The ACTU Congress of 2003

Abstract

The 2003 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress was held in Melbourne from 18-21 August. Congress had returned to Melbourne after experiments with Brisbane in 1997, the first time outside Melbourne or Sydney, and Wollongong in 2000, the first time outside a capital city. The venue was the Convention Centre. There were 897 delegates, holding 1,597 votes, from 36 unions, 17 state and provincial labour councils and the ACTU office (see Appendix l).1 This was the second triennial Congress and second Congress with President Sharan Burrow and Secretary Greg Combet at the helm. This was the third Congress in succession with John Howard in office as Prime Minister (PM) and leader of the Liberal-National Parties Coalition. Previous Congresses had made frequent references to the threats posed to unions and working people and this Congress was to be no different. The Prime Minister and the Minister for Workplace Relations, Tony Abbott, were ever-present spectres at the feast. A feature of this Congress was the amount of time devoted to political concerns and the need for strategy to return the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to federal government. Unease over the federal political environment was heightened by divisions within the ALP. Former leader, Kym Beazley, defeated in the 2002 federal election, had ceded the leadership to Simon Crean.2 Months of poor opinion polls on preference for PM suggesting a very significant gap between Howard and Crean had encouraged Beazley to seek to recapture the leadership. Unions were divided with several declaring for Beazley.3 A ballot of the federal ALP caucus resulted in a win for Crean by 58:34 votes.4 The opinion polls remained troubling. ANewspoll published during the Congress indicated the Coalition was ahead of the ALP on the two party preferred vote by 52 per cent to 48 per cent. John Howard was preferred PM with 62 per cent; Crean 18 per cent and 20 per cent uncommitted.5 In significant contrast to the federal sphere all six states and both Territory governments were led by the ALP. The economic news was mixed. The 2003 federal budget indicated that growth in Gross Domestic Product had slowed from around 4 per cent per annum to around 3 per cent.6 In the face of terrorist attacks, the war on Iraq and the outbreak of a highly contagious and life-threatening virus in the Asia-Pacific region, the Australian economy appeared considerably more resilient than the bulk of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Asia Pacific countries. Unemployment appeared stuck around 6 per cent and inflation between 2 and 3 per cent. Closer inspection of economic developments, however, revealed a pattern of increasing inequity in income distribution, greater uncertainty over jobs and career paths, and longer hours for many at work.7 The future of work was identified as a critical issue for Congress delegates. The broad industrial relations context was also mixed. Federal Minister Tony Abbott appeared tireless in his denunciation of unions and his calls for employers to join the crusade.8 The findings of the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry, headed by Commissioner Terence Cole, in particular had