Labor Right rant fails the fact test

The bald statement by Paul Howes that "the Greens are fundamentally opposed to the core values of the labour movement" is demonstrably false. This is an allegation from a union leader whose union buries its policies in present jobs, has no answer for a post-carbon economy, and Paul Howes can only make things up about the Greens.

The Australian Greens' industrial relations policy commences with a list of 11 principles that deal with a fair and equitable industrial relations system for all workers including the core values and rights of a democratic industrial relations system that are consistent with the core principles codified in the ILO's International Labour Standards. These include rights to be a member of a union, to collectively bargain, to collectively withhold labour and collectively organise in the workplace. These rights were discarded by the Howard Government and the Rudd and Gillard Governments have failed to restore them in their fullness.

Greens policy also affirms that a fair and effective industrial relations system includes effective processes of dispute resolution, including conciliation and arbitration before an independent tribunal, core industrial relations principles that Mr Howes claims the Greens don't subscribe to.

The Greens' philosophy emphasises the dignity of work, economic security, equity, fair and equitable remuneration, the right to workplace participation and a safe workplace, where industrial manslaughter is a crime. The ALP has no monopoly on labour principles.

Far from Howes' reckless allegation that The Greens "openly want to crush the jobs of hardworking Australians in the very industries that support our national prosperity", the party focuses on an Australian workforce that must be highly skilled, highly trained and well paid, and addresses the undesirability of an industrial system that allows the objectives of profitability and efficiency to override social and ecological objectives.

Mr Howes' party took five years to remove Howard's unjust and reprehensible Australian Building and Construction Commission, allowing it to remain in place until last month, hardly giving the Labor party the moral high ground in the core values of the labour movement.

As a former trade union official and industrial relations academic, long disenchanted with the ALP's move to the right, I found the Greens' policies for jobs and employment refreshing. The Greens' embrace of the need for future-proofing employment in the new economy, and its championing of renewable energy and low emitting industries contains a long-term perspective that not only serves the present workforce, which has been under siege for the past two decades, but also prepares for a more secure future for our grandchildren.

In a way, Howes has done the Greens a favour with his ill-considered rant, for in his concern to distance the ALP from his fictional Greens, he dismantles the Coalition's line that "a vote for The Greens is a vote for Labor" or that "a vote for the Greens is a wasted vote" – a slogan that reveals the Tories' distain for the value of Australians' vote.