Socialist Alliance Policy Dossier To September 2009

POLICY DOSSIER COMPILATION OF SOCIALIST ALLIANCE ADOPTED POLICY CURRENT TO SEPTEMBER 2009 This dossier contains the complete set of policies that have been formally adopted by the Socialist Alliance since its founding in 2001. It does not include all applications of policy. For these, see the minutes of six National Conferences of the Socialist Alliance, as well as the minutes of its National Executive (available at http://socialist-alliance.wikispaces.com). 1. Preamble to Socialist Alliance Platform 2. The Socialist Alliance platform 3. Education 4. Housing 5. Charter of Worker and Trade Union Rights 6. War in Iraq 7. Globalisation and Privatisation 8. West Papua and Aceh 9. Colombia 10. Palestine (2008) 11. Cuba 11. Venezuela (2008) 13. Welfare Rights Charter (2008) 14. Women´s Rights (Gender Agenda) 15. Public Transport 16. East Timor 17. Australia´s Role in the Region 18. Immigration and Refugee Rights 19. Environment 20. Health Care 21. Equality for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people 22. Charter of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rights (2008) 23. Policy on the ban on the Hijab 24. Unions in the Armed Forces 25. Voting age 26. Indonesia 27. The right of self-determination for the Tamil people (2008)

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28. Philippines 29. Energy Policy Framework (2008) 30. Water (2008) 31. Climate Change Charter (2008) 32. Bolivia (2008) 33. Western Sahara (2008) 34. Australian Building and Construction Commission (2008) 35. Fair Work Bill (2008) 36. Attitudes to worker and union candidates (2008) 37. Perspectives for building Socialist Alliance and left regroupment (2008) 39. Seasonal Workers (2008) 40. Tibet (2008)

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1. Preamble to the Socialist Alliance platform (2001) Socialist Alliance aims to provide an answer to the millions of working people seeking a world free of war, poverty, bigotry, and environmental destruction. War and misery are the defining characteristics of capitalism. The current invasion of Iraq by imperialist forces, including Australian troops, means not only mass murder in the Middle East, but increasing attacks on the wages, services and living conditions of working people in this country. The Socialist Alliance is opposed to the war on Iraq and stands with the Iraqi people against the occupying force which seeks to rob them of their sovereignty and resources. In order to afford their war, Australia’s millionaires and their political allies intend to make the working majority pay for a conflict with which we profoundly disagree. The tremendous wealth created by our collective labour should not be squandered by the tiny ruling minority. The redistribution of their undeserved gains would go a long way to alleviating the crises in health, welfare, education and housing that plague our society. The reorganisation of industries to permit worker and community control and the reversal of privatisation would create tens of thousands of jobs. Real democracy would unleash the collective creativity of working people, so necessary to repair the damage to our communities and environments caused by decades of economic rationalism and the ruthless pursuit of profits. Injustice and capitalism are inextricably linked. Nationalism, sexism, racism and homophobia are the preferred tools of the ruling class, used to divide working people from each other and so divert us from our common struggle against exploitation. The Socialist Alliance is totally opposed to all forms of bigotry and will challenge it wherever it appears. For this reason, the Alliance stands with Indigenous people in their centuries-long struggle to reclaim their land, and with all those fleeing persecution and poverty to seek a better life in this country. The Socialist Alliance seeks to stand candidates in elections at every level of government. We intend to offer an alternative to both Labor and the Greens. Having embraced the policies of corporate globalisation, Labor has long ceased offering traditional Labor voters an alternative to the reactionary program of the Howard regime. And while the Greens go a long way in pointing out the injustices and depredations of the current system, ultimately they seek to reform it, rather than build a better alternative. To Greens voters the Alliance says that real change is not possible without removing the source of environmental degradation—the profit system itself. Sustainability means socialism. If elected, a Socialist Alliance candidate would reject the perks and personal pay-outs of parliamentary office and accept only the average worker’s wage. In parliament, Socialist Alliance candidates would use their position to give a voice to workers’ struggles and social movements, fight reactionary policies and promote the mass campaigns that can defeat the attacks on jobs and living standards. 3

Ultimately, parliament is not the forum for lasting social change. For that reason the Socialist Alliance also seeks to build united front action to the greatest extent possible, in order to promote the only viable future for the planet and its people—a worldwide socialist society.

2. The Socialist Alliance platform The Socialist Alliance stands on a platform of total opposition to the profit-driven economic rationalist agenda of social austerity, privatisation and deregulation. By empowering communities and redistributing the wealth of society we can create jobs, expand public services, and improve welfare and services. Millions of us face declining services, transport chaos, low pay, job insecurity, homelessness, racism, sexism and environmental destruction, while the tremendous wealth of Australia is concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority. Only by ending the concentration of power in the hands of that minority can the wealth that exists be used for the benefit of working people. Every major industry should be re-organised on the lines of social provision for need—publicly owned, and democratically controlled by the workers and the community. The Socialist Alliance will stand candidates in the next federal election to give a voice to working-class struggle and highlight the need for working-class political representation. We will stand to offer an alternative that Labor is not. We recognise that on issues such as the GST, health and education, Labor is offering far less than what traditional Labor voters want. The Socialist Alliance stands in complete opposition to the racist and right-wing Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party. If elected, a Socialist Alliance candidate would reject the perks and personal pay-outs of parliamentary office and accept only the average worker’s wage. In parliament, Socialist Alliance candidates would use their position to give a voice to workers’ struggles and social movements, fight reactionary policies and promote the mass campaigns that can defeat the attacks on jobs and living standards. A movement for change must be built by developing policies, campaigns, industrial struggles and co-operation with all workers, environmental, anti-racist, and other social movements and to put forward an alternative to corporate control of society. A sustained mass campaign of total opposition to the ruling class offensive can bring together the forces to replace capitalism with a socialist society, based on co-operation, democracy and ecological sustainability. SCRAP THE GST, TAX THE RICH • Tax the rich and slash the defence budget to fund free universal provision for health, education, and care of children, the aged and people with disabilities. • Free tertiary education; cancel the HECS debt. • Free quality childcare. 4

• Repeal the GST and introduce a highly progressive system of taxes on incomes, profits and wealth of the rich; reverse drastic reductions in business taxation of recent years. • Free quality aged care. • Increase social security benefits to a living wage; no work for the dole; no mutual obligation. PUBLIC NEED NOT CORPORATE GREED • End government funding of private schools, hospitals and health insurance. • Fund Medicare not private health funds. • Expand public services. • No to privatisation, keep Telstra and Centrelink under public ownership; reverse the privatisation of Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank, airports, electricity and the CES. FULL UNION RIGHTS • Every worker should have the right to join a union and oblige their employer to recognise and negotiate with the union. Unions should have the right to gain access to workplaces, to inspect company plans and books, to strike, to picket effectively, and to act in solidarity with other unions or social causes. • Repeal anti-union laws—the Workplace Relations Act and sections 45 D and E of the Trade Practices Act. • No individual contracts. • Stop the attacks on workers’ compensation, increase the entitlements for injured workers. FIGHT CORPORATE GLOBALISATION • For international solidarity, to gain union rights, basic public services, and a living wage for workers around the world. • Cancel Third World debt. Withdraw Australia from the WTO. The agents of global capitalism, the WTO, IMF and World Bank must be replaced with a global plan of economic reconstruction to end poverty. • Promote peace and international co-operation. • Open the borders. FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY • For a democratic republic with representatives receiving no more than a skilled worker’s wage. • End racist harassment of Aborigines and ethnic groups. • Disarm the police to stop police killings. • Decriminalise personal drug use; for safe injecting rooms and prescription heroin trials. FOR WOMEN’S LIBERATION • Full reproductive freedom. Repeal abortion laws; guarantee access to abortion services; lift the ban on RU 486 (mifepristone, the abortion pill). End legalised discrimination against lesbians and single women seeking access to medically assisted conception. • Fully funded refuges for women and children escaping physical, psychological or sexual abuse. • No cuts to women’s services. • Equal pay for comparable work; affirmative action to ensure access to non-traditional jobs. • Free abortion on demand; a woman’s right to choose. END DISCRIMINATION 5

• Repeal all laws that discriminate against lesbians and gay men; full equality for same sex couples. • End all discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, age, disability, political ideology, employment status, sexuality and gender identity. • Equal pay for equal or comparative work for women, young people, Indigenous workers and people with disabilities. FOR ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY • Extend and socialise public transport, not freeways. • Effective action on greenhouse gas emissions; develop renewable energy sources. • No uranium mining, no nuclear reactors, no radioactive waste dumping. • No logging of old growth forests. • No genetically engineered organism crops or field trials. • Worker-community-green alliances to counter profiteering developers. SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS • Repeal Howard’s ten-point plan and extend native title; restore the right to veto mining on Indigenous land. • Negotiate a treaty recognising prior ownership and Indigenous land rights. • Increase funding for, and Indigenous control of, community services. • Abolish mandatory sentencing. • Apology and full compensation for the stolen generations. FREE THE REFUGEES, MIGRANT RIGHTS • Close the detention centres; end mandatory detention. • Full rights for asylum seekers and migrants; abolish the two-year waiting period which prevent newly arrived migrants accessing social security. • End all deportations. • Remove all restrictive and discriminatory immigration regulations; abolish the pro-business “points” system. • Funding and specialist services for resettlement. • Unlimited and free English classes. • Full citizenship rights including the right to vote for all refugees and migrants, with abolition of the temporary protection visa. SOLIDARITY WITH WORKING-CLASS AND DEMOCRATIC STRUGGLES IN ALL COUNTRIES • Opposition to Australia’s imperialist foreign policy, and the export of military hardware, personnel and training. • Solidarity with Indonesia’s peoples, not its military and police. • End ANZUS, no to APEC, for a nuclear-free Pacific. • Close Pine Gap, no to the Star Wars/missile defence shield project. • Solidarity with struggles against repressive regimes and reactionary forces. • For the right of oppressed nations to self-determination. JOBS NOT PROFITS • Shorter working week with no loss in pay; nationalise under workers’ and community control companies that threaten mass sackings. • Guarantee workers’ entitlements. • Stop casualisation; for full employment with permanent jobs. 6

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Stop national competition policy massacring jobs. For industry-wide agreements; no trading-off of jobs and conditions. All workers to have access to an award.

