Other than
a few former Liberal staffers now pimping for peak business bodies, does anyone
actually like WorkChoices? The bruvvers certainly don’t – and the H R Nicholls
Society seems to be equally emphatic, although its criticisms differ.

The public
don’t seem that keen, either, according to a Morgan Poll out today.
Indeed, their enthusiasm is diminishing:

A majority of Australians (57%) disagree with
the Federal Government’s Industrial Relations reforms introduced last week, 20%
agree and 23% couldn’t say a special Roy Morgan telephone survey finds. This is
an increase of 8% from the 49% of Australians who disagreed in October 2005 when the
reforms were proposed. Those who agree with the reforms are up 3% to 20% and
those who couldn’t say or hadn’t heard of the reforms in October 2005 are down
11% from 34%.

We’re
eighteen months from a federal election. Will WorkChoices be old hat by then –
or will the horror stories keep on coming out? Will the media be interested in
them? Will Labor look like an alternative government?

Kevin
Andrews’ Question Time performances on the marvels of his new system are truly
remarkable. But the Government’s big selling point for WorkChoices is job
creation. Can the figures get much better than yesterday’s five per cent? And are the jobs that are being created actually the jobs people
want – 39,500 part time positions were filled last month.

They’re the
questions that will need to be settled by the 2007 election. Keep watching the
polls as more and more considered responses emerge.