not too much

Between 150,000 and 210,000 opponents of the Federal Government's new workplace laws marched in Melbourne on Tuesday, in what may have been the largest ever demonstration in Australian history. About another 300,000 people attended some sort of protest elsewhere.



The rally exceeded even the 100,000 people who filled Collins Street in 1970 to oppose Australia's participation in the Vietnam war as a US ally.

Describing yesterday's march, Steve Waldon wrote in The Age, Melbourne's leading newspaper, that, " this was no angry mob chanting hackneyed catch cries for the television cameras. It was a vast -- some said the biggest -- communal gathering in which all sectors of society and age groups assembled to hear and be heard on workers' rights. The message was very clear and could only be misunderstood if wilfully misinterpreted -- proceed with this legislation only if you are prepared for the fight of your political life, and have your bags packed at the next federal election. . . . One hot topic as the rally marched towards Carlton was whether Mr Howard had seriously, perhaps fatally, miscalculated the Australian community."



In its Editorial, The Age said

It would be a mistake to conclude that the unions' morale-boosting exercise is not reflective of broad public concern. Certainly, as the Government says, the public sentiment is based on fears of what might happen in workplaces, but on our reading
of the legislation such fears are not baseless. The Age endorses the argument that a flexible, simpler, modern system of workplace law is needed to sustain a productive economy, but doubts this legislation will deliver that. Fairness and job security are the essential foundations of a happy, productive workforce and of consumer confidence; the absence of these qualities is an alarming feature of the legislation. . . .

If the Coalition [the Federal Government parties] insists on such measures, it cannot escape blame for any exploitation. The workplace effect of the laws will be judged by the standards of fairness and balance. The ultimate arbiters will be workers - not commentators, politicians, union leaders or employers. The danger for the Coalition is that many Australians will say, "We didn't vote for this." On this issue at least, Labor offers a clear alternative. If Australians vote out the Government to get rid of its workplace laws, it will have only itself to blame for dismissing their concerns.

Even the conservative Australian Christian Lobby (which supported the Government in opposition to same-sex marriages, for example) criticised the Government on it's industrial relations changes, saying they will force families to spend less time together, with serious consequences.