The Reigning Rein : Melbourne Indymedia

The Reigning Rein

Last Sunday, in The Age's "Sunday Life" supplement, readers were treated to a nice, warm, fuzzy story on the 'hard' road she has trod to get to where she is. The story revolves around a two central premises. The first is that she had a bit of a rough go as a kid and that she is torn between being a mum and a multimillionaire business women.

Now, I don't want to turn this into a "bash Therese" rant but I think this story provides an interesting case study that helps us understand one of the primary issues that affect us as citizens and particularly, as workers. The "Sunday Life" story allows us a glimpse into the mind of the ruling classes (again) and gives us a glimpse into the future of politics under Labor, should they win the next ballot.

Ms. Rein is described as having a "happy" childhood "riding horses, swimming and playing tennis, devouring Jane Austin books" and talking politics around the dinner table. We're told she attended exclusive girl's schools, St. Peter's in Adelaide and Firbank Grammar in Melbourne. She graduated in arts-law from the Australian National University and was part of the Student Christian Movement.

After meeting and breeding with Kevin she was torn between being a mother and running a multinational company. She says that she "wanted to be in four places at once" and found the only solution was to "hire a nanny" who "tries to bring order out of chaos". Running her businesses, spread across Australia, Europe and the UK means she does a lot of travelling but I assume she is compensated quite well, earning not only her salary but also share bonuses of up to about a million dollars a year.

According to the "Sunday Life" article Therese is not above a little rough and tumble when it comes to money. It seems Therese was quite prepared to do a backroom deal to get her hands on $5 million worth of shares when her former business partner died. Therese, we're told, wanted everything signed, sealed and delivered but, alas, her now dead business partner didn't want that, because, for her, according to Therese, a handshake was a good as her word. The executors of the deceased's will thought this was a crock, took it to court and won so Rein missed out on a quick $5 mill from a dead woman.

The road to good times is sometimes paved with rocks and her most recent elevation in the media was caused by her ripping off her workers. Her defence was that she bought a company that had existing arrangements that she was unaware of. After the media broke the story she said she had begun paying back the workers she had been ripping off and was doing all she could to ensure her businesses complied with Australian Workplace Agreement requirements.

When Kevin's party was asked to comment on Therese's propensity to rip workers off while claiming ignorance, all they could say was that it was an "honest mistake" and she was doing her best to repay the workers. There was no condemnation of her behaviour even though they were quite happy to vilify other employers who did the same thing. Dear ol' Kev said it was none of his business and that his wife would do the right thing. Within a few days it was reported that she had sold her shares in the Australian arm of her company. No doubt it will emerge that all she has done is set up some form of shelf structure that means she still reaps the profits but at 'arms length'. After all she did admit she didn't want to "complicate the decision" the voters have to make at the next election.

I want to turn, briefly, to a tape that emerged earlier this week in which Electrical Trades Union, Victorian Secretary, Dean Mighell talks about how he came to a deal to up the wages of some of his members. It seems that he, too, was quite comfortable doing backroom deals for those he thought would benefit. However, the language he used to describe his tactics were, some would argue, "colourful" and not very polite.

Within a few hours of the Mighell's taped remarks going to air Kevin "I'm from Queensland" Rudd had come down from the North and demanded Mighell's resignation. Why? Because it was obvious that Dean had lobbied hard, played rough and won a few extra dollars for his members. Which is, by the looks of it, a much better deal for workers than the Labor party will ever offer. I make this diversion into Dean Mighell's comments because it brings to the surface the real issue that is being obscured by the hype surrounding a rich boss ripping off her workers.

The real issue, that needs to be talked about in the pubs and around the office water coolers, is why we believe the ruling class understand the needs and aspiration of those they rule over?

We must remember that Kevin "from Queensland" spent the first six weeks of his incumbency talking, not with workers, but with their bosses. Not prepared to sit down and sup with the under-employed or the carers of the disabled he flew to New York and had a slap up, six star meal with Rupert Murdoch. While he was not willing to spend time in shorts and reflective vest driving from Adelaide to Brisbane with a trucker, he had plenty of time to enjoy the sumptuous surrounds of the Sydney Institute and the Business Council of Australia and to meet with the Australian Industry Group.

In short, the Rudd family are, perhaps, even more embedded in the ruling class than John and Jeanette Howard. Kevin's past life as a toe cutter in the Queensland bureaucracy would have opened up numerous doors for him now. His wife's role within the business elites ensures that he has contact with those he feels comfortable with because he certainly isn't comfortable around the rough and tumble that is the real world of the working classes he soon hopes to rule.

As I said at the outset, when an issue that may expose the real intent of the ruling class threatens to expose their true hearts, a smokescreen is created to obscure our view. Kevin "from Queensland" and his wife are being constructed as 'accessible', nice, polite, innocent and brave. However, the reality is that they are ruthless, cunning and not above a bit of biffo if it serves their own interests.