3. Education policy Education is a fundamental right for all people, yet the policies of successive governments has been to turn education into a privilege; with wealth as the main entry qualification. At all levels, the public education system has been systematically dismantled, while private schools enjoy billions in taxpayer subsidies. Early childhood education is increasingly out of the reach of most working people, leading to increased pressure on parents, in particular mothers, to exit the workforce. This is in fact privatisation by stealth. From the beginning of primary school to the end of secondary school, parents are required to pay for what is ostensibly a “free education system”. Public school buildings are often in disrepair, class sizes are too large, and the virtual monopoly of text book publishers leads to vastly inflated prices for essential education materials. Higher education is becoming a lottery where the winning ticket is a wad of banknotes. Socialist Alliance will fight to restore public education at all levels, creating a universal, free, quality secular system open to all those who need and want it. This would preclude the need for taxpayer subsidies to private institutions, which would be fully funded by those who choose to provide and use them. • Universal, free access to quality childcare and preschool and after. School programs for all; recognise the skills of childcare and early education teachers and mandated wage parity with other education professionals. • Free, quality, secular education. No upfront university fees; abolish the Higher Education Contribution Scheme; abolish all TAFE fees and fees for post graduate and overseas students; Stop public schools from imposing fees in the form of “voluntary” levies. • A guaranteed independent income for students. A fully indexed, living wage for students set well above the poverty line; abolish the student loans scheme, pay apprentices at least the base rate for a qualified tradesperson during their training. • Increased funding for public education. Fund tertiary and TAFE places for all who qualify; end government funding of private training providers and schools; halt forced amalgamations and school closures; increase corporate taxes to fund education and training. • Needs-based, diverse staffing of public education from kindergarten to university. Improve quality through hiring more permanent teaching staff to reduce teacher workload and class sizes; end the casualisation of employment in all sectors of education; no discrimination in employment; affirmative action programs to train and hire more Indigenous educators and more women in non-traditional areas; stop the harassment of union activists and other dissenters.

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• Guaranteed access for all. Develop, fund and enforce policies to ensure that women, migrants, Aboriginal people, gays and lesbians and people with disabilities have access to an education free from harassment, stereotyping and discrimination; education in an atmosphere of respect for all viewpoints and for dissidence and non-conformity. Full funding for literacy programs: every person has the right to learn to read and write. Ensure full funding for English as a Second Language programs; provide courses in Indigenous and other community languages; fully fund resources to integrate students with disabilities; expand childcare places at universities and TAFE colleges. • Curricula which serves the needs of students. Eliminate stereotyping in curriculum materials and resources; run courses which explore and teach about the history of oppression, including women’s studies, Indigenous studies, ethnic studies, gay and lesbian studies and labour studies; education for life, not just for work; quality, factual and nonmoralistic sex education in schools; education programs to counter homophobia and anti-gay violence in schools. • Students, staff and community control of education-student control of student affairs. Independent student unions; replace business representatives on governing councils with elected union, student and community representatives.

4. Housing policy Housing is a basic human right. Currently there are thousands of people on waiting lists for public housing throughout Australia. Many are forced into the private rental market where up to 50 per cent of income or more goes on rent and accommodation is often below a decent standard. Across Australia there is an increase in homeless people. • Establish a large-scale building program to make good quality, energy efficient, affordable public housing available for all who choose it. Stop the privatisation of public housing. • Build creatively designed public housing to suit a wide variety of domestic arrangements, including the needs of people living communally, in extended families and in Indigenous communities. • All housing developments must include the provision of local health, education and other services and access to quality public transport. • For community control of public housing through democratically elected housing boards comprised of tenants and housing workers. • Strengthen legislation covering both public and private tenants’ rights. • Enact rent control-for a sliding scale of rent for low-income people based on earnings. All rents to be capped at a maximum of 20 per cent of income. • Mandate high standards for private accommodation and require landlords to fix problems and maintain private housing stock in good condition Nationalise and renovate all substandard landlord holdings. • Expand funding to housing co-operatives.

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• Provide high quality, community-based, supported accommodation for people with disabilities or other special needs. Fully fund refuges and other secure emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence. • Establish a publicly owned and controlled housing finance corporation to provide lowinterest home loans for those in need.

5. The Socialist Alliance Charter of Worker and Trade Union Rights There’s a group in Australia that’s been badly ripped off over the past 20 years. It’s this country’s 11 million workers, employed and unemployed—the majority of the population. The wages share of the country’s wealth has fallen from 61% to 53.5% since 1983. If Australia’s workers had been able to maintain that 1983 share in 2004, we would have had $56 billion more in our pockets for 2003 alone. That would have been $56 billion more to meet our basic needs for health, education for our children and leisure, and $56 billion less for luxury yachts, racehorses and waterfront real estate that drives inner-city housing way out of the reach of the working-class people who once lived there. True, the total pie has expanded. And some of us have been able to maintain and even increase our standard of living. But more often than not the price has been more stressful, unsafe and unrewarding jobs, enforced overtime and double shifts—less hours for family and leisure. We’re working harder. According to the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training, 60% of Australians feel that their lives are a lot less secure than ten years ago. 30% of male workers are working more than 50 hours a week and more than half of them wish they could work less. 1.2 million workers in Australia feel they have to do unpaid overtime. Women workers have been losing out most—70% of part-time jobs are done by women and 45% of women’s jobs are part-time, up from 36.5% in 1986. The gap between men’s and women’s wages is widening: in the two years to May 2002 women’s wages increased by $33 as against $58 for men. Twenty years ago full-time pay for women was 86% of the male wage; now it’s 81%. BUT DESPITE THIS PICTURE some workers — a minority — haven’t done too badly in recent years. Some examples: • • •

Victorian construction workers won a 36-hour week against ferocious opposition from employers and government. National Tertiary Education Union members at Sydney University won a landmark 36 weeks of paid maternity leave as part of their last enterprise agreement. NSW teachers forced the Carr government to maintain funding for public education, and provide additional funding for their recent 12% pay increase.

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In its Campaign 2000, the Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union won a 15% wage increase over three years, as well as forcing the employers to grant better long service leave and decent income protection for injured workers. The campaign also won limits on the employment of casuals and contractors along with a single finishing date on agreements—protecting industry-wide bargaining. This was the best result for manufacturing and the AMWU in all of Australia.

THESE GROUPS OF WORKERS have one thing in common. They belong to strong unions, which have put the defence of their members’ wages and conditions first and foremost, refusing to accept what the boss, the government and courts thought was their due. They have refused to knuckle under to state and federal governments — ALP and Liberal — and as a result have been called every name under the sun and even had to face royal commissions into their alleged crimes. These unions have also proven to workers in the industries they cover that there is a point to belonging to a union. They are among the few unions where membership has increased. For example, under the new militant leadership of the Western Australian Maritime Union of Australia, union coverage at Patrick, Fremantle, has risen from 53% to 99%. This confirms that the old saying "If you don't fight you lose" is as true as it ever was. The majority of union leaderships that have stopped fighting — because their ALP mates have been in government or because they never knew how — have carried on losing both conditions and members. As a result the percentage of workers who belong to a union has more than halved over the past 20 years, from 48% in 1984 to 23% today. Things are particularly bad among young workers—less than 15% of workers under 25 belong to a union. Workers in this country urgently need to rebuild fighting, democratic unionism that abides by the principle: "Touch One, Touch All". Nothing else stands between us and low pay, speedups and stress at work, and victimisation and exploitation by the employer. SOCIALIST ALLIANCE MEMBERS are in the forefront of the struggle to rebuild Australia’s unions, active in their own unions and in building solidarity with all union struggles. As an organisation the Alliance acts in solidarity with those unions that are in the front line of the fight for wages and conditions, and is committed to increasing the membership, morale, organisation and fighting strength of the union movement. Socialist Alliance unionists look to work with all unionists — ALP, Green or non-party — who share this goal. Our Charter of Worker and Trade Union Rights sums up our stance on the critical issues face. When union members elect militant, democratic leaders they can make enormous steps forward. By throwing out the careerists and dead wood they can begin the job of turning the 10

union into an organisation that’s strong enough to defend the interests of all its members against those of the employer. But that’s still not enough because the strongest union in the world can only do so much. And in periods of recession it can do even less. This means that working people and our unions can’t do without politics — our own, working-class, politics. We can’t defend our own interests if we just stick to "union issues", no matter how strongly we fight for them. There’s a working-class point of view on every issue: we need to uncover it, debate it and organise to fight for it. And as we do this it pays remember these words of Peter Reith, John Howard’s former minister for industrial relations, in an address to a gathering of employers: "Never forget which side we’re on. We are on the side of making profits. We’re on the side of the people owning private capital." Socialist Alliance has the same starting point, but from the other side of the fence. We never forget which side we’re on. We’re on the side of the working people — the vast majority — and our policies are aimed at defending their rights and interests. We’re against the system that is driven by private profit. But there’s a problem. The party that working people have traditionally expected to advance their interests, the ALP, has let down its supporters time and time again. In fact it has been the ALP that has carried out most of the dirty work of imposing "economic rationalism" (permanent free kicks to big business). It was Hawke, Keating and Co who deregulated the finance sector, cut wages through the Accord, flogged off public assets, gave huge gifts to big business and tried to crush militant unionism by deregistering unions. State Labor governments have been in the forefront of the attack on workers compensation. Socialist Alliance was formed to build the working-class political alternative to the ALP. As steps along that road we argue for unions to take a stand on all political issues — from refugees to Aboriginal rights to Iraq, from alternative economic policy to women’s rights — and to organise publicly for pro-worker policies. In this we strive to revive the best traditions of Australian unionism, from the wharfies’ 1940s action in support of the Indonesian independence struggle to the NSW Builders Labourers Federation’s green bans of the 1970s. The Alliance is taking every possible opportunity to initiate and host debate about how to rebuild an authentic political voice for working people within individual unions and across the movement as a whole. If you agree with the Socialist Alliance policies and approach, vote for us! But most of all—get active! Join us in the exciting struggle to create that new party that working people in Australia need!

