It’s simple, the Australia Building and Construction Commission is an abomination. It victimises a group of workers unfairly. You can’t have one set of Industrial Laws for the construction industry, and another set for everyone else. Surely, we should all be afforded the same rights in our respective workplaces and be free from the coercive powers of this Commission.

It’s like saying all Business Consultants can only receive 5 day annual leave a year. That wouldn’t wash and neither should it, but that’s effectively what it is doing.

Rudd, et al, you still rely on Unions for your power base. Without the Union movement you would not have been elected. The Union movement also remains your last connection to any form of community engagement.

In the name of the legions of Your Rights at Work volunteers that made sure Rudd el at was elected, abolish the ABCC and don’t put in place a watered down replacement.

For being an oppressive tool of the Howard Government, and showing just how close together the Rudd and Howard Governments are, the ABCC is: Jerk of the Week!

PG takes out Jerk of the Week this time. This paragraph in this morning’s paper summed it all up for me:

Environment Minister Peter Garrett blamed the sudden move [ending the rebate on solar panels] on a cost blow-out, from an original estimate of $150 million to $750 million a year, due to its unexpected popularity.

Let’s take a moment to reflect shall we.

Why does one provide a rebate for Solar Panels installed on the roofs of houses? So that people take up the offer, therefore reducing the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

The scheme works, thousands of solar panels are installed on the rooftops of suburban Australian reducing carbon pollution levels, and PG decides to pull the plug.

Once again, this government’s attitude towards all things climate related is proven to be little more than a lip service. Of all the things that you could spend a few extra dollars on (and we’re not talking super-bucks in the scheme of a federal budget) surely this would be high on the list.

So for that, you PG, are: Jerk of the Week.

Of course a special mention should go to (to borrow a phrase) Fucktard Fielding for his renewed skepticism surrounding human-educed climate change.

As yesterday’s Crikey noted:

Well the Heartland Institue is certainly doing its job. The right-wing American thinktank explicitly aims to influence politicians and, while they normally aim at state legislators in the US, doubtless they’d be chuffed that such an influential Australian political figure as Steve Fielding has been giving their climate change scepticism a detailed hearing.

Heartland has extensive links with the tobacco industry and has previously received extensive financial support from Exxon Mobil. The Institute’s sloppy, biased approach to climate change is best summed up by an incident in 2007 when Heartland published on its website “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares”.

Good one dickhead.