Virtually channeling Howard, he dismisses the WorkChoices issue and tries to frame the federal election in McCarthyist terms:
Unions would survive a federal Coalition victory in late 2007. However, their influence would be substantially - perhaps even permanently - diminished. In other words, many union officials regard 2007 as their last stand.Oh, really? And then what? Is a 2008 Coalition government going to ban unions forever?
Henderson says the criticism of WorkChoices is a campaign "run by the ACTU with the support of Labor" which "enjoys the support of many journalists and academics who cover industrial relations". Goodness, me! Six months out from an election and already blaming the media?
If Howard and his media shrills want to keep ignoring reality, that's their funeral.
They think they can run this spin for another six months and drag voters across to their viewpoint. They will spend millions of taxpayer dollars in slick advertising campaigns to promote WorkChoices and other unpopular government policies. They sold us the GST, they sold us the Iraq War, who is to say they cannot sell us more nicely-wrapped bullshit?
How stupid are we?
UPDATE: Selling the union monster freak show is going to be a bit harder given that Rudd is now risking a showdown with his new economic policies:
The Labor leader's proposals, outlined in a draft policy blueprint, denounce passive welfare, embrace the casualisation of the workforce, boost business grants and formally bury Mark Latham's disastrous Tasmanian forests policy with support for logging.That's from a draft policy document previewed in The Murdochian.
