Freedom and choice are at the heart of every political decision. You must decide whether you support freedom or whether you support the collective making your life decisions for you.

Labour's industrial relations policy is opposed to choice.

Today you can choose whether to join a union, or choose a bargaining agent or represent yourself. Under Labour, by law only unions will be able to represent you in a collective agreement. By law, you won't be able to receive the wages or benefits without joining the union. Compulsory unionism by the back door.

The average trade union charges $500 a year in fees. You will find that you have to pay it. ACT says it is wrong in a free society. I would remind you that some 300,000 workers have left trade unions since they became voluntary.

Forcing 300,000 to re-join trade unions will give the unions an extra $150 million a year. Labour's industrial policy has nothing to do with fairness, freedom or choice. It's all about giving trade unions, who in turn finance the Labour party, another $150 million a year.

It's the equivalent, for a worker being forced to join a union, of a 1% tax increase.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>