The working class should applaud Dean Mighell because at least he told the truth and for that the boss of the 'worker's party' sacked him. The real issue is, then, who is protecting the interests of the working class because, as history show's, the ruling class have no interest at all in doing so.

*Gillard wrong on pay deals: Mighell*
Ewin Hannan 1 June 2007 The Australian

OUTSPOKEN trade union leader Dean Mighell last night attacked the
federal Labor leadership after striking an industry-wide pay deal that
will apply to hundreds of companies covering thousands of workers.

A day after being expelled from the Labor Party, Mr Mighell declared the
so-called "pattern bargaining" deal - which will deliver 5 per cent annual pay rises until 2010 - showed Labor's deputy leader and
industrial relations spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, was
out of touch.

"This is where Gillard needs to get off the leather
chair and have a big
look at reality, and actually engage those employers
who not only want
pattern bargaining but demand a level playing
field," he told The
Australian.

"Her concerns about our pattern bargaining show that
her grasp on
industrial relations reality is negligible."

Ms Gillard has insisted industry-wide bargaining -
known as pattern
bargaining - will not be allowed by Labor.

But Mr Mighell said he hoped up to 1000 employers
would sign up to the
deal.

Employers last night confirmed the deal had been
approved by the
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and
the Office of
Employment Advocate.

Philip Green, chief executive officer of the
National Electrical
Contractors Association, acknowledged the deal
represented pattern
bargaining.

"If you approach it from the basis that the union is
saying this is the
only agreement that they're prepared to enter into
with employers in
that industry, then it is pattern bargaining," he
said.

"We have members who want to do agreements with the
union and we have
other members who have no intention of doing an
agreement with the union."

The deal would apply to a couple of hundred
companies, he said.

Asked if the deal represented industry bargaining,
he said: "In a sense,
I guess it does, but we certainly don't adopt the
view that our members
have to enter into this. This is just a proportion
of members who are
looking to do an arrangement with the union."

Mr Green and Mr Mighell began negotiating in
November 2005 and it took
18 months for the deal to comply with the federal
industry code.

Mr Mighell said he hoped the deal would eventually
cover 11,000
employees. "Employers in our industry support
pattern bargaining, they
f..king demand it, to be quite honest," he said.

He also lashed out at Ms Gillard after she again
criticised his conduct
yesterday, describing his address to a union meeting
last year as
"thuggish".

Labor Leader Kevin Rudd forced Mr Mighell to quit the ALP after a recording of the address was leaked to the media.

"Kevin said it was right over the line, I thought it was thuggish, I
thought it was stupid, I thought it was unacceptable," Ms Gillard said
yesterday.

But Mr Mighell hit back last night. "I played the team game yesterday
(by accepting the demand to quit)," he said. "I will not be branded a
thug. I have never done anything violent or intimidated anybody. It's
unacceptable."

Now we hear that Sarina Russo is model for women and migrants. Rudd, who will make glorious summer the winter of our Howard discontent, is married to a successful entrepreneur who has made her fortune from the Job Network. It is in little increments like these that we unknowingly accept the disappearance of the gains our forebears fought so hard for. The CES was established in 1947 as a direct consequence of the Chifley Government’s White Paper on Full Employment. Its privatization has turned the task of helping the unemployed into a business opportunity for spivs and sharks to plunder the public coffers.

I know nothing about Therese Rein, Rudd’s wife, or of her business. I know it made $175 million last year and employed 1,300 people. You do the maths – that’s a nice little earner. Maybe she has worked out a magical formula for empowering the victims of neo-liberalism, gaining them employment in the burgeoning resource sector. Or maybe she employs a bunch of under trained clerks to sign people up and go “kching” on a computer.

The important thing is that the only concern anyone in the media appears to have in all of this is the potential of a conflict of interest – not the more basic question of what this means for the labour movement. Will our new leader restore the CES? Does he give a flying fuck about the unemployed? He slept in a car a few times. That gave him “labour values”. We are expected to accept that as a consolation and a proof that he is a lesser evil than John Howard – which is like being called a lesser evil than Dracula. - R.B.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/03/142867.php

What would you replace a tumour like Howard with ?
tumour lite K. Rudd of course (not!)

Votenobody because Nobody does it better! Makes me feel sad for the rest!

Remember the two basic and self-evident truths in life.

Anyone who disagrees with you is a fascist; and

Voting informally wil solve all of our problems.

Follow these edicts and all will be well.

Con and Adam Ant said so.

Bourgeois politics is largely an image game.
By coming down hard on the militant unionists, Rudd will project the image that the Labor Party is not controlled by the unions as the Liberals say it is.
He can't go too far though, as the unions are needed by Labor both financially and vote wise.

Now if the ETU & CFMEU withdrew their 'donations' to the Alternative Liberal Party there would be the possibility of something happening to end this miserable cap in hand to the Political Boss situation !

As the good old IWW and more recently the BLF, Nurses, Pilots, Trammies and so many others have found out the ALP will destroy what they cannot control. We expect the Liberal bastards to serve the rich but have no illusions kids so do the ALP !