On December 19, the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) granted public and private sector teachers a 5.5% interim pay rise.
Two days earlier, the IRC had granted public hospital nurses a 3.5% pay rise from January 1. As part of its "What's a Nurse Worth?" Campaign, the NSW Nurses Association had sought a one-off 15% pay rise, qualification allowances and retention allowances.
The teachers pay ruling, which will stand for six months from January 1, is almost double what Premier Bob Carr's Labor government offered.
NSW Teachers Federation president Maree O'Halloran welcomed the IRC ruling, but warned that the dispute was far from over.
@9 point = To avoid future industrial action, including a 48-hour teachers' strike on February 11-12, O'Halloran said the government must commit itself to fully fund the IRC's final decision, which is expected to be handed down before June.
The government "argued before the commission that 3% [this year] was absolutely all they afford", O'Halloran said. "Magically, today they say they can fund the increase [of 5.5%]. Someone's lying somewhere."
On January 3, O'Halloran warned that the Teachers Federation was seeking legal advice on how teachers could avoid processing increased fees imposed on TAFE students by the Carr government.
"Teachers are so disturbed at the effect this will have on students that we are considering how not to collect the money, in conjunction with the Public Service Association", she said.
Students at NSW technical colleges now face up-front fee costs as high as $1650 when they begin enrolling over the next few weeks.
Doug Lorimer
Sisalem enters mediation
A hearing before the Federal Court on December 8 considered an appeal for asylum by stateless Palestinian man Aladdin Sisalem, who remains the only prisoner in the Australian-run detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island.
Justice Peter Gray expressed his astonishment that Sisalem's verbal requests were inadequate, and that officials had rejected the validity of the claim because he did not ask for a form. Gray ordered that both parties enter mediation to try to resolve the impasse, setting a cut-off date of January 30 for the process.
Sisalem's Melbourne-based lawyer, Eric Vadarlis, expressed his reservations on December 8, stating: "It's very hard to mediate with a person who keeps saying no. The government's position is: 'No, you're not entitled to a visa; no, you're not entitled to come here; no, we're not going to give you a visa and you have no rights'. So we'll be happy to go along to mediation, but you have to have two willing parties to mediate in order for it to be effective, and at the moment I don't think they're being very helpful."
A full day of talks was held on December 24, but failed to reach a resolution. The parties have been ordered to hold a second round of talks in February.
Sarah Stephen
WA government tries to gag union journals
Sensitive to the slightest criticism, the Western Australian Labor government has announced that reporters for union journals will be excluded from government press conferences.
The announcement came after David Cohen, a part-time reporter for the Australian Nursing Federation's WA journal The Western Nurse, was told that he should not attend a mid-December media conference where Premier Geoff Gallop and health minister Jim McGinty were to make an announcement about hospital waiting lists.
John Arthur, the director of the WA government's media office, stated that the government wanted to keep "partial" union magazines out of government media conferences. With a straight face, Arthur said that only "mainstream impartial media", such as the Murdoch press, would be invited.
The Western Nurse is published every one or two months by the Australian Nursing Federation, which has been sharply critical of the WA Labor Government and has called for McGinty to be replaced.
Cohen, who is also president of the WA branch of journalists' union — the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance — went to the press conference anyway.
ANF state secretary Mark Olson, who edits The Western Nurse, claims the WA government is trying to avoid scrutiny in the lead-up to the next state election. "I would like to remind the government that these press conferences are publicly funded — that is, it's the taxpayers who are footing the bill for the many government media personnel who arrange and manage these events", Olson said.
Sue Bolton
From Green Left Weekly, January 14, 2004.
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