Prime Minister John Howard and La Trobe MP Jason Wood discuss progress on the Bryn Mawr Bridge at Berwick.By Jim Mynard
PRIME Minister John Howard was told on arrival at Pakenham last Wednesday that Australians were on board the Garuda Airlines plane that crashed on landing at Jogjakarta less than an hour before.
He took the messages and was late coming into the lunch at the Cardinia Cultural Centre where he was guest speaker.
He went to a few tables to speak with guests, but after eating some lunch he came to the rostrum in a sombre mood.
Mr Howard apologised for his demeanour and said he had just been told that Australians were on board a plane that had crashed in Indonesia.
Because they were associated with the visit to Indonesia of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, the PM would have known some of those on board personally.
Nevertheless, the PM delivered his speech with a warning that if Labor won the next election industrial relations would be subjected to enormous changes.
He said that because of those changes the small business community would suffer and presented a scenario under his government that showed the increase in wages at 19 per cent over inflation.
“Under Labor this will fall,” Mr Howard said. “Unemployment is now at a 32year low.
“We now have too few workers chasing jobs and the number of selfemployed people is above the number of trade union memberships.
“That’s not a criticism of the trade union movement because I acknowledge the contribution of the union movement.
“Despite that, I never accepted that trade unions should have a monopoly.
“We now have a choice about bargaining, but I fear this will go under a Labor government.
“Unfair dismissal laws that cripple small business will come back under Labor, while under our Liberal Government we have unemployment down and industrial disputes down.
“Work choice has had a positive impact.
“If Labor is sensitive to the interests of small business it will leave the unfair dismissal laws alone.
“It is fact that we have more jobs and you can be sure that no employer will let go an employee who is doing a good job.
“This is a workers’ market. We have had people out of work for years, but last year the longterm unemployed fell by 27 per cent.
“People who once never had a hope of getting a job now can find employment. We have entered a new era in the workforce.
“We have a strong economy, despite the impact of the drought,” he said.
Mr Howard said that a country that was in debt could not afford to build things like the new $10 million Bryn Mawr Bridge at Berwick or allocate $10 billion to fix problems in the Murray Darling Basin.
