Refugee staff from Howard's Government

Word has it that Liberal Party staffers were clearing their desks to-day. When political staffers lose their jobs at elections, dear Reader, they tend to be picked up by their party in another jurisdiction. So a staffer from NSW might end up in Queensland. But now the landscape is Labor across the States, Territories and now the Commonwealth. Where will these people go?

The answer (if it is an answer, dear Reader) is the Brisbane City Council. The BCC is like no other Council in the nation. It is huge and covers the whole of Brisbane. Aldermen/women have large wards and draw the same salary as a State Member of Parliament. BCC runs its own transport system and - but this might have changed - used to run its own electricity system.

The Brisbane City Council has a Liberal Lord Mayor named Campbell Newman. Now, I'm sure that Campbell could take one or two of Howard's refugee staff. But that's the only base. Otherwise it's onto the Sydney Morning Herald's Rivers of Gold.

Underemployment: an economic tool in the national interest?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has to-day released figures on underemployment in Australia as at September 20005. You can find them here. The ABS figures are numbers. What do they mean? The figures mean that there are Australians out there ready, willing and able to undertake full time employment and they are searching for it. The figures mean that there are Australians out there who are being marginalized from full participaption in national economic life. The figures mean that there are Australians out there who can only find insecure employment. The figures mean there are Australians out there who are

• having difficulty making ends meet
• having difficulty getting and paying a mortgage
• having difficulty funding the best health, education, and sporting activity for their children
• having difficulty in accessing further education and training to become and remain competitive in the labour market
• having the prospect of losing what skills they already have
• having difficulty in building an appropriate superannuation nest egg for their old age.

Isn't this wonderful? Yet the rich personally and corporately minimise their taxes to obscene proportions; pressure politicians for even more tax cuts; and some even wonder why they should pay tax at all.

Full participation in the national economy is important for us all: rich and poor; business and consumer; government and corporate; young and old. An economy that is not built on equity is built on instability, on the volcano that one day might erupt.