State Labor urged to act on voluntary assisted dying

Annerley Labor has joined a campaign organised by the United Workers Union (UWU) to encourage the State Labor Government to act on its promise to introduce voluntary assisted dying laws early in its third term. The union has written to ALP branches highlighting the importance of the issue and encouraging rank and file members to urge action as soon as possible.

In response to the appeal from the UWU, the Annerley Branch adopted a resolution that called on the Premier, Annastasia Palaszczuk, to ‘urgently table legislation to legalise voluntary assisted dying, in line with the recommendations from the Health, Communities, Disability Services and Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Committee report’. The resolution has since been conveyed to the Premier and re-inforces a decision by the last state ALP conference to support the introduction of enabling legislation.

During the recent 2020 state election, Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk promised to introduce a bill as early as February 2021. During the public consultation phase on the issue, there was widespread community support for the laws to be introduced in the state.

The Queensland Parliament resumes on 23 February 2021.

Christmas hamper appeal a big success

Branch members have rallied around their annual Christmas hamper appeal to show support for local people and families doing it tough this year. Each December, the Annerley Branch organises a collection of food items to donate to Micah Projects, which in turn distributes hundreds of hampers to people in need.

However, the big difference this year was the hand over of a cheque for $850 to Micah Projects, in addition to the large collection of food. The funds were donated by branch members in recognition of the difficult year that many had faced due to the pandemic.

On hand to help out was Terri Butler MP, Federal Member for Griffith who handed the cheque to Andy from Micah Projects, (pictured). Andy expressed heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to this years donation, commenting that it would certainly be helpful. The $850 will assist in buying fresh food that will be delivered by volunteers during the busy festive season.

Micah Projects is a not for profit community organisation that supports thousands of people experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, poverty and social isolation. For more information visit micahprojects.org.au

In the final days of the last sitting of Federal Parliament for 2020, the Morrison Coalition Government has revealed its intention to initiate a war not only on Australian workers but also our democracy.

Recently, the government revealed the details of its new industrial relations bill, described by the ACTU as ‘dangerous and seriously unbalanced’.

Essentially, the proposed legislation will:
• allow employers to cut wages and conditions and allow agreements go below the minimum award safety-net,

• remove rights from casuals, allowing employers to call workers ‘casuals’ and take away leave rights. Although it is claimed casual workers will be able to become ‘permanent’ after 12 months, they fail to give workers a way of enforcing this right,

• stripping blue collar workers on big project construction sites of any say whatsoever of their working conditions, creating a class of workers with less rights than everyone else – which what the big mining bosses want. This move will mean that FIFO workers will be the hardest hit.

Critics of the proposed laws believe that if adopted, they will seriously tip the balance in favour of big business.

ACTU secretary, Sally McManus has condemned the package. ‘We know workers sacrificed so much during this pandemic. We cannot allow a generation of workers to be punished with lower wages and worse conditions after carrying Australia through this crisis’, she said.

‘We’ve said all along that the union movement will not accept any proposed changed from the Government that will leave working people worse off’. 

‘But these proposed law changes show that the Morrison Government has sided with extreme business lobby groups to give them power to cut workers’ pay and remove hard fought for rights’, Sally claimed in an email to union members.

Federal Labor has indicated it will also fight the legislation and will refuse to support any provisions that allow a cut in pay and conditions for Australian workers.

In addition to the Coalitions attack on working people, they have also revealed their disdain for Australia’s already fragile democracy. Recently, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters handed down its report on the 2019 Federal election. The review examined Clive Palmer’s unprecedented donation of $83 million to his own campaign, which included a huge advertising spend on misleading social media posts, far outstripping the expenditure of the major parties.

Despite this, the Committee made no recommendations to reduce the ‘distorting influence’ of massive political donations and unlimited election spending, and instead presented proposals which would in fact suppress voter rights and community participation, including:
• introducing voter ID laws, which would create a further barrier to voting by Australia’s most disenfranchised populations, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people;
• ending compulsory preferential voting, potentially creating a regressive ‘first past the post voting system’;
• prohibiting advocacy groups from handing out election information to voters at polling places; and
• creating unreasonable barriers to ‘issues-based’ advocacy in elections for some charities and not-for-profits, which would, in effect, place an unnecessary muzzle on some organisations.

If the proposals are passed by Federal Parliament, many fear it will have far reaching effects on Australia’s democracy. The Federal Labor Opposition has indicated it will fight the proposals and has expressed deep concern about their impact on the fairness of future elections.