The Socialist Alliance Charter of Worker and Trade Union Rights

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Jobs for all at a living wage • Legislate the minimum wage at around 60 per cent of average weekly earnings ($560 at the end of 2003). • Shorten the working week (without loss of pay) to spread around available work. • Stop privatisation and rebuild a modern, democratically managed public sector. Repeal all anti-union laws, defend and extend the right to organise • Enact a workplace Bill of Rights that guarantees workers and unions the right to organise and protest. Full recognition of unions and union representatives. • Repeal the Workplace Relations Act, abolish Australian Workplace Agreements and Sections 45D and E of the Trade Practices Act. • Return to awards of general application and minimum standards. • Oppose the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill. • Oppose the Building Industry Taskforce and its interference in unions. • Guarantee the right of unions to cancel a bargaining period and begin a new one. • Oppose secret ballots on industrial action. • Oppose all attempts to outlaw or restrict pattern bargaining, protected industrial action, picketing and secondary boycotts. • Ban lockouts and the discriminatory sacking of union delegates. • Remove the prohibition on striking workers receiving unemployment benefit. • Oppose union liability to pay damages for industrial action. • Oppose court and government restrictions on who can stand in union elections. • Oppose government interference in the internal affairs of unions. Make work and workers' entitlements secure • Place limits on the use of casuals, contractors, labour hire and part-time workers. Casuals to be made permanent after a fixed period. • That full-time workers have the right to convert to part-time work when they need to because of poor health or returning to work after childbirth. • Labour hire workers and casual workers not to receive lower wages and conditions than their permanent co-workers. • Legislate a definite proportion of apprentices to tradespeople according to industry/trade. • Compel companies to participate in funds that guarantee workers' entitlements. • Place workers at the top of the list of creditors in case of company bankruptcy. • Restore all workers' rights to civil action in the courts. For a healthy, safe and secure workplace • Put serious penalties into industrial health and safety legislation. • Ensure full powers for health and safety representatives to close down unsafe and unhealthy sites. • Impose prison sentences on employers responsible for the deaths of workers. • Legislate full, unlimited, employer-funded injury, sick and disability pay. • Enforce full employer liability and responsibility for incurable industrial diseases (eg asbestosis, mesothelioma etc) and permanent injuries to workers. • End the attacks on workers' compensation and restore the rights to compensation that have been stripped away. 12

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For retraining on full pay of workers in environmentally unsustainable industries.

For equality at work and an end to discrimination • Impose equal pay for work of equal or comparable worth. • End junior pay rates. • Legislate 12 months' parenting leave fully paid by employer contributions to a publicly managed scheme; the right to return to the same job without losing seniority; and generous paid leave to allow parents to take time off work to care for sick children and attend school activities. • Address the under-representation of women in traditionally male occupations with positive discrimination programs in hiring, training and access to university courses. • Campaign for the government and/or employers to provide free, 24-hour childcare and holiday care centres. • Return all stolen wages to Indigenous workers or their descendants. • Legislate a program of affirmative action aimed at breaking down the concentration of Indigenous Australians, migrants and refugees in the dirtiest, most repetitive and most dangerous jobs. • Impose heavy fines on employers who breach equal opportunity laws. • Make sexual and racial harassment in the workplace a punishable offence. • End the unequal workplace status of gays and lesbians. For unity and solidarity among all workers • End union dobbing in of "illegal" workers to DIMIA and the federal police. • Fight for the unionisation of non-union and "illegal" workers and compel the employer to give them the full wage and entitlements. Oppose any identity card for migrant workers. • Fight for union rights everywhere, especially in those countries where unionism is illegal or under threat. • Promote international bargaining against multinational attempts to locate work where wages are lowest. • Build the strongest possible links with unions in other countries.

6. Policy on the war on Iraq At this Second National Conference the Socialist Alliance recommits itself to the struggle against imperialist war and against the growing militarism of the Australian government:. Socialist Alliance demands: • End the occupation of Iraq; • Troops out now; • That the peoples of Iraq, including the Kurds and other minorities, be free to determine their own future; • That a referendum on self-determination be held in Iraqi Kurdistan.

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As an immediate step against Australian militarism we call on the Senate opposition parties to block the military provisions of the 2003 federal budget. We also restate our commitment to building the anti-war movement with a view to opposing imperialism’s next aggression from a higher level of awareness and preparedness. We also commit to contribute in whatever way it can to the rebuilding of the workers’ movement in Iraq. The Socialist Alliance actively supports the anti-war movement that is developing inside the Australian military. The Socialist Alliance supports campaigns against military exercises between Australian Defence Forces and the US military. In this way the Socialist Alliance will make as big a contribution as it can to making the imperialists pay the highest possible price for their coming wars, to strengthening solidarity among the world’s peoples, and to advancing humanity towards the precious goal of a world without war.

7. Policy against globalisation and privatisation The struggle for profit leads inevitably to war. For this reason, the fight against the Iraq war and the fight against corporate globalisation are strongly interlinked. Without access to the wealth of developing countries, the US military machine could not afford its weapons of mass destruction. Any blow against the global corporate hegemony is a strike against war. Socialist Alliance will work to re-energise the anti-corporate movement and work to give it an explicitly anti-capitalist character. • Cancel the debt of all developing countries. • Withdraw from the World Trade Organisation and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. • No “free trade” agreement with the U.S. • Trade union rights and a living wage for workers throughout the world. • Australian imperialism out of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. • For international solidarity with workers of all countries. • End downsizing and mass redundancies-open the corporate books to public scrutiny. • Reverse privatisation and nationalise all essential industries. • Abolish tax concessions for transnational corporations.

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8. West Papua and Aceh The Socialist Alliance supports the struggle of the West Papuan Independence Movement, and condemns the Australian Government’s support of the continuing occupation by the Indonesian Government and the brutal suppression by the Indonesian military of independence activists. The Socialist Alliance supports the campaign for self-determination by the peoples of Aceh. The Socialist Alliance shows solidarity with West Papuan and Acehnese activists, political prisoners and exiles, and commits to building networks and sponsoring meetings to build awareness in Australia about their struggles and the Australian government's attempts to secure greater economic and military domination in the South East Asian region.

9. Colombia This Founding Conference of the Socialist Alliance: • Calls for an end to any kind of U.S. intervention in the internal matters of Latin American countries, particularly Colombia; • Resolves to put pressure on national governments to stop any support for foreign military aid to the Colombian Security Forces, which are the biggest human rights violators in the Americas; and • Demands that foreign countries’ armies, such as the United States’ and Britain’s, stop sending mercenaries to companies that contract their pilots and military personnel to be part of the Colombian Security Forces.

10. Palestine Adopted at the Sixth National Conference, December 6-7, 2008 The Socialist Alliance condemns the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the state of Israel. This oppression takes different forms — the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, the siege of Gaza, the breaking up of the West Bank into isolated ghettos, systematic violence and discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel or exile as refugees. The Socialist Alliance supports: • The Palestinian right to self determination. • Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. • Equal civil and democratic rights for all inhabitants of historic Palestine. • Right of return for Palestinian refugees. 15

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An end to Israeli aggression against other countries in the region. An end to the restriction of movement of people and supplies (including medical supplies) around Palestine and between Palestine and Israel.

The Socialist Alliance recognises the essential role that international (including Australian) imperialism plays in supporting the Israeli system of apartheid and occupation through massive political, economic and military aid. Therefore, the Socialist Alliance supports the International campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israeli Apartheid.

11. Solidarity with Cuba In the face of rising threats from the US government against Cuba the Socialist Alliance Second National Conference: 1. Supports the solidarity call with Cuba made in a recent statement by Nobel Laureates and other prominent intellectuals for “policy makers to uphold the universal principles of national sovereignity, respect of territorial integrity and self-determination, essential to just and peaceful co-existence among nations”; 2. Calls upon the USA to recognize the complete integrity of Cuba, a Cuba that includes Guantanamo Bay and hereby calls upon the USA to close their base there; 3. Calls upon the United States to cease all operations towards Cuba that encourage and fund the overthrow of the Cuban government; 4. Demands that the United States immediately lift its economic and tourism blockade of Cuba; 5. Calls on the left and progressive movement in Australia to show its opposition to the renewed attacks by the United States towards Cuba and support solidarity actions that oppose U.S imperialism’s attacks on Cuba. 6. Socialist Alliance supports the campaign for the release of the Cuban Five unjustly imprisoned in the United States.

12. Venezuela In April of 2002 a coalition of big business and elements of the Venezuelan military, with the help of the United States, staged a military coup against the popularly elected government of Hugo Chávez. The coup failed after mass popular demonstrations forced the military to return Chávez to office. Since then big business has increased its attacks and confrontations with the Chávez government. The US has continued to support a campaign of destabilisation orchestrated by

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ex-military officers, responsible for the failed April coup and the multimillionaire managers of the oil industry which is a mainstay of Venezuelan economy. This right-wing coalition has organised protests and since December last year it has staged a lockout of workers which has caused massive economic chaos in the country. The workers and the popular movement in Venezuela have fought back to defend their constitution and their elected government. The future of the political situation in Venezuela is not only a concern for the majority of the workers and unemployed and underemployed of Venezuelan society but for the people of Latin America and the rest of the world. Like Chile 1973 the military and big business interests, in conjunction with U.S imperialism, are trying to destabilise a popularly elected government. The only crime of the Chávez government like Allende in Chile has been that he has implemented social reforms that have alleviated the plight of the most oppressed classes in Venezuela and has introduced policies that have begun to redistribute the national wealth away from big business to the poor. Throughout Latin America in recent elections the people have voted in governments that are willing to look at more socially progressive reforms and that confront the power and wealth of big business and U.S economic interests. The workers and popular movements in the continent have been re-invigorated. They have elected progressive governments in Ecuador and Brazil and continue to organise mass protests in Argentina, Bolivia and El Salvador to resist the impact of the policies being pushed by the international financial institutions and U.S imperialism, including its criminal 40-yearlong blockade of Cuba. The Socialist Alliance condemns the right-wing campaign to oust President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and calls on the left and progressive movement in Australia to show their solidarity with the people of Venezuela who support the government of Chávez. This has particular significance as the US (backed by the Australian government) prepares for war on Iraq to protect its access to oil in the Middle East. Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest exporter of oil and is a major supplier to the US. The Socialist Alliance supports the slogan coined by the workers’ movement of Argentina “Que se vayan todos” (They all must go). All the exploiters and politicians who are putting the interests of big business and the International Financial Institutions ahead of those of the majority of the people of Latin America. • • •

Support the popular and workers’ struggle in Venezuela! No U.S interference in the affairs of Latin America! No to neo-liberal policies of privatization!

In the face of the latest developments in Venezuela the Socialist Alliance: 1) Reaffirms its support for the Venezuelan people's struggle for social justice, national liberation and against all the actions of the Venezuelan ruling class; 17

2) Opposes any intervention of the US against Venezuela, direct or indirect, being through the OAS or with the complicity of the reactionary Uribe government of Colombia; 3) Calls on all left and progressive organisations to support all the activities in solidarity with Venezuela and in defense of the peoples’ struggle. 4) The Socialist Alliance condemns the attempts by the Bush administration to assassinate the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and overthrow the popularly elected Venezuelan government. Further, we defend Venezuela against the concerted efforts of the Bush regime to undermine its progress on implementing new social and economic programs beneficial for the poor people in the country. Support the Venezuela Solidarity Network initiative to organise the first Australian solidarity brigade to Venezuela, and its one-day conference scheduled for September in Melbourne.

