Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06CANBERRA1410
2006-09-14 06:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN
Embassy Canberra
Cable title:  

ORGANIZED LABOR THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET

Tags:  PGOV ELAB AS 
pdf how-to read a cable
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FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5679
INFO RUEHPB/AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY PRIORITY 1638
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON PRIORITY 4742
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE PRIORITY 3092
RUEHBAD/AMCONSUL PERTH PRIORITY 1679
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RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CANBERRA 001410 

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/13/2016
TAGS: PGOV ELAB AS
SUBJECT: ORGANIZED LABOR THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET

REF: CANBERRA 1172

Classified By: DCM Michael P. Owens. REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CANBERRA 001410

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/13/2016
TAGS: PGOV ELAB AS
SUBJECT: ORGANIZED LABOR THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET

REF: CANBERRA 1172

Classified By: DCM Michael P. Owens. REASONS 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C/NF) SUMMARY. At a September 13 luncheon speech at the
National Press Club, Greg Combet, the Secretary of the
Australian Confederation of Trade Unions (ACTU),fiercely
attacked the Howard Government and its labor reforms saying
that the new industrial relations laws were unfair and
calling the Government deceitful. Before a large number of
Labor Party (ALP) politicians -- and a sympathetic crowd
brought in to provide a cheering section -- Combet said the
ACTU would campaign against the workplace legislation as long
as necessary, keeping its ads on TV, defending people in the
workplace, mobilizing in the streets, campaigning in the
marginal seats, and building a movement for change.
Responding to post-speech press questions that tried to draw
out policy differences between the ACTU and the ALP, Combet
repeatedly emphasized that the ACTU strongly supported Kim
Beazley and the ALP. While the ACTU's opposition to the
Government's labor reforms is not new, the large ALP
attendance at the lunch and the strong support voiced by
Combet indicate that Beazley's efforts to reengage unions
(see Ref) are starting to bear fruit: Organized Labor and the
ALP will fight the 2007 Federal elections together. END
SUMMARY


2. (U) Greg Combet, the Secretary of Australia's umbrella
trade union organization the ACTU, gave a combative speech at
the National Press Club on September 13. After a
demonstration/pep rally/press conference in front of the
venue before the speech, Combet went on the offensive,
charging that the Government lied about refugees throwing
their children overboard in 2003; took the country to war in
Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that did not exist;
spent $55 million on advertising to promote the industrial
relations (IR) laws; and in the last election campaign, made
misleading claims about interest rates. He said unions do not
want to go down the U.S. road. They do not want "widening
inequality and social dysfunction." Combet vowed unions
would not be intimidated by the Government. Their campaign
against the IR laws would continue and grow.


3. (SBU) Calm, measured and well-spoken, Combet gave a
partisan speech to an enthusiastic audience of rank-and-file
labor supporters and ALP politicians -- observed by two
tables of senior journalists, and a TV audience. Questions
were confined to the journalists, who spent their time trying
to find policy differences between the ACTU and the ALP and
its leader Kim Beazley. Combet dispelled any idea of a split
on the IR laws and went out of his way to emphasize his
agreement with Kim Beazley's statements. (NOTE: Judging by
Government ministers' attacks on Combet and on Beazley's
alleged obeisance to the ACTU at that afternoon's
parliamentary question-time, Coalition politicians appear to
have been very interested observers. END NOTE) The final
question at the lunch was reserved for a prize-winning
student journalist, who asked Combet if he had any political
ambition, to which he responded "not now."


4. (C/NF) COMMENT: The political atmosphere, the big ALP
turnout, and Combet's emphasis on the ACTU's common cause
with the Labor Party suggest strongly that the ACTU and the
ALP will fight the 2007 elections together. In 2004, the ALP
under Mark Latham and the ACTU were not as united. Combet's
presentation provided an early sign that Beazley's overture
to the unions is paying off. The jury is still out as to
whether this partnership will help the ALP win next year. As
the Australian Financial Review pointed out in a subsequent
editorial, unions represent only one in six private-sector
workers, and two-fifths of union members voted for the
Government in the last elections anyway. It also appears
that the new IR legislation may actually be responsible for
job creation. Current unemployment figures are the lowest in
30 years. On the other hand, the new IR laws have generated
much negative publicity and the ALP is heavily targeting
those two-fifths of the union members it lost last time.


5. (C/NF) While the ALP must welcome the ACTU's support, they
also must worry that Organized Labor will pull them left and
away from the political center where elections are won.
While Combet emphasized the closeness of the ALP's and the
ACTU's IR policies, the reality is that the ACTU would like
to go further than the ALP and not only repeal the new laws,
but put unions back at the heart of workplace bargaining,

CANBERRA 00001410 002 OF 002


whether or not a majority of a company's workers are so
inclined.
MCCALLUM