Labour still has its villains

NEWS

Spare a thought, please, for all the unions planning to march through the streets of inner-Brisbane on Sunday week, May 3.

Think of all those placards and props they’ve diligently created over the last three years, decrying that awful Campbell Newman and his merry band of ministerial misfits. And the fact that they are already out of date and have had to be discarded, courtesy of the viciousness of Queensland voters! It doesn’t seem fair, really. With a whopping parliamentary majority, their nemesis Can-Do surely would have been the target of their wrath for at least two terms. Three or four even, if you really thought about the predicament the Queensland Labor’s parliamentary wing was in with little more than a six-pack of MLAs. Still, one suspects the state’s trade unionists won’t be been too unhappy with the amazing turn of events on the last day of January, as they bin anti-Newman slogans and cartoons of the great man. So we’ll have to make up some new material. Shit happens, they would have been thinking as they sorted though their parade propaganda, and it’s just so happened that the little shit was thrown out by the people of Queensland.

But all is not lost for Sunday week and the union movement’s day of celebration for battles fought and won over workers’ pay and conditions. The other main target of their ire, the Mad Monk, is still in charge in Canberra – at least for the time being – so expect a renewed focus on him and his new government run by “adults”. The fear of a return to Work Choices should no doubt get a thorough working over as the march swings down through the Valley and up to the Ekka showgrounds, and the public sector, health and education unions will go hard as usual with dire warnings of the big risk Abbott and Co represent to general pay and working conditions in those industries and services.

But let’s not forget that Labour Day is also a celebration of past victories by organised labour, and a huge part of the day is for the family of workers to get together for a family day out. The 2015 Labour Day march and family fun day on Sunday May 3 commences on the corner of Wharf and Turbot streets in Spring Hill at 10am. The marchers will wind their way down to the RNA showgrounds for a family fun day with drinks, food, music events and rides courtesy of local unions. There will no doubt also be the customary couple of speeches by dignitaries. Don Gordon-Brown