13. Welfare Rights Charter End the blame game, end the poverty... The Socialist Alliance supports universal welfare rights for all. We are opposed to the principle of “mutual obligation” upheld by both the Coalition and the Australian Labor Party, because this is forces people into low-paid, alienating work while sabotaging existing wages and conditions for those in work. Under Kevin Rudd the ALP has almost totally capitulated to the Howard government’s view of mutual obligation. It has even abandoned the approach of the Keating government’s Working Nation program to embrace the underlying principles of Howard’s Dickensian welfare-to-work approach. The Socialist Alliance says that it is not true that any job is better than no job at all or that lowering the cost per job created should be the main goal of welfare policy: we stand instead for welfare payments above the poverty line combined with the creation of useful work. Those who are presently on welfare shouldn’t be “breached”, or forced into meaningless “training” schemes or underpaid, demeaning jobs, but educated and trained to be part of the workforce. Let’s always remember what Labor wants to forget: the welfare system was fought for and won by the working class over generations in order to protect its members from the unemployment, exploitation and poverty intrinsic to capitalism. The old age pension was introduced in 1908, and the last big win for working Australians was the introduction of the supporting mother's benefit in 1972. But the end of the post war boom saw the start of efforts to roll back the welfare state. It was the ALP which introduced the assets test on the age pension, ended non-means-tested family allowances and reduced young people's access to payments. This signaled the start of 18

hundreds of changes, all designed to reduce payments, tighten eligibility criteria or impose waiting periods. For a decade now the Howard government, like pro-business governments everywhere, has been intensifying this attack on welfare rights, shirking its responsibilities to those most in need. Reporting requirements and the breach system subject people receiving welfare payments to a culture of judgment and blame for their own misfortunes. Non-payment periods imposed as punishment for breaching benefit conditions risk forcing them out onto the street. Indigenous Australians are the most victimised—in the third quarter of 2006 in Western Australia 30% of “breaches” were imposed on Indigenous people, despite being only 3% of the population! The Socialist Alliance says welfare payments for all those in need are a right. We call for a guaranteed independent income for all at a living wage, and a welfare system capable of providing to each according to their level of need. That requires a big expansion in the welfare budget in the short term, as a necessary way of supporting people on welfare in decent conditions, while training and equipping them for useful work. But such an increase can readily be afforded—in 2003 Australia was spending only 17.9% of GDP on public social expenditure compared to the average for advanced industrial countries (the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) of 20.7% , and way below Sweden’s 31.3%. Aside from the welfare system, a comprehensive welfare justice platform also needs to address effects of poverty such as homelessness and poor nutrition. Other policies of the Socialist Alliance have been developed to related issues, such as in health care, education, housing, civil liberties, the rights of asylum seekers and issues affecting Indigenous Australians. With this in mind, we propose the following measures as essential to welfare justice in this country: Welfare system • Increase the base rates of allowances to the level of pension payments and index these payments to a level which adequately covers the costs of living, including housing. • Review social security income tests to reduce the high effective marginal tax rates for people on welfare payments with casual or part time work. • Establish voluntary, well-staffed, high quality, free public programs for those who wish to enter the workforce, providing skills at a level appropriate to the needs of participants. • No further outsourcing of welfare services. Keep Centrelink in public hands. Renationalise the job network. • Abolish the “work for the dole” scheme. Pay award wages for all Community Development Employment Program workers. Abolish all mutual obligation requirements and scrap the breach system. • Reverse the “Welfare to Work” provisions which unfairly penalise supporting parents, disabled people and the long-term unemployed. • Recognise the existence of permanent disability and incurable illnesses by removing the requirements for people thus affected to undergo repeated reviews of their eligibility to keep their benefits. 19

•

End assessments based on relationship status. Everyone needs an independent income whether they are partnered or living alone. Welfare recipients should not have their economic relationship to another person determined by Centrelink. End the witch hunt against marriage-like relationships.

Migrants, youth and children • Scrap the 104-week waiting period for newly-arrived migrants to receive welfare payments. • Enable newly-arrived migrants and asylum seekers to access English language training and employment assistance in addition to existing services. • Lower the age of independence test for Youth Allowance from 25 to 18 years. • Develop and implement a community education campaign for new parents aimed at improving the nutrition of children. Provide funding to establish school breakfast programs in disadvantaged areas. Housing and homelessness • Increase Federal and State funding for the maintenance of current housing stock, and increase funding for new public housing stock. • Address spiralling rental price increases by implementing rent control laws similar to those in place in Los Angeles and New York. • Increase funding to the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) to a level sufficient to provide crisis accommodation for all who need it, as well as to maintain support services to assist homeless persons into independent accommodation and preventive programs for those at risk of homelessness. Ensure a continuum of support from crisis accommodation through to long-term stable accommodation. • Provide outreach workers to seek out service providers who may qualify for SAAP funding and to guide them through the funding process, in order to ease the onerous bureaucratic requirements that these service providers have to endure in order to get and retain funding. • Provide additional funding to community organisations to enable them to provide education, training and housing assistance packages to young homeless people. • Provide additional funding for programs which provide support services for the aged homeless including additional funding to ensure greater access to aged care accommodation. • Extend Rent Assistance to those receiving Austudy payments. • Pay Mortgage Assistance to low income people paying off their own home so that they are not forced out into the rental market.

14. Women’s Rights (Gender Agenda) Imagine … Imagine a world where any woman could walk down any street, day or night, and feel no fear of harassment or assault, and where society denounced domestic violence as so abhorrent that every home was safe.

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Imagine a world where girls did not merely dream of being an astronaut, a mechanic, a prime minister or a scaffolder, but said with complete confidence: “That is what I’m going to be when I grow up”. Imagine a world where parents on their way to work or classes, or just to have some time to themselves, dropped their child off at a child-care centre in their street or workplace happy in the knowledge that their child loves going there, learns new things, and is well-fed and cared for. Imagine a world where elderly and disabled women live independently and at home for as long as they wish because they have a guaranteed, decent income and there are plenty of community support workers to help with housework, health-care and transport. Imagine a world where there really is equal pay, and it is decent pay so that no woman is forced by poverty into prostitution, or seeing her children go without food or new clothes, or not having the child she wants, or living with someone only because he can pay for her accommodation. Imagine a world where every woman has a real choice about whether or not to have children, unconstrained by economic or social factors, and where safe, reliable contraception is widely accessible and abortion is freely available. Imagine a world where women, in all their individuality, love the bodies they were born with, and where women express their sexuality proudly and joyfully, without fear or favour. Imagine a world where people, not private profits, matter – where all people’s basic needs are automatically addressed, and their hopes and dreams for a fulfilling life are valued. The reality today … In 21st century Australia, women have supposedly achieved equal rights. Yet women still do most of the household chores and the care of children and sick, disabled or elderly relatives. The double burden that this imposes on women who also need to or want to do waged work is barely acknowledged by society. Whether they are migrant women working 12 hours a day for $4 an hour in the suburban sweatshops of Sydney or Melbourne, or tertiary educated teachers, nurses or public servants who spends 60% of their wage on child-care fees, or unemployed single mothers on the 200,000-long public housing waiting list, or students trying to survive on Austudy/Abstudy payments, which are now 37% below the poverty line, life for most women in Australia is getting harder every day. • Despite the introduction three decades ago of equal pay, affirmative action, equal employment opportunity and anti-discrimination legislation, women’s average weekly earnings are now only 66% of men’s - less than they were relative to men’s 10 years ago, and declining. • The workforce participation rate of women in Australia is now lower than any comparable industrialised country, and the proportion of women with full-time and/or permanent (as opposed to casual) employment is falling. 70% of all part-time jobs are held by women, but 22% of women working part-time would like more hours. Meanwhile, 30% of male workers are working more than 50 hours a week and more than half of them would like fewer hours. • 500,000 women who want to be in the workforce are not, 32% of them because of lack of child care. State and federal government funding for women’s services is less now than it was a decade ago, despite a steady increase in the number of women and children living below the poverty line. • Under new tax policies, working-class women with dependent children are being penalised for going out to work - the lower a family’s income, the higher the effective tax rates faced by women who work, and this disparity actually increases with the number of children. 21

• A female welfare recipient with dependent children has her welfare payments cut if she partners with a man – whether or not she wants to be economically dependent on him, and whether or not he can or does support her and her children. Meanwhile, bitter post-divorce disputes over child support are endemic as working-class men struggle to support two families on declining real wages and sole mothers continue to swell the ranks of those living below the poverty line. • Most women in prison are there because of crimes of poverty. The system fails to meet the needs of these women and their children then punishes them by putting them in an even more vulnerable situation. • In 1996, 23% of women in marriage or de facto relationships suffered domestic violence. There are no more recent figures because the government has cut all funding for collecting them. While women’s refuges have to turn away as many women as they accommodate each night, in 2002 $10.1 million of funding allocated for domestic violence programs was diverted to pay for the National Security Public Information Campaign’s “anti-terrorism” advertisements and fridge magnets. • The rate of sexual assaults reported to the police has increased by around 9% per year over the last few years. The most reliable recent estimates are that around 250 women are raped each day in Australia. • In most states abortion is still illegal and is becoming much more difficult for poor, rural and/or young women to obtain. IVF technologies too are only available to the rich as a real option; IVF is hugely expensive and has a low success rate, which makes it almost impossible for poorer women to use it successfully. Meanwhile, lesbian couples still cannot adopt children or access IVF in most states. • As sexist images of women flourish in the mass media, eating disorders and the deaths that result from them are increasing among young women. A different future … So is our imagined world of justice and equality for women merely an impossible dream? We don’t think so. Consider how different Australia would be if the $43.3 million per day that was allocated for military expenditure in the 2003-4 federal budget was redirected to social services. Or if the billions of dollars in private profits that are made each year by Australia’s biggest corporations was spent on public and community education. Or if workers and communities had the legislative power to decide how the industries and services they run operated. Or if politicians were truly accountable and could be immediately recalled if they broke their promises or didn’t listen to the people between elections. That would be a very different world for all ordinary people, and especially for women. Making progress towards an Australia in which there is full economic, social and political equality for women requires, in the first instance, collective opposition to each and every government attack on women’s rights - as workers, mothers, students, patients and welfare recipients. At the same time, women’s ability to exercise these rights regardless of their race, ethnicity, citizenship, religion or disability must be defended and extended. We demand action … As essential steps towards complete gender equality, the Socialist Alliance demands immediate government action on the following: For equality and justice in the workplace •

