John Howard Scared of Labor's IR Plan

Prime Minister John Howard must be very afraid of voter perceptions of Workchoices, and the obvious differences in the ALP's (& Kevin Rudd's) modified IR proposal.

Today, Mr Howard issued a press release about Labor's proposal. Because the media run these press releases as news, almost without question, Mr Howard will mention the "scary moster" word "union" every 20 words i his 330 word press release.

But, as with most things said by politicians, it is what was not said that is important. Mr Howard had no argument: he is simply trying to scare voters. He said nothing of his plans for "WorkChoices v2"; he did not argue against any of the content of the ALP's policy, other than to criticise a system of arbitration and conflict resolution. His tactic is simply to repeat the untested assertion that is his position: no facts, no policy, just repetition.

It seems to be all he has, or wants to tell us. Voters can only hope that the media recognise that, and report it.


John