Seymour's Tradey Mates
Summary
Article Text
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Summary Information: Mark
Seymour blogging on his friends in trades and their politics.
Author: Mark Seymour. Date: 26 May
2007.
Original URL: http://www.markseymour.com.au/index_news.htm Article Text
I've got a couple of tradey mates who both make good money at what
they do but one gets way more that the other.
One is a gate-builder. He's on about $80,000 a year. He's got three
kids who go to state schools. Mum's a house wife.
The other bloke is a rigger with twenty years experience in Oil and
Gas. He recently took up an A.W.A. with New Holland at Port Headland.
He sends both his children to the most expensive private schools in
Melbourne. They board because Mum's disappeared. He's what you might
call a "battler on a good wicket."
Like really bloody good!
Both these blokes are highly skilled workers who have a pretty good
idea of what they're worth "thanks to the boom", they say. They are
the kind of blokes you'd think would be solidly behind Howard.
Not so.
What does the first bloke think of the federal government's workchoice
legislation? Well, he doesn't like it but he admits that I.R. isn't
crucial for him because he doesn't employ anybody. His number one
priority is climate change. What does he think of John Howard? Hates
his guts.
The port Headland bloke says, "I'm making truckloads." Voting
intention? Labor, but voted for Howard last time. What does he think
of A.W.A.'s? Well, he says "they're only worth what he's getting,"
which means in a round-a- bout way, what ever deal was on offer to get
the kind of money he's on, he would've signed at the drop of a hat.
What does he think of Howard? Doesn't trust him. Likes the new guy.
And neither of them belong to a union.
What does this tell you? Well to start with, the way these blokes come
across in person, they've made up their minds. They are absolutely
adamant.
This points to one thing. Whatever the polls are telling you right
now, none of them have gone near my two mates, which is possibly why
things are looking so confused in politics.
Big Business and the media have been going hard to make Julia Gillard
look like she's a trade union puppet but the majority of Australians
still keep polling no to "Work choice". At the same time consumer
confidence is at record levels. Wage growth is down. Inflation's down,
and yet Rudd's smelling like a rose. And my mates? My mates are
laughing and neither of them will vote for Howard.
So how do you explain the polls when it appears like the Liberals are
pressing all the right buttons economically?
Well, maybe the pollsters are looking in all the wrong places or
worse, asking the wrong questions. My greenie mate thinks that
Australians never really "liked" Howard in the first place, they just
put up with him because the economy was improving. The other bloke
says Australians aren't as "gullible" as Howard thinks. Let's just
take this "workchoice" thing he says. Why abolish the "No disadvantage
test" then re-introduce it with a different name? That just looks like
a bloke who's helplessly swinging in the breeze. You kind of have to
agree. It doesn't look good. I mean, let's face it, why take away
something called a "no-disadvantage test" if you aren't saying to
employers "Okay. If you slip up and screw some worker we're not going
to come and get you?" and then he puts it back again later, calls it a
"Fairness test" and seriously expects Australians not to question
where he's really coming from?
Come on John. Give us some credit. We're not stupid. Then again, maybe
a lot of us have wiped him off long ago and that's why the polls look
weird. After all, my two mates have. They just think the "fairness
test" is another "back flip" and he's been doing those ever since he
got the job.
The difference is of course, that we're talking about peoples' take
home pay. And this is where you begin to wonder if workchoices really
is the tipping point? How much do you need to buy your groceries each
week? Some of us are scrimping every last cent. Others don't 'even
read their bank statements. There is a huge difference between rich
and poor in this country and everyone's working harder than ever to
stay "relaxed and comfortable." Sure, there's plenty of money around,
but as my mates keep saying, there are some filthy rich people around
too. Way richer than them.
This isn't just some side issue. Wages are crucial. Hell, I hear you
say, they're even more important than interest rates! When do you
start thinking about politics and how it affects your day to day life?
After all, you don't buy food with interest rates! Maybe "work
choices" is just a bit too close for comfort for some people and no
matter how loudly the mining industry keeps banging on about A.W.A.'s
the majority of Aussies aren't on them yet and it seriously looks like
they don't want to either. But that's democracy isn't it? Maybe it
means something.
As for my mates, well, one of them thinks climate change is it so
there's no way Howard's going to get him no matter what he says. And
the other one, the Port Headland bloke, well, he's actually on an
A.W.A. and he's in the mining industry! So he's well and truly working
at the pointy end. And is he loyal to big business? Does he nurse some
special feeling for the magnificent job his bosses are doing, looking
after the rest of the Australian economy? Does he have a special
affection for his precious A.W.A.? "Hey," he says, "they're paying me,
but I don't have to get into bed with them do I? Give me the money is
what I say. Let me tell you, if you think I'm on a lot, well their
incomes are astronomical."
My mates are hard working Australians and the simple fact is, they'd
be hard workers under Labor or Liberal. These are the real people who
are driving the economy and they're not going to vote liberal.
Interesting thing is, there's one thing they agree on: Australia
should never have gone to Iraq.
Mark Seymour May 2007.
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