Real equal pay for work of equal or comparable value. 22

• Automatic wage indexation that corresponds to real cost of living increases. • Increase the minimum wage to a level that recognises that many workers, women and men, are solely responsible for supporting family members. • Enterprise bargaining and individual contracts disadvantage women workers, who are more often in less organised sectors, so we call for all wage increases and improvements in working conditions to be automatically generalised across each industry. • Extend full-time and permanent employee entitlements (sick leave, annual leave, etc) to all part-time and casual workers on a pro-rata basis. • Legislate for and enforce programs in both the private and public sector to encourage and assist more women to be trained and employed in non-traditional jobs. • 12 months’ parenting leave fully paid by employer contributions to a publicly managed scheme; the right to return to the same job; and generous paid leave to allow parents to take time off work to care for sick children and attend school activities. • Enforce anti-discrimination and affirmative action legislation to assist Indigenous women, non-English speaking background women and disabled women be economically independent. For independence and equality in family life • A living wage - which enables a decent quality of life, not just survival - for all welfare recipients and their dependents, and automatic indexation of all welfare benefits to cover real cost of living increases. • A massive expansion of funding for community/employee-controlled, good quality, free child-care services in communities and, funded by employers, in large workplaces; these services to include after-hours, vacation and occasional care. • No discrimination in out-of-work-support and parenting payments, regardless of marital status; increase the sole parent benefit for parents of dependent teenage children. • Abolish all taxation measures that penalise families in which women are engaged in waged work. • Reverse the privatisation of all utilities and other essential services, which has disproportionately adversely affected women and children. • Expand affordable, good quality, secure public housing so child-raising can take place in a stable environment. For women’s control of their own bodies • Remove abortion from all state Crimes Acts and Health Acts and make abortion available safely, free of charge and on demand through the public health-care system. • Make safe, reliable contraceptives freely available to both women and men; end the prohibition on the import of RU486; make the “morning after” pill available free of charge. • Enforce the law outlawing sterilisation without a woman's consent. • Reproduction is a woman's right to choose, and IVF should be available safely, free of charge and on demand through the public health system. Just like abortion, free IVF on demand should be a woman's right to choose. Women in prison to be able to use contraception, and have access to pregnancy or abortion care if needed. • Restore Medicare bulk-billing and massively increase funding to public hospitals and community health services. • Provide free menstrual/sanitary protection for all women as a public health service. • Improve availability of women-centred pregnancy care, including state funding and insurance for community based midwifery and birth centres. 23

For an end to sexual violence and exploitation • Strengthen and strictly enforce laws against sexual harassment. • Restore and increase funding for women’s services to ensure ready access to health centres, rape crisis centres, women's refuges and counselling services for all women and their dependants who need them. • Launch a community education campaign in the media, schools and all other public institutions to promote positive, non-stereotyped, anti-sexist images of women in all areas of social activity. • Repeal all laws against prostitution in order to end the criminalisation and victimisation of sex workers, and publicly fund comprehensive health-care, legal and personal support services, and alternative employment opportunities, for sex workers. • Prosecute Australians who profit from the international sex trade and prostitution, and give full protection and rights to victims of the sex trade in Australia.

15. Policy on Public Transport A. Commuter transport Commuter transport and the movement of freight require central planning and community control. The chaos of private ownership in the 19th Century and a century of bureaucratic neglect has left many areas with inadequate or non-existent commuter transport. The Victorian experience of private management of a vital public service has shown that artificial fragmentation of what should be a fully integrated system leads inevitably to chaos. This is true of all commuter transport and any integrated freight rail network. Socialist Alliance stands for public ownership and control of all forms of commuter transport and rail freight. • Re-nationalise all privatised public transport and rail freight; nationalise all bus routes, and fully fund them through a steeply sliding scale of levies on businesses employing more than 20 workers. • Provide sufficient services to meet current demand and commence an ongoing program of network expansion to meet future demand. • Fully staff the networks-staff on every station and a guard/conductor on every train and tram. • End the unfair impost on island communities by fully funding passenger and light vehicle ferries, in particular to and from Tasmania; fully fund air transport to remote outback and island communities. • Re-open closed rural rail lines where the infrastructure still exists and provide passenger rail services to communities which need them Alternatively provide a replacement bus service to meet community needs. B. Freight Transport and Roads While rail freight has major benefits to the community as a whole, business is the main beneficiary of large subsidies from taxpayers for the use of an efficient means of transport for 24

large volumes of goods. However, it is preferable to remove as many highly polluting, dangerous and damaging heavy vehicles from the road network as possible. The general road network, in particular motorways, freeways and major arterial routes, are chiefly of benefit to business. • Extend the rail freight network with dedicated freight-only links in order to remove heavy vehicles from local roads. Introduce and enforce penalties to stop unauthorised heavy vehicle access to local roads. • Re-nationalise all privatised tollways and abolish tolls for light vehicles and buses. • Make business pay for its transport by introducing electronic tolling for heavy freight vehicles on all major roads and freeways, and discounted, volume-based charges for rail freight. • All new freeways and major arterial roads to be built according to strict environmental standards.

16. Policy on East Timor oil The Socialist Alliance condemns the Australian Government's theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources by refusing to abide by international law in the determination of maritime boundaries between the two countries and by continuing to exploit the disputed oil fields in the Timor Sea. That alongside anti-war and elections campaigning in the next year, Socialist Alliance branches give priority to joining with the churches, unions, Greens, NGOs, and other solidarity activists in the campaign against Australia's grab of East Timor's oil, gas and maritime resources through making permanent an unfair boundary in the Timor Sea. The Socialist Alliance supports East Timor’s demand for delimitation of maritime boundaries with Australia, based on the internationally accepted median line principle, thus guaranteeing East Timor’s right to maritime sovereignty and the oil and gas resources located on the East Timorese side of such a boundary. The Socialist Alliance condemns the Australian government’s refusal to accept the median line principle and its continuing theft of oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea, that rightfully belong to East Timor.

17. Policy on Australia’s role in the region The Australian government is using the pretext of the "war on terror" and the danger of "failed states" to aggressively assert and extend its imperialist domination of the region. Australia is the economic and military giant of the region. The Howard government: • Has turned East Timor into a virtual colony for Australian business interests while denying its government and people their fair share of the Timor Sea oil; 25

• Has sent troops and senior public servants to take control of the Solomons; • Is attempting to do the same in PNG; • Has used PNG and Nauru as dumping grounds for asylum-seekers; and • Is supporting the Indonesian government's campaign to frustrate the national liberation movements in Papua and Aceh. The Socialist Alliance is opposed to Australian domination. We are for: • The abolition of Australian debts incurred by poor nations in the South Pacific and southeast Asia; • The extension of aid programs under the democratic control of the local population; • Maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea in accordance with international law which would favour the East Timorese claim over the Timor Gap seabed; • Solidarity with genuine national liberation movements and trade unions in the region; • The extension of Australian citizenship to Pacific islanders displaced by global warming; • The withdrawal of Australian troops from countries in the region.

18. Policy on immigration and refugee rights 1)End the policy of mandatory detention, close all detention centres, and free all asylum seekers imprisoned within them. 2) End the Pacific Solution: close the detention centres on Nauru and PNG's Manus Island and grant all asylum seekers. 3) Abolish the concept of a "safe third country" which is used to screen out those who would otherwise be assessed as refugees. 4) Return Christmas Island, Ashmore and Cartier islands, and Cocos (Keeling) islands to Australia's migration zone. 5) Establish a category of complementary protection for those not found to be refugees under the UNHCR definition, but who face persecution if they were to be returned to the country they fled from. 6) Abolish temporary protection visas. 7) End all deportations. 8) Immediately restore the annual refugee resettlement quota to its pre-1990s level of 20,000. 9) Immediately resettle all UNHCR-assessed refugees stranded in Indonesia, which is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention. 10) Recognise as grounds for refugee status gay and lesbian discrimination and violence against women, where the government in question condones or permits it. 26

11) Abolish the Refugee Review Tribunal; replace with a fully independent merits review tribunal for refugees to appeal against adverse decisions. 12) Restore access to all levels of judicial appeal; allow adverse decisions to be appealed on matters of substance as well as matters of law. 13) Remove the rule with prohibits asylum seekers in the community from working or receiving social security if they submit a claim more than 45 days after they arrived in Australia. 14) Extend funding and specialist services for settlement, including assistance with recognition of skills. 15) Free and widely available English classes for all migrants and refugees. 16) Full citizenship rights, including the right to vote, for all migrants and refugees. 17) Abolish the pro-business points system which favours skilled and wealthy business migrants. 18) Abolish the requirement for sponsors to pay an up-front bond. 19) Abolish the two-year waiting period for new migrants to access social security payments. 20) End unequal treatment for gay men, lesbians and transgendered people in immigration; recognition of same sex relationships. 21) Remove HIV status from health tests for visas. 22) Give preference to places for migrants from poor countries, especially countries in the Asia-Pacific region. 23) Abolish all family reunion waiting lists, and remove the quota restriction so that partners, siblings, parents and extended families can be reunited in Australia if they choose.

