Edgar Adams' Editorial

Meanwhile, the unions, having financed the ALP’s campaign, will be calling in more favours from their government that in the next four years will see them become even more powerful and wealthy than ever before.
For business this has been a frightening outcome.
The Libs succeeded in losing the drover’s dog election with a pathetic campaign that showed they simply have no idea. Worse still, they don’t care.
For the Central Coast this election result will send messages back to the government that they can continue to ignore our social and economic issues with absolute immunity.
Obviously Central Coast residents are more gullible than anyone would have thought. After all, as bad as the Liberals were, blind Freddy could see that Morris was lying through his teeth every time he said, “sorry”.

The election result  should strike fear into the owners of most businesses.
The mandate that the electorate has given the ALP (not Morris Iemma) is for more of the same and with the re-appointment of John Della Bosca as Minister for Industrial Relations that means the war against business will continue.
This is a war of attrition against business using Workers Compensation and OHS regulations to fund the unions.  The unions are out to eliminate sub-contractors – make no mistake about it.
When the media asks this Minister for a comment on these issues he simply says that it is all about fairness and safety in the workplace.
In fact it is all about the militant unions who have lost some of their control over the workplace, using  WorkCover to get back that control as well as fill their coffers.
Just ask June Gibson.  WorkCover has taken this lady and her bricklayer husband to the cleaners – along with thousands (not an exaggeration) of other small business operators across the whole state.
This has been achieved by having no hard and fast definition of the meaning of ‘Sub-contractor’ or ‘contractor’.
We have another four years at least to endure.
What is unfair is that after appointing a Committee a year ago, made up mostly of union bosses, to establish a definition of ‘sub-contactor’ and ‘contractor’ and which was to report to the Minister before the end of 2006, this got put on hold until after the election.
Seeing as the Australian Taxation Office has a legal definition of these two terms one would think it would not be too hard.
If the Premier wants us to believe that things will change he should instruct his Minister to get this issue fixed NOW! (as the unionist say!).
Meanwhile, June Gibson isn’t going away.  They have picked on the wrong girl. 
Everyday June goes through the Sydney Morning Herald’s Legal Notices and notes down all the businesses the WorkCover is sending to the wall. 
And, through the Small Business Reform Group that she runs she is getting new members and helping those caught in the WorkCover trap.

Edgar Adams
Editor

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