resounding cheers and table thumping as the sycophants expressed their thanks to the great leader who had just told them to set the dogs loose on anyone who dissents from their world view.
Howard went on to state, with a straight face I assume, that the current so called “reforms” were not the product of ideology but were “grounded … in economic reality”. These “reforms” would “strengthen our economy but do it the Australian way – by way of advancing prosperity and fairness together”. In my mind’s eye I can see the little beads of sweat on his brow as he gathers pace and passion and feels the love in the room.
As he gets to the core of his message to Gerard and the boys, Howard outlines his theory of the “enterprise worker”. These enterprise workers are just about anyone you care to imagine. They are white and blue collar workers. They are small business owners and tradesmen. They are unskilled labourers and those who work in ‘human services’. These enterprise workers are in touch with reality according to Howard. This reality means the enterprise worker has “a long term focus, knowing that short-term gains without regard to productivity are illusory if the result is inflation and jobs at risk”. So we say Amen to that, choruses the choir of corporate cigar chompers.
After telling the assembled grovellers that under his government wages have risen by 14 percent Howard forgets to include the figures that show that the actual spending power of the extra 14 percent has been stripped away by ever increasing prices, taxes and charges. John goes on to say that without his government’s reforms over the last ten years the average Australian household would have been $7000 a year worse off than they already are. Imagine that. The ever increasing numbers of working poor can thank the government that they aren’t more in debt and far worse off than they would be if not for John and Peter being at the helm. Let’s join the clinking champagne glasses of the rich and powerful as they thank John for increasing their incomes by an order of magnitude more than the average workers. Hurrah!
Calling on a study by the Business Council – the real policy makers of the government – Howard declares that workers under individual contracts are better off personally and far more productive. He then hammers home his key message. That message was that when it comes to industrial relations, “the job is never done”. Howard crowed to the Sydney Institute diners that a central plank of his reform process was to reduce the ability for third parties to “interfere in agreement making … to the detriment of cooperation between employers and employees.” Achieving this aim, according to John, will liberate workers and elevate them to the same bargaining level as their bosses.
Howard declared to the enthralled mob gathered in Gerard’s little knitting den that, “the most reliable road out of poverty is a job”. The only way to encourage the bosses to hire more people, says Howard, is to get rid of those bothersome unfair dismissal laws. Once gone, he bellows, the door to a gazzilion jobs will open and poverty will be eliminated. Well, no he didn’t say that, I made it up but it’s what he meant if not exactly what he said. Not content with saying all will be well if we trash unfair dismissal laws, Howard blamed Hawke, Keating and the Beazer for all our current woes. ‘It’s them wot got us inta tis mess, fella’s, it’s me wot goin’ to get you out,’ said John.
Beginning to wind up John returned to a favourite chestnut and declared that his government’s reforms will lead to “prosperity with fairness”. The only way to achieve that prosperity, he reminded his audience, was “to go the extra mile”. John had already dropped a veiled threat that bosses should not treat their workers poorly, but I suggest it was said with little of his tongue planted firmly in a cheek – whose cheek, I can’t say.
To understand what John Howard was saying at the Sydney Institute soirée in July one must study the man. Without any recourse to Freudian psychoanalysis or Jungian psychological tools a quick visit to our national leader’s webpage will have to do. Howard’s spin doctors and a compliant and lazy media are attempting to construct a popular image of the man as some sort of world statesman. Someone to whom comes naturally the intellect and wisdom to stand on the world stage and transform this little blob of dirt we call ‘Strailia’ into a global force. But what does his website reveal?
A visit to the PM’s personal ‘links’ page shows the top six links are five sporting websites (two rugby, two cricket and one Aussie rules) and one where you can register to have a message sent on your special birthdays or anniversaries. On his more general links page the top link is the Australian War Memorial. Howard classes these links as “my personal favourites”. There are no links to intellectual sites. There are no links to international journals or papers of repute. There are no links to sites which examine human rights or discussion boards where people chat about the effects of poverty or disability. There are no links to history buff sites. There are no links which direct one to workers sites or sites that review the literature on industrial reform. In short, when it comes time to gather important information, who does Howard turn to? Well according to his speech, Gerard Henderson, Quadrant magazine, the Sydney Institute, the Business Council and Martin Wolf – who argues that globalisation as we know it hasn’t yet gone far enough.
Howard crows that his system will do away with some 4,000 awards but what he doesn’t say is that it will create ten million awards as each employee accepts an individual contract. Surely an AWA is not some form of an award system? Isn’t that what Howard wants to do away with? His “enterprise worker” is a rugged individual, someone who can stand the cut and thrust of the real workplace. This worker needs no protection because employers would never “treat their workers poorly”. This worker, according to Howard and his acolytes, has the same agency as the employer and when it comes to bargaining can muster the same resources therefore rendering him or her equal at the bargaining table. Howard’s enterprise worker is master of his or her own destiny. Full stop!
Howard’s language, his interests and his sources of information are far to limiting for any right minded person to think he understands or even cares about the destruction his leadership has wrought on our brothers and sisters. Howard sees the world through a prism in which his own reflection is magnified and accordingly, everything else is diminished. The world according to Howard is one in which a Monday evening knitting circle is as about as cosy as it gets. For the rest of the workers, including those serving the over priced tables at the club, well, we should cut them loose and let the invisible hand of the market recast the pattern of our society at it sees fit. Anything else would be unAustralian.