19. Policy on the environment Capitalist globalisation is destroying the earth. We live under the reign of a class willing to jeopardise our lives and those of future generations for quick cash. Capitalism destroys habitat and renders species extinct, yet the survival of animal and plant life is essential for human progress and should not be counterposed to so-called "development". We are bombarded with chemicals in our food, water and air. We are assailed by poisons at work, at home and in our communities. In our hands, technology will be used for 27

human progress; in the hands of capitalists, it is used to plunder our world. The destruction of the once-mighty Murray-Darling river system, the mobilisation of megatonnes of salt which threatens not only agriculture but many rural towns (and, in time, cities); the lunacy of opencut and acid leaching uranium mines; the huge volume of asbestos released from decaying cement sheeting and insulation - these are disasters which may take centuries to rectify, even in a socialist Australia. "Capitalism" and "sustainability" are mutually exclusive concepts. Only socialism is sustainable. But it is necessary to stop the destruction of our world now, as a matter of urgency. Socialist Alliance demands the commencement of a comprehensive environmental restoration and employment program, fully funded by a tax on corporate bank transactions; including full training and award wages for all workers; preference to be given to displaced timber and agriculture workers, rural unemployed, Indigenous communities and displaced small farmers. Where possible and appropriate, such restoration programs should be established in consultation with traditional owners and/or local Indigenous communities. This restoration and employment program should include the following: FORESTS • End logging in old growth forests. End clearfelling in all other native forests. • Ban the export of woodchips from native forests. • For a publicly owned timber industry based on sustainable plantations with access to specialty timbers ensured for crafts people (subject to ecological considerations). • Replant forests in dry-land and other salt-affected regions. LAND MANAGEMENT * Phase out agribusiness farming in the Murray-Darling basin; stop all new farming and commercial development in salt-affected regions. * No Genetically Engineered Organisms - ban all importation of GEs and their production in Australia. Compulsory labelling of all genetically engineered products. * Strict controls on land clearing. * No mining or mineral exploration in national parks and other areas of high conservation value. * Reconstruction of salt-damaged infrastructure. * Mandated humane treatment of animals and full protection of endangered species and habitats. WATER * Replace of open irrigation channels with pipes. * Removal of exotic species such as willow and carp from river systems. * Reduce water use by steeply increasing prices to big companies; Mandate the use of recycled water for all industrial purposes. * End the confiscation of Indigenous land for mining and agribusiness; ENERGY * No new coal-fired power stations. Construct renewable energy infrastructure instead. * Subsidise solar heating and solar electricity in domestic swellings. * Stop and reverse privatisation of energy/electricity industries. 28

CLIMATE CHANGE * Ratify the Kyoto Protocol. * Establish an industry-funded 10% renewable energy target by 2010. * Fund public transport not the spiral of more-roads-more-cars-more-roads. Establish limits on emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants for all new vehicles. Abolish the tax subsidies which encourage production and use of petrol-guzzling large vehicles. NUCLEAR ISSUES * No new nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights (or anywhere) and shut down the HIFAR reactor currently operating; invest in cleaner, safer technologies such as cyclotrons. * No dumping of radioactive waste; waste producers to manage their own waste in secure, monitored facilities at their own expense. * No nuclear waste dump for international commercial use in Australia; * Close the operating uranium mines (Ranger, Roxby Downs, Beverley) and no new mines to be approved. * No Australian support for the US government's missile 'defence' program and renewed, active support for non-proliferation agreements in place. * No nuclear power plants. WASTE * Force manufacturers of electronic equipment, whitegoods and various other products to initiate recycling programs. * Prohibit the export to Third World countries of electronic and whitegood wastes under the guise of 'recycling'. * Establish comprehensive recycling systems for all wastes. * Mandated container deposits. * Remediate contaminated industrial sites.

20. Policy on health care The Socialist Alliance bases its policy on health promotion, disease prevention and timely treatment of illnesses and includes promoting good health. It aims to encourage a healthy community in a healthy environment and reduce health risks. Health includes the physical, mental and social well being of the community. It is a resource used by individuals on a daily basis. A healthy life depends on a healthy environment, safe working conditions and enabling people to increase control over this improvement process. It will be based on the concept of hope and community control. But access to healthcare is progressively being removed from the poor, and many so-called "high-paid" workers. The public health system is failing, and many in rural and outer metropolitan areas have limited access to even basic general practice medicine. Hospital waiting lists are overcrowded, with too many nights where emergency wards are on 29

ambulance bypass. Meanwhile the private health system benefits from billions of dollars in direct and indirect government subsidies, on top of the semi-compulsory private health insurance rip-off, where working people who can "afford" it pay huge premiums for little return. Where the public system, even in its damaged state, is relatively efficient, the private sector is a black hole for money, with little useful health outcome. In the face of the health crisis, the Howard government is cutting funding to public hospitals and wants to dismantle Medicare. Working people and the poor have a basic right to universal, free, quality health care. THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WILL RESTORE AND EXTEND MEDICARE. The Socialist Alliance endorses the principle of universal health insurance which underlies Medicare, and emphasises that Medicare is not just a "safety net". If Australia is to have comprehensive universal health insurance, paid for by progressive taxation and ensuring equitable access to health care for all, there is no need to have private health insurance. Currently, private health insurance is massively subsidised by the Australian government, and it contributes little to total health expenditure. By abolishing the tax rebate for private health insurance, $2.5 billion could be freed to provide more resources for public hospitals. Private health insurance encourages a two-tier health system. The Socialist Alliance would phase out private health insurance so that all Australians would have the same level of health insurance and the same access to health care. The coverage of Medicare would be extended to include dental care and appropriate ancillary services such as physiotherapy and psychological counselling as well as dental, aged care, prosthetics, rehabilitation, alternative therapies, dental, optometry, speech, dietetics, auditory and preventative services. The Medicare rebate paid to doctors would be increased to an appropriate level, to ensure that doctors receive adequate remuneration for bulk-billing. However, rather than a flat tax, currently 1.5% of taxable income, the levy should be a progressive tax, like income tax, where the percentage of taxable income which would constitute the Medicare levy would increase with increasing income. THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WOULD MAKE MULTI-DISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY PRIMARY HEALTH CARE SERVICES THE CORNERSTONE OF THE HEALTH SYSTEM. The Socialist Alliance would ensure the availability of adequate funding for Community Health Centres (CHC) providing comprehensive primary health care, focussing initially on areas of greatest need. Funding would be made available to general practitioners working in poorer areas to convert their practices to community health centres, with the doctors and other health professionals working in salaried positions within the public service. Democratic joint committees of medical professionals, other health workers and members of the community will be established to coordinate the CHCs. The community will be fully involved in the process of establishing and administering the CHCs. The Socialist Alliance will establish Women's Health Centres providing access to contraception, abortion and cancer screening facilities. THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WOULD ENSURE THAT ESSENTIAL PHARMACEUTICALS ARE AVAILABLE ACCORDING TO NEED. 30

The Socialist Alliance would retain the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and legislate to ensure that it is quarantined from any trade agreement and any undue influence of pharmaceutical companies. The Commonwealth Serum Laboratories would be renationalised, and given the specific task of producing cheap generic drugs. The Socialist Alliance will lobby in international forums to overturn the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, which maximises pharmaceutical company profits be allowing 20-year patents, whist denying millions of people access to life-saving drugs. THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WILL ENSURE THAT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ARE ADEQUATELY FUNDED. The prevalence of mental health issues is well known in the community, and it is predicted that depression will become the major cause of morbidity in the next decades. There is also a stigma attached to these conditions. Major primary intervention strategies, education and service networks will be established at workplaces, schools, and within communities to tackle these issues. Counselling, psychological and psychiatric services will be made available free of charge in CHCs. Facilities will be established to assist the reversing of the prevalence of the current trend especially towards wide-scale depression. It is the view of the Socialist Alliance, however, that the predicted increased prevalence of depression is related to the effects of neo-liberal economic policies, and it can be expected that implementation of a broad range of Socialist Alliance policies will help to reduce the prevalence of depression. The Socialist Alliance will legislate to protect the right of access to free, quality mental health care, without pressure to conform to traditional gender roles or other social stereotypes. THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WILL ENSURE THAT FUNDING AND STRUCTURING OF HEALTH SERVICES EMPHASISE PREVENTION AND EQUITY. Prevention of ill health will be primary in our policies. The promotion of healthy living styles will be promoted by special campaigns. Schools will be funded to promote healthy eating and providing healthy food for children by establishing a free lunch time meal program in all schools. Strategies for reduction of stress levels and accidents at work places will be formulated. Free, quality health education and screening programs will be fully funded. The prevention of ill health will reduce the cost of treatment in the long run. The inclusion of the community in the decision-making processes will also assist in this process. The fact that the community and individuals take responsibility for their health wills boost the type of healthy community we envisage.

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The costs of health policies will be achieved by, amongst other things, abolishing government subsidies for private health insurance, and by a major reduction in the defence budget. COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE The Socialist Alliance recognises that complementary and alternative therapies, if properly regulated, can play an important role in a democratically-run, community based health system that focuses on prevention and education. The Socialist Alliance will: increase provision in public institutions of education and training in complementary and alternative therapies that are supported by independent research and evaluation; ensure that healthcare practitioners who advise or prescribe complementary or alternative medicines are appropriately trained and competent; extend Medicare to cover the services of such practitioners; employ such practitioners as appropriate in public hospitals and Community Health Centres; increase public research and evaluation of complementary and alternative medicines; regulate and where appropriate nationalise the supply of complementary and alternative medicines to ensure they meet the required standards of safety, quality and efficacy. THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WILL ENSURE THAT PATIENTS' RIGHTS ARE RESPECTED. The Socialist Alliance will guarantee patients' control by legislating the right of access to all information required for informed consent; the right to appoint a legal guardian of a patient's choice; the right to choose or refuse medical treatment; the right to choose contraception appropriate to the patient and abortion as required. Hospitals to be forced to admit their surgical, pharmacological and other nosocomial mistakes as a matter of due process. A no-fault medical indemnity insurance system (similar to the system currently available in New Zealand) will be introduced which will ensure that patients are fully compensated for medical mishaps, without the necessity for adversarial court cases, whilst ensuring that patients can expect medical care of the highest possible quality. This indemnity will be extended to cover midwives providing care outside hospitals. THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE WILL ENSURE THAT THERE IS AN ADEQUATE HEALTH WORKFORCE TO MEET THE HEALTHCARE NEEDS OF ALL AUSTRALIANS. The Socialist Alliance will expand student positions in tertiary health education faculties to overcome the shortage of health workers in nursing, aged care and general practice, particularly in rural areas.

