Midnight Oil

Subject: Re: [powderworks] NMOC: Our hero's in trouble
From: Stuart Fenech
Date: 26/02/2010, 9:56 pm
To: powderworks

Hello,

Will poke my head up briefly here to be shot.

Garrett was let down by the people behind him, and his ability to manage those people behind him. Abbott and the media were going for his scalp, and they got it.

Unions are not the enemy. Unions are generally not out there politicising these issues. Potentially, better consultation with unions about the impact of the home insulation programme could have prevented the tragedies that occurred.

The value of Greg Combet is that he is used to dealing with complex situations with many stakeholders. I have been watching him; he is one of the best in the house. He is perhaps the best chance for the Rudd Government to overcome challenges in this area.

It's nasty politics. The ALP could have taken similar lines under workchoices and the ABCC, which did noone any favours who worked on construction sites. There is still an average of one fatality a week on construction sites; there should be none.

What's causing trouble at the ground level is people on the street are furious with Garrett. Mainly because of the limbo of the employers, employees and members of the public about the various environment initiatives.

As much as it sucks, Rudd had to act politically. It won't end here - Rudd and the ALP are trying to do the right thing by Garrett but the opposition won't be happy until he's on the backbenches.

Regards

Stuart

On 26 February 2010 16:59, Miron Mizrahi <mironmizrahi@yahoo.com> wrote:

great idea! let's add more bureaucracy, this will surely ensure success. i am surprised they didnt spin this as a job creation program. and with Combet in charge I can hear the corks going at union HQ around the nation. I wonder who will get the contracts? hang on, what am i talking about? this is Penny Wong. before we know it, we will have a program to replace batteries in remote controls with long stick which we can poke at the devices from the comfort of our armchairs. and then they'll scrap that one because "it has been linked" to people poking their dog's eyes out by accident.

"I would like to ask the Prime Minister, can he explain how Scruffy lost its eye"
"well... as I was about to change the channel and watch Eddie Mcguire and Scruffy jumped up. and may i remind the member for Uselessville that it was the previous PM who brought Scruffy to The Lodge"

the thing that really pisses me off is that no one, and i mean no one, got anything out of it. the program is not fixed, the people employed lost their jobs, we have to fork out $41m to help them, the opposition did not get PG sacked, PG got demoted. ok, ok ... i take that back. Penny Wong has more responsibility. nah, still a losing proposition
�
Miron

How could people get so unkind?