It's not a secret any more. The new book Inside Kevin 07 reveals the machinations of power behind the rise of The Rudd.
The unions have played right into Howard's hands.
I have a theory. Workchoices was never about winning the election. Howard knew it was a huge gamble he was quite likely to lose. Workchoices was really about taking on the unions and bringing them out in the open.
Played for and got. Well done Johnny!
Howard knew that the original draft of Workchoices without the no-disadvantage test was pushing the envelope of what the electorate would accept. He kept it in, not in spite of this but because of it. It tempted the unions to take him on.
The article linked talks about how Combet tried to get Howard to drop AWAs and the no-disadvantage test. Other people in ALP did not want to negotiate with Howard because they knew if Howard compromised Howard would still be in power. They wanted to mount the legal to WorkChoices and to topple Howard. Their blood was up and they smelled power.
First came the unions legal challenge against AWAs. AWAs were always big issue for the unions. They cut the unions out of the negotiations between employers and employees. The no-disadv test is about members wage's. That's a secondary concern, if not an irrelevance, for the ACTU. It's useful to them politically to be seen to negotiate for this. But the real issue is that they maintain there powerful role.
By sticking to his reformist principles Howard proved that he was prepared to risk power in order to do what was right for Australia. He did it instinctively. By his own admission, he never ran from a fight. By fighting he forced the unions to fight back.
First came the unions legal challange. It was a failure. High Court upheld the IR laws providing Howard with the legal vindication of his IR stance.
Then came the political challenge. People marching in the streets. Union were openly displaying their power for the first time in my lifetime!!
Howard eventually compromised to the more politically palatable position of the fairness test. This shift of position was not miscalculation. It was cunning. Howard had what he wanted and now he could compromise back. If he had compromised his principles in the beginning the fight would have all been done behind closed doors away from Aussie eyes - Rudd style. Howard don't play dat.
So now I get it. This was all for me. For you. For the next generation of Aussies.
Now we all know the truth about the unions and the ALP. They are one and the same.
Howard knew WorkChoices was a huge gamble. He lost, but in the long term we are all the wiser. That was his ultimate aim. He could not run the country forever. He had to prepare us for the future by showing us the way politics really runs in this country.
For Australia to realize it's ambition the left-wing stranglehold of the unions on the nation's politics, and the nation's psyche, and must be exposed and broken. Howard might not have broken it, but he exposed it so that we could break it.
And we are. The culture has shifted, forever.
Bloggers like Andrew Landeryou yourself use the words "union thugs" all the time. I have myself. I honestly can't remember anyone doing this before Workchoices exposed the unions. We see them as they are now. And we see how powerful they are. And it pisses us off!!
The next act, but by no means the last, in the play is now unfolding. The arrogance and incompetance of Labor in office has sealed their fate. They are boasting of the victory, as well they might. When the poms won the Ashes they knew they had beaten the invincible. They also knew that was going to be the one and only change to celebrate for a generation. But the Unions and ALP's arrogance has lead them to the fatal mistake of admitting the way they work IN PRINT! On top of this Rudd's inablity to rein in the unions wage demands and protests against an all- encompasing ETS show the ALP frauds, mere puppets on the union's strings.
But Howard is manipulating the puppeteer!! Like Eddy on the cover of the classic Iron Maiden album Number of the Beast
Get it? The Unions are Satan, and Howard is Heavy Metal made flesh!
Workchoices was short-term bad politics. But long-term political genius worthy of Abraham Lincoln.
Combet was wise to leave the ACTU and go into parliament. The Unions power is on the wane. Once they have been deceved, Democracies are not inclined to forgive.
