By Peter Boyle
Kennett's unabashed class partisanship ("Ours will be a pro-business government", he promised before the elections) is making even the federal opposition nervous. John Howard thinks Kennett should have declared his intention to abolish holiday leave loadings before the Victorian elections. Several local press commentators also have bemoaned Kennett's lack of subtlety.
Glenda Korporal warned in the October 29 Age that the government needs to keep a broad base of Victorians on its side by being seen to share the pain for Labor's follies. In the same issue, Tim Colebatch echoed these remarks: "... at a time when Victorians were ready to accept bitter medicine to deal with the deficit — provided it was shared fairly — the coalition has been harsh on ordinary Victorians yet inordinately soft on its own core constituency: the well off".
Colebatch, who assures his readers that he believes lower wages will create more jobs, expresses what motivates the concern at Kennett: "The 10 years of Labor brought 10 years of industrial peace to Victoria, giving this state barely half the strike losses of NSW. Yesterday's statement has probably ended that era ..."
Geoffrey Barker (Age October 30) rebuked Kennett for waging "class warfare", or conducting a "revolution of angry right-wing radicals determined to reassert their hegemony over working Victorians". Kennett showed no concern for "social cohesion and pragmatic gradualism", as true conservatives should. His are the "actions of a vengeful comfortable class reclaiming its right to rule".
Only the naive believe that Kennett has reinvented class warfare, but there may be some substance to fears these commentators are expressing. Kay McVey, president of the State Public Service Federation, told Green Left Weekly that Kennett's attacks had sent 450 new members to her union in a week.
"The opposition to the Liberals' legislation has been overwhelming. Membership meetings all around the state have voted — unanimously in most cases — in favour of striking on November 10.
"All our members are aware that just one 24-hour general strike will not achieve our objectives. We need a concerted campaign until this offensive legislation is withdrawn or repealed."