Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Why Labour's policies are the Liberals fault.

The Labour Party's new labour policy has just been announced and from what I can tell it's a shocker. They openly boast about how they'll be an interfering busibody in every shopping centre ready to tell you how to relate to your workers. But I don't blame the Labour Party I blame John Howard, who was the one who usurped vast power over the labour market from the states. When labour relations were largely a state responsibility each state competed with the others to have a good investment enviroment. As much as the unions wanted them to screw over their employers and as much as the Labour Party wanted to oblige them they had to contend with the possibility the employers would flee. With the decisions being made at national level it is now far more expensive to flee their reach and so far more onerous burdens can be placed on the shoulders of employers or non-union employees with non-standard contracts. The new policy is an entirely predictable, and predicted outcome of the WorkChoices initiative. Of course few will actually blame Howard for it because his supporters will pretend to see no fault and his attackers will see no fault with the policy. I just wish I had predicted this earlier so I could claim to be a pundit.