21. Policy on equality for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people We live in a society which attempts to dictate sexual preference and gender identity through promoting the gender stereotypes and homophobic attitudes which underpin the heterosexual nuclear family, and by promoting marriage and the nuclear family as the only legitimate model for relationships. Lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people suffer oppression 32

because their lives are a challenge to the nuclear family which is an economic cornerstone of capitalism. The Socialist Alliance opposes all attempts to shoehorn people into sexual and gender conformity. We believe it is a basic democratic right that a persons' self-definition of sexual preference and gender identity should be recognised. Heterosexism exists at almost every level in this society, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is entrenched in all of the key institutions of society - education, health, the law, the media, family, church and state. The Socialist Alliance supports politically independent and self-organizing social movements that fight the oppression of women, lesbians and gay men, transgendered people, people with HIV and sex workers through mass action, public demonstrations, lobbying, voting and by building alliances with the broader working class, feminist, and anti-capitalist movements. We oppose sexism, racism, ageism, and discrimination against people with disabilities within the lesbian and gay communities, as we do in the broader community. In government the Socialist Alliance will: • Enact enforceable anti-discrimination legislation to protect lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, people living with HIV/AIDS and transgendered people. We will remove existing exemptions for private schools, religious organisations, the insurance industry, the tax system, superannuation etc; legislate for the right of transgendered people to be issued with passports, drivers licences and other documents specifying the gender of their choice. • Legislate full social, legal, Trade union and industrial recognition of same sex relationships. This would include extending to same sex relationships equal status with heterosexual de factos in superannuation, immigration, taxation, family law, industrial relations and any other laws and regulations; ensure the right of gays and lesbians to choose to marry if they so wish; provide independent incomes [Newstart, Pensions, etc] for all regardless of relationship status - this will end state-enforced economic dependency. • Guarantee the right of gay men and lesbians to adopt or foster children and end discrimination against gay men and lesbians in child custody cases; • Legislate against use of non-violent homosexual “advance” as a defence of “provocation” in violent crime. • Provide full state funding for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth programs including refuges and housing services, health services, coming out, self-esteem and suicide prevention programs; • All public funding for education, youth, aged, health, employment and welfare to be directed though non-discriminatory government and/or secular non-profit community organizations. Education in schools to incorporate positive material on homosexuality and transgender. • Support Pride Marches, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, film and video festivals and other queer community events; defend and extend gay, lesbian and transgender programming on the ABC, SBS and community broadcasters; work vigorously for an end to 33

the vicious and destructive portrayal of gay men, lesbians and transgender people in some sections of the media. • Support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered workers; promote strong policies within unions to defend gay, lesbian and transgendered workers; support the establishment of gay and lesbian caucuses within trade unions.

22. Charter of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rights Introduction In 1788 Australia was invaded and colonised, but the sovereignty of the original inhabitants of this country was never ceded. Across the continent the Indigenous peoples resisted. But treaties were never negotiated over the use or settlement of the land, and the colonisers invented a legal fiction – terra nullius – to justify their illegal and violent annexation. By pretending that the land wasn’t inhabited by a “civilised” people, the likes of James Cook and Joseph Banks laid the basis for two centuries of racism and oppression. For the past 220 years, mothers, fathers and children have suffered the trauma of invasion, enslavement, assimilation, genocide, racist exclusion, land theft, the destruction of life, language and culture, and the denial of basic human rights. Under successive governments, whole populations were forced into missions, denied their language and culture, and given diseased blankets, and tea, flour, and tobacco to live on. In many areas, hunting parties were paid a bounty to chase down and kill those who refused to accept the new order. Throughout the last century, Aboriginal children were removed from their families and communities, in order to “assimilate” what was deemed a “failed race” into the broader Australian population. These children were lied to about their heritage, and were used as slave labour – as housemaids, or on cattle stations – and were frequently abused. These children – collectively known as the Stolen Generations – still suffer from the effects of their separation, and are still waiting for meaningful reparation for their pain. The Apology The apology given by Kevin Rudd to the Stolen Generation was an important and necessary symbolic step forward—if long overdue. However, it does not mean that official racism is dead. Without compensation for the Stolen Generations and immediate action to overcome the inequality suffered by indigenous Australians, the apology will become just more hollow words from white Australia. In 1992, the High Court finally laid to rest the white colonial fairytale that there was no such thing as Indigenous land ownership, that the country invaded in 1788 was terra nullius. But despite a world of promises, in the 16 years since Mabo Indigenous Australia remains without adequate recognition, often living in Third World conditions and with land rights inadequately recognised and respected. Deaths in custody and endemic racism continue, reinforced by negative media coverage and racist government legislation, such as the Howard Government’s Northern Territory intervention in 2007. 34

The Northern Territory intervention—the new paternalism The Howard government used the 2007 Little Children are Sacred report on the sexual abuse of children in Aboriginal communities to justify its intervention with police and army into Northern Territory Aboriginal settlements. There was no consultation with Indigenous communities, the Northern Territory's land rights law and the permit system were suspended, welfare payments “quarantined” and employment projects cut. The pretext for the intervention was not even mentioned in the legislation that enabled the intervention, and only a handful of actual charges of abuse laid. Northern Territory Aboriginal leaders maintain that the incidence of child molestation in their communities is less than in the broader community. If the concern about inadequate protection of Aboriginal children had been real, it would never have produced that intervention. The intervention and the quarantining of welfare payments has forced people out of their communities, leading to increased homelessness (“long-grassing”), suicide and petty crime. This new paternalism, which continues under Rudd and state Labor governments, will only reproduce the same results as the old paternalism—poverty, alienation, powerlessness and hopelessness. The only way to solve the problems facing Aboriginal communities across Australia is to work in coalition with the communities themselves, to provide the resources, training, and support to enable the communities to take control of their own affairs, instead of relying upon handouts or being pushed around at the point of a gun or pen. Our basic approach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to be the victims, not the creators, of the policies which affect them. That is why the Socialist Alliance’s basic “policy approach” is to provide solidarity and support to all struggles for justice by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We stand for: • • • • •

Reconciliation and compensation Recognition of rights and the building of awareness Full economic and social equality – close the gap within ten years A treaty and real land rights Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs

1. Reconciliation and Compensation Justice for Indigenous Australia must begin with a frank and full acknowledgement of the fact that “White Australia has a Black history” and a determination to make amends wherever possible. Prime Minister Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations on February 13, 2008, was a good start, but more concrete steps have to be taken.

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That requires: • • • • •

Constitutional recognition of the sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the original and ongoing inhabitants of the land, and the negotiation of a treaty or binding agreement enshrining Indigenous rights in law; Full reparation for the Stolen Generations; Full implementation of the recommendations of the 1997 National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families (the “Bringing Them Home” Report); Full and immediate compensation for the stolen wages and for traditional lands ravaged by mining; Full implementation of the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

2. Recognition of Rights and Building Awareness Socialist Alliance supports the creation of a treaty or compact in order to enshrine and protect the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is more than just a formality – in countries where treaties have been negotiated, and have provided a means to exercise genuine self-determination in Indigenous communities, health and other social problems have improved. The Socialist Alliance says: • • • • • • •

Ensure all legislation is in line with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the rulings of the UN Commission on Human Rights; Guarantee protection of sacred sites and artefacts, and the return of all stolen heritage items – both here and overseas – to their rightful custodians; Protect the cultural and intellectual property rights of Aboriginal Australia; Change planning laws and regulations so that the decision as to what is a heritage site in need of protection belongs to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people concerned; Make the study of the history, culture, languages and customs of Indigenous peoples part of the core education curriculum; make Indigenous studies mandatory in teacher training; and develop curricula in Aboriginal languages; Start a program for the reviving and popularising of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander place names to stand alongside (or replace) the place names arising from colonial settlement; Extend Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programming on the ABC, SBS and community broadcasting; end the racist and destructive portrayal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, organisations and communities in some sections of the media.

3. Social and economic equality In health, housing, employment and education Indigenous Australia still lags, often shockingly, behind the rest of the population. Indigenous babies and children have twice the 36

rate of low birth weight, seven times the rate of sudden infant death and seven times the death rate from childhood infectious diseases and accidents as non-Indigenous children. The life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is 17 years below that of non-Indigenous Australians, and at present rates of change it will never reach that of the nonIndigenous population! This contrasts shamefully with the progress in life expectancy of the Maori people in New Zealand and the First Nations peoples of Canada. To make things worse, for years, Indigenous health has been under-funded by at least $500 million annually. This must be turned around immediately. We need to end the genocide taking place by neglect, by extending and improving Indigenous health and other community needs through fully funded and targeted services controlled by Indigenous Australians and their communities. The Socialist Alliance calls for an emergency campaign to “close the gap” in life expectancy within a generation, and to eliminate Indigenous social disadvantage and inequality across the board within a decade. Socialist Alliance calls for a target date of 2012 for Aboriginal students to match or better the educational development of Australian students as a whole, and aim for similar targets in health, housing and employment. A properly funded program of positive discrimination for Indigenous people in education and training and a real Indigenous job creation campaign could have started to solve the problems of Aboriginal communities’ hopelessness years ago. Funding for programs that have been shown to reduce social and economic disadvantage must be kept up and increased. Any real plan to achieve social and economic equality for Indigenous people must include the following measures, developed and overseen by the appropriate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations. Aboriginal control over the administration of Aboriginal affairs must be the practice, not just on paper. The Socialist Alliance says: Health • • • •

Implement an emergency campaign around child health. Boost funding to communitybased child-care services and boosted training of more Aboriginal pediatric health professionals; Boost health resources in both community-run and mainstream services, including training of Aboriginal health professionals in all fields; Strengthen community initiatives to address violence and abuse, establish safe houses and properly resource Indigenous women’s centres and legal services; Implement the recommendation of the Little Children are Sacred report, the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the Northern Territory Emergency Response and Development Plan, as well as the recommendations in the 1997 HREOC Social Justice Report.

Housing

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• • • •

As part of expanding social housing, develop and adequately fund an Indigenous housing plan to address unmet need (17% of people using homelessness services are Indigenous as against less than 2% for the population as a whole); Implement an emergency repair and upgrading plan for Indigenous households; Help Indigenous communities maintain and improve their housing stock by providing the necessary training and resources and develop local production of building materials; Provide housing opportunities that meet cultural and community needs.

Education • • • • •

Ensure that the Department of Education and Training has the resources, staffing and teacher-training programs adequate to provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students with the necessary attention; Implement programs to support Aboriginal parents and caregivers with children in the formative 0 to 5 year period Increase the numbers of Aboriginal teachers and education administrators; Increase the level of community involvement in schools and TAFEs, through such programs as “in-class tuition” that brings Aboriginal parents into schools to work with and raise the awareness of non-Aboriginal teachers and children; Value the unique knowledge of Aboriginal people and create programs that enable Aboriginal people to transmit this knowledge through the classroom to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students to foster pride and understanding.

Employment • • • • • •

Ensure that all programs and services in Indigenous communities employ qualified people, and provide training and development for community members; Establish affirmative action quotas in apprenticeships, TAFE and university entrance and all levels of government; Require government agency programs to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation; Provide funds and other needed assistance for social sector economic activity by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; Help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to retain and or reclaim use of traditional fisheries; Abolish work for the dole. Reinstate Community Development Employment Programs (CDEPs) as a transition to real employment, especially in remote in Aboriginal communities, employing all workers on locally negotiated award wages based on community consultation.

