Ext User(Mike Hunt Hertz)
03-11-2005, 07:23 PM
A Sick Set of Laws
The Howard Government's inexorable push to strip workers' rights continues;
despite the warnings of unions, churches, community groups, labour market
economists and now, epidemiologists.
That's right - after much debate about how the changes will affect the
Australian way of life; concerns have now been raised that they will be a
threat to Australian life itself.
Drawing on the field of social epidemiology - that is the study of how
social conditions affect public health - ACIRRT has painted a picture of a
society where the gap between the life expectancy of the rich and the poor
will widen.
At the heart of the analysis is research showing that it is income
distribution and not national wealth that determines a nation's material
well-being - which explains why the wealthiest nation on Earth, the USA,
ranks just 26th in life expectancy.
The key is what Sir Michael Marmot, a world renowned Australian scientist -
has called the social gradient; a calculation of public health based on
occupational and social hierarchy.
What ACIRRT concludes is that, under the federal government's industrial
relations, changes will increase the social gradient - that is, the gap
between the haves and have-nots; with a huge pool of low-cost labour in
insecure, unskilled jobs with few work rights.
While there has been much debate of the social cost of this push down the
American road, the threats to weekends, annual leave, secure work and the
impact of on family and community life, the Marmot analysis is something
else again.
What this research says is that labour market deregulation will have a
profound impact on the national health in ways we haven't even begun talking
about.
These are big issues based on rigorous science that will be easy for the
government to trivialise and dismiss.
But, at the very least, it shows why there needs to be genuine community
debate about these changes, not just a one week power play, a bodgy Senate
Inquiry and a government waiting to rubber stamp major changes to our
society.
The Senator, who would come into play if Barnaby Joyce gets an attack of
political consciousness before it's too late, Steve Fielding, has been
rebuffed in his call for a Family Impact Statement.
That work is now being undertaken by Dr Don Edgar, foundation director of
the National Institute of Family Studies, who Unions NSW has commissioned to
produce his own analysis.
Both Dr Edgar's work and ACIRRT's report are important research, not just in
the current political debate, but in placing on record the damage to
Australian society that is about to be done.
The polls say the Australian community does not support these changes and
targeted research shows they are deeply confused and sceptical - and the
expenditure of $40 million in taxpayer funded advertising has only deepened
their trepidation.
What Marmot's research tells us is that the fears are probably even more
justified than people realise.
The Howard Government's inexorable push to strip workers' rights continues;
despite the warnings of unions, churches, community groups, labour market
economists and now, epidemiologists.
That's right - after much debate about how the changes will affect the
Australian way of life; concerns have now been raised that they will be a
threat to Australian life itself.
Drawing on the field of social epidemiology - that is the study of how
social conditions affect public health - ACIRRT has painted a picture of a
society where the gap between the life expectancy of the rich and the poor
will widen.
At the heart of the analysis is research showing that it is income
distribution and not national wealth that determines a nation's material
well-being - which explains why the wealthiest nation on Earth, the USA,
ranks just 26th in life expectancy.
The key is what Sir Michael Marmot, a world renowned Australian scientist -
has called the social gradient; a calculation of public health based on
occupational and social hierarchy.
What ACIRRT concludes is that, under the federal government's industrial
relations, changes will increase the social gradient - that is, the gap
between the haves and have-nots; with a huge pool of low-cost labour in
insecure, unskilled jobs with few work rights.
While there has been much debate of the social cost of this push down the
American road, the threats to weekends, annual leave, secure work and the
impact of on family and community life, the Marmot analysis is something
else again.
What this research says is that labour market deregulation will have a
profound impact on the national health in ways we haven't even begun talking
about.
These are big issues based on rigorous science that will be easy for the
government to trivialise and dismiss.
But, at the very least, it shows why there needs to be genuine community
debate about these changes, not just a one week power play, a bodgy Senate
Inquiry and a government waiting to rubber stamp major changes to our
society.
The Senator, who would come into play if Barnaby Joyce gets an attack of
political consciousness before it's too late, Steve Fielding, has been
rebuffed in his call for a Family Impact Statement.
That work is now being undertaken by Dr Don Edgar, foundation director of
the National Institute of Family Studies, who Unions NSW has commissioned to
produce his own analysis.
Both Dr Edgar's work and ACIRRT's report are important research, not just in
the current political debate, but in placing on record the damage to
Australian society that is about to be done.
The polls say the Australian community does not support these changes and
targeted research shows they are deeply confused and sceptical - and the
expenditure of $40 million in taxpayer funded advertising has only deepened
their trepidation.
What Marmot's research tells us is that the fears are probably even more
justified than people realise.