Fighting for workers rights .. or clogging a city .. which matters more ?

I won't go on a big rant about this, but just state my bias: that I am completely against the Howard government's planned industrial relations reforms.

It is very interesting to read The Herald Sun's" report on yesterday's protest in the city streets of Melbourne. The Herald Sun, who never let an important issue get in the way of what is just easier to understand, ran with the Headline: "Workers clog city to protest". The story goes on to talk at length about how the protest caused mayhem and disarray in Melbourne's streets and businesses. They provide what is almost a passing reference to the actual issue that caused 120,000 people to get out on the streets in the middle of winter and protest. Also note that the headline mentions nothing about what the protest is about, suggesting only that some renegade "workers" caused a clogging of Melbourne's streets. Given Melbourne's streets are usually clogged with traffic anyway, I doubt this was that much different. And I love the photo they have chosen showing a mounted policeman looking over the crowd - just to give that sense of potential violence. Did anyone hear of any violence reported in the Melbourne protest ? I think I heard someone say "Howard is a dickhead" in one of last night's news reports, which in these troubled times, almost warrants a visit from ASIO.

So yes, of course the protest caused disruption, that's what protests do. The workplace relations minister, Kevin "Kevo" Andrews (is it just me, or does he look a lot like Noddy?) made it clear how much money these naughty workers have cost our apparently cash strapped nation - "10's of millions of dollars" - that's almost as much as those "be alert, not alarmed" fridge magnets! Make no mistake, you would have to look a long way back through Australian domestic history to find an issue more worthy of causing disruption in our nations capital cities. I just hope the Herald Sun's readers can see through the spin when they read about why their tram was delayed yesterday.

So I guess it did end up being a rant .. :)