Cate Speaks

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Tag: federal politics (Page 6 of 6)

Politcs: RU-486 bill – passed!

February 17, 2006 / / 0 Comments

So approval of RU-486 is now in the hands of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, not the Health Minister. Which I think is a marvellous thing.

Perhaps even more wonderful to me is the way that the majority of women front and backbenchers, including women from all five marjor political parties, united regardless of party lines to present and pass this bill. And I hear they intend to continue to work together on other issues relevant to women, although I am yet to track down a source for this pleasing story.

Anyway. Having bombarded my politicians on occasion with many, many emails and letters, I would now like to write and thank the women and men who voted to make RU-486 a medical, not a political, issue.

If necessary, I will read all of Hansard for the last week and make a list – but if anyone already has a list, please let me know.

In the meantime, Sharman Stone (Liberal), Lyn Allison (Democrat), Fiona Nash (National), Claire Moore (Labour) and Judith Troeth (Liberal) – thank you for your co-sponsorship of the bill.

And Kerry Nettle (Greens) and Julia Gillard (Labour) thank you for speaking in its favour.

I know there are lots more, but these were the people I found most easily – I’ll add to this list once I’ve had a good look through Hansard.

Politics: Industrial Relations Reform Laws

November 4, 2005 / / 0 Comments

Australians, if you’d like to let the Senate know what you think of the proposed laws, go here. We have just over five days in which to make our voices heard.

To me, these laws look suspiciously like a ticket back to the early days of the industrial revolution.

I note, for example, that while the 38-day week is ‘protected’, penalty payments for overtime are not – which means that you can still work more hours than that and not get penalty rates.

I also note that there appears to be no provision for sick leave.

And minimum wages will no longer be linked to inflation.

Also, if I understand correctly, attempting to bargain collectively in any way, or to assure that your wage is equivalent to others doing the same work in the same field, appears to carry huge penalties.

Frankly, these laws are terrifying, even for someone in a stable job (because, as it happens, while I can’t be unfairly dismissed from my current, larger-than-100-staff-members workplace, I can be dismissed for ‘operational reasons’ and then rehired on an individual contract). It completely baffles me that the government could think this is good for the economy – doesn’t a healthy economy rely on people having enough money to spend?

Politics: Anti-Terror Laws

September 23, 2005 / / 0 Comments

I’ll tell you what worries me most about these proposed ‘preventative’ anti-terror laws.

It isn’t that they are unconstitutional.

It isn’t that they are open to abuse.

It is that we are now open to penalisation not for our actions, which we can control, or our beliefs, which are to some extent our choice (although I would argue that beliefs should never be legislated anyway), but for what other people think our actions or beliefs may be now or on some future occasion.

This kind of legislation means that it is not enough simply to obey the law. One must also be seen to have the appearance of someone who would not consider disobeying the law.

I, for one, am terrified.

Politics: Reproductive Choice Australia

August 25, 2005 / / 0 Comments

Just posting a link to this site, which may be of interest to some people on my reading this: http://www.reproductivechoiceaustralia.org.au/take-action.htm

There is a call for the 81% of Australians who support a woman’s right to choose* to make their views known by contacting appropriate MPs. This is in response to Senator Ron Boswell, who has more or less called for those who are anti-abortion to show their support so that he can introduce a Private Member’s Bill that would restrict access to abortion.

Among other things it asks readers to send a ‘short and respectful’ email to the Prime Minister. I’ve just done so – I managed respectful, but didn’t quite hit ‘short’, particularly once I found myself listing all the very useful things he could do to really reduce the abortion rate in this country (more family-friendly work policies, better social and financial supports for parents, particularly parents of children with a disability, funding medical research into the prevention and therapy – and earlier prenatal diagnosis – of genetic disorders…).

Anyway, there it is. Read it, if you are interested, and act if your conscience dictates it.

*Has anyone else noticed that when you say ‘a woman’s right to choose’ everyone knows exactly which choice is being referred to, as though we had no other things we might choose to do or not to do with our lives?

Politics: Disability Pensioners – a bunch of bludgers?

April 22, 2005 / / 0 Comments

Apparently, people on the disability pension spend more time on the pension than those who are simply unemployed.

What a set of bludgers!

As do those naughty, naughty single parents who stay at home for YEARS to look after their children.

Disgraceful!

The implication being, of course, that these people are taking YOUR TAX MONEY to live the high life on… what is it now? $300 a fortnight? Because they are just Too Lazy to work.

Shame on them. We must cut their benefits at once.

According to a report from the Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, people on the disability pension spend more time on the pension than those who are simply unemployed.

“The long-term nature of the disability payment is illustrated most clearly in that, instead of moving out of payments altogether, the most common destination for this group is to go straight into another payment – the age pension,” Dr Kalb explained.

And perhaps the long-term nature of the disability payment is explained most clearly by the fact that disability is a long-term issue.

The disability pension is not something you get for a few weeks when you are ill and unable to make your job application commitments for the dole. It’s not something you get because you are lazy and don’t want to work.

The disability pension is something you get when you are disabled in the long term, in such a manner that you are unable to work at all, or unable to work regular hours. Award of this pension is based on the assessment of medical professionals who review such cases on a regular basis.

It is not, and should not be, based on the assessment of economists.

We should, absolutely, encourage those with disabilities to live to the limit of their capabilities, not just in terms of employment, but in terms of their personal lives, interests and relationships – which are also affected by disability.

Stigmatising them as ‘bludgers’ who are content to depend on the system and have no interest in working is not the way to do this.

Politics: Accidental Volunteering, and Deliberate Reading

September 14, 2004 / / 0 Comments

This time, it’s political…

I’ve been reading the Australian Greens’ policy document today. All 92 pages (online, of course) of it. This seemed an appropriate step since I accidentally volunteered to hand out how to vote cards / do scrutineering on election day. Well, not accidentally. But certainly in a spur of the moment, hey look, the Greens’ campaign office is at this tramstop, sort of way.

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