Vol. 71/No. 48      December 24, 2007

After the polls, the November 26 Australian, a big-business daily, noted in an editorial that “there are few deep disagreements on direction at the national level between the new government and its conservative opponents.” The procapitalist Labor Party received more widespread endorsements from the bourgeois press than in past elections, a reflection of its continued rightward shift.

The Howard government spearheaded the anti-working-class offensive of the Australian ruling class since 1996. It presided over a period of relatively low unemployment and a resources export boom. After its electoral losses, including Howard’s loss of his House of Representatives seat in north Sydney, the leadership of the two conservative parties was left in disarray.

Labor Party leaders have steadily distanced the party from links to the unions, its traditional base of support. At the same time, several ALP ministers are former high-ranking union officials.

The central issue in the elections was the government’s sweeping antiunion laws, known as WorkChoices. Since their adoption in 2005, these measures have met with widespread working-class opposition, including a nationwide union campaign of meetings, rallies, and marches.

The ALP voiced opposition to WorkChoices, raising expectations among working people. Now Labor leaders say they plan to get rid of a few of the laws while maintaining others. Among those Labor says they plan to abolish are the Australian Workplace Agreements, which are labor contracts with individual employees. Their plan is to do this over a five-year period as the contracts expire.  
 
Labor to maintain antiunion laws
Incoming deputy prime minister Julia Gillard said the new laws would be drafted in a “careful and measured way.” She indicated that Labor will keep restrictive measures against unions and strikes, but would move to reinstate “unfair dismissal” laws.

Rudd’s first act as prime minister was to ratify the 1997 Kyoto protocols on climate change. This will open up access for Australian corporations to multibillion-dollar futures trading in carbon emission credits.

ALP leaders indicated that, with some adjustments, they will continue the previous government’s takeover of Aboriginal communities in Australia’s Northern Territory (see front-page article in last week’s issue). They have also pledged to maintain a tough stance on “border security” and other attacks on workers’ rights in the name of fighting “terrorism.”

In consultation with Washington, Rudd has announced a phased withdrawal of 550 combat troops from southern Iraq. More than 1,000 Australian military personnel will remain, as part of a military contingent in Baghdad and patrolling warships and aircraft in the Arab-Persian Gulf.

Rudd has said he will continue, and may boost, Canberra’s commitment of 1,000 military personnel to the imperialist war in Afghanistan. He has ruled out cuts in military spending.

In a visit here the first week of December, U.S. undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns said close collaboration with the Australian government, “one of our most important allies worldwide,” would continue, including in Iraq. He praised Labor’s “renewed commitment” to the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.  
 
 
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