Indigenous Australians in jail Indigenous Australians make up less than 2% of the population, but make up 26% of the jail population. There can be no social justice and equality for Aboriginal Australians until problems that cause this situation are tackled by:

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• • • • • • • • •

Implementation of all the 339 recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and full investigation into the scores of avoidable deaths since; Full implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody; Boosted funding to Aboriginal Legal Services; No to the privatisation of prisons and prisoner transport; Thorough training of court officials, police and prison officers in Indigenous culture and values; Proper representation of Indigenous communities on law reform bodies; Greater Indigenous representation on juries; Indigenous community policing; Greater use of suspended sentences and circle sentencing through Aboriginal Community Justice Groups.

4. Sovereignty, Treaty and Land Rights After three decades of Land Rights, and 15 years of Native Title, it is clear that consecutive governments and legislation have failed to meet the aim of increasing the rights of Indigenous people to live on traditional lands. The National Native Title Tribunal has failed to secure Indigenous rights in the face of corporate, especially mining, interests. The Howard government’s abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and attack on Land Rights in the Northern Territory shows the vulnerability of Indigenous rights in the face of hostile Governments intent on a racist land-grab. Socialist Alliance stands for full Land Rights and compensation for land taken, and recognises the existence of Indigenous self-governance and the right of Indigenous peoples to selfdetermination. Socialist Alliance also calls for increased funding and support for Indigenous community-run services to overcome the lack of necessary expertise among local communities. The Socialist Alliance approach is to strengthen the economic and skills base of the land councils system and local communities, and in this way support Indigenous people in the creation of sustainable, self-managed communities. Socialist Alliance says: • • • • • •

Restore the permit system in full, under community control, not white manager control; No to 5-year and 99-year leases. The use of Aboriginal land for community development is possible without breaking it up and forcibly introducing individual property relations onto a communitarian culture; Provide support, funding and the necessary specialist training for the development of community cooperative enterprises; Assist communities in developing leadership and other skills, with a special focus on encouraging youth participation; Guarantee democratic processes in the selection of Aboriginal leadership positions Block the disposal of land of spiritual or cultural value without support by land councils and traditional custodians; 39

• • • •

Encourage and resource the development of democratic Indigenous representative bodies at regional and national levels; No forced amalgamations or closure of land councils; No to the “mainstreaming” of Indigenous services; Repeal the Native Title Act, abolish all racist land laws and renegotiate Indigenous Land Rights as part of a constitutionally entrenched Treaty, binding on Federal and State governments.

23. Policy on the ban on the hijab Conference condemns the rise of racism in Australia against people of Muslim belief or Middle Eastern background, especially since 9/11. Muslim women who wear the hijab or burqa have been attacked or harassed. Only last month, a woman soccer player in Melbourne was barred by a referee from playing because she was wearing a hijab. Conference condemns the recent introduction of a law in France banning the wearing of prominent religious items, including the hijab, in state schools or the public service. While the law was ostensibly to defend secularism, its real target was France's Muslim minority. Conference rejects the false argument that banning the hijab is about promoting women's liberation. Many of those who support such a ban show no such concern over sexist advertising or women's low pay. Only Muslim women can make the decision to wear or not to wear the hijab. Conference agrees to campaign against any proposals to ban or limit by law the wearing of the hijab or burqa, and against informal discrimination in our workplaces and communities.

24. Policy on unions in the armed forces The Socialist Alliance supports trade unionism within the armed services.

25. Voting age The Socialist Alliance calls for the voting age to be lowered to 16 years.

26. Indonesia The Socialist Alliance opposes the military/security arrangements being agreed to between the Indonesian and Australian governments, keeping in mind that no Indonesian military officer has ever been extradited or imprisoned for charges relating to gross human rights violations committed in East Timor, Aceh and West Papua. The arrangements being discussed have as their aim the restoration of military ties, and to clamp down further on the struggles for self-determination in West Papua and Aceh.

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27. The right of self-determination for the Tamil people The Socialist Alliance recognises that Tamils are an oppressed nation within Sri Lanka, and supports their right to self-determination. This means that Tamils should have the right to choose whether they wish to be part of a united Sri Lanka, to break away and form an independent Tamil state in their traditional homelands in the north and east of the island, or to have some intermediate form such as federalism or autonomy. Regardless of whether Sri Lanka remains a single state or whether the Tamil areas become independent, the rights of minorities must be protected. This includes the rights of Tamils, Muslims and other minorities in Sinhalese areas, and the rights of Muslims and Sinhalese in Tamil areas. The Socialist Alliance calls for full political, religious and linguistic rights for such groups. The Socialist Alliance demands: That the Sri Lankan government stops the bombing, shelling and all military operations against the Tamil minority, and starts political negotiations based on the right to selfdetermination of the Tamils. We also demand the Australian government: 1. Call on the Sri Lankan government to enter such negotiations 2. Take immediate action to enable those in Australia who want to assist the beleaguered Tamil and muslim civilians in the north and east of Sri Lanka to be able to do so without threat of facing “anti-terror” charges. 3. Take immediate action to drop the “anti-terror” charges against Australian Tamil activists who assisted Tamils in Sri Lanka. 4. Accepts Tamils fleeing brutality as refugees.

28. Philippines “The Socialist Alliance condemns the Philippines government whose personnel have been implicated in payoffs from illegal gambling, which appears to have rigged the recent presidential elections and which has carried out policies of repression and impoverishment. We support the calls from Filipino working-class organisations for immediate mass popular mobilizations to bring down the government and move towards progressive and fundamental social change.”

29. Energy Policy Framework The Socialist Alliance 2008 National Conference adopted the following energy policy guidelines. Core issues for energy policy 41

1. The Socialist Alliance’s energy policy builds on the ten point Climate Action Plan contained in our Climate Change Charter. 2. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, Alliance energy policy must recognise and incorporate the objectives of alternative energy policies and plans such as the “Clean Energy Future” work of Dr Mark Diesendorf and others and “Coal Switch: Halving Victoria’s greenhouse emissions” by the Greenleap Strategic Institute and Beyond Zero Emissions. 3. The three principal yardsticks that the Socialist Alliance includes in an acceptable alternative energy proposal are: i. Do the measures it proposes recognise the urgency of the climate crisis, and the need to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to 300-325 parts per million as quickly as possible? ii. Does it guarantee and maintain employment, living standards and retraining for affected workers and communities? iii. Is the economic burden of developing national sustainable energy infrastructure shared equitably? 4. The Socialist Alliance proposes that its energy policy form part of the campaign by climate change scientists, local climate change groups, climate campaign organisations, environmental organisations, trade unions, local councils and community groups to develop an energy policy adequate to the challenge of global warming. The key goal is to develop an integrated alternative energy policy that is broadly understood and supported by working people and the wider community. 5. A primary purpose of its energy policy is to strengthen the broad climate change movement. In particular, the Alliance commits itself towards encouraging the trade union movement to support and adopt adequate climate change and alternative energy plans. 6. The core objective is to phase out carbon-intensive energy production as quickly as possible (such as a target of 100% electricity supply from renewables in 10 years). This will not be achieved by even the most successful examples of market-based mechanisms (such as Germany’s feed-in tariff mechanisms for solar energy). The Socialist Alliance therefore calls for the establishment of an energy sustainability transition plan and a national Sustainable Energy Authority to oversee its implementation. •

This authority would: Control and coordinate all energy production, including existing state and private generators, distribution networks and retail energy outlets, and to replace the National Electricity Market;

•

Have the power to establish wholesale and retail energy tariffs, along with generous feed-in tariffs for all users;

•

Oversee a properly funded crash program of phasing out coal-produced electricity. It would—in collaboration with energy scientists, energy workers and their unions, local government and climate campaign groups—decide the best mix of sustainable and renewable energy technologies;

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•

Develop a plan for the decentralisation of sustainable energy production, after discussion with the same groups and on the basis of trial projects;

•

Implement carbon audits throughout industry, and the impose sanctions for cases of failure to implement world’s-lowest-emissions technology;

•

Oversee a plan for the conversion to sustainability or closing down of the most energyintensive and polluting industries (coal, aluminium, cement etc), with workers retrained on full pay, and alternative industries established, especially in rural and regional areas;

•

Encourage R and D of innovative proposals to develop renewable energy, and to ensure that scientific and industrial work in renewable energy is not forced offshore but developed to potential in Australia;

•

Oversee a crash program of energy efficiency and demand reduction, in particular extending the work already done by the National Framework for Energy Efficiency in the domestic and commercial sectors to industry, with binding targets set for demand reduction and building stock energy efficiency refits;

•

Oversee the removal of subsidies for fossil fuels and energy wastage.

Financing energy sustainability 7. The Socialist Alliance, in line with the “polluter pays” principle and in order to defend the living standards of working people and people on welfare, adopts the following approach to financing the transition to energy sustainability: •

A shift in budget priorities away from war (“defence”) expenditure, and subsidies to polluting industries;

•

A sharp increase in taxation of polluting industries if they do not meet pollution reduction targets;

•

A general increase in tax rates on the wealthy and in company tax rates (see 2004 election manifesto).

8. The Socialist Alliance rejects carbon trading and the “cap-and-trade” model as they are incapable of reducing carbon emission levels adequately, socially inequitable within countries and between the First and Third Worlds, and open to massive abuses. Projections 9. The National Environment Committee shall investigate, via a discussion involving all interested members and carried in Alliance Voices and on our wiki site, whether the Socialist Alliance should support a carbon tax and, if so, to propose a specific formula for consideration by the incoming National Executive. 10. The National Environment Committee shall adopt the same approach in developing a draft Socialist Alliance position on carbon rationing, for consideration by the incoming National Executive.

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11. The National Environment Committee shall further develop and refine the policy points adopted in this statement, with a view to the incoming National Executive adopting a comprehensive energy policy, especially in the light of the forthcoming Canberra Climate Change Summit.

30. Water Policy The Problem The current drought, exacerbated by global warming, has shown that current levels of water use are completely unsustainable in Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent. Excessive water use, especially by heavy industry and water-intensive agribusiness, is causing irreparable damage to our fragile ecosystems and creating chronic water shortages. Conventional free-market economics aims to solve this problem by putting a price on water and allowing it to be traded by those who can afford to purchase it. This approach allows governments to ignore the real challenge of conserving water properly and rationing its use according to need. Trading in water encourages speculation and the most profitable rather than the most sustainable and socially just uses. It leads to poor farming practices and increased prices for residential use. The National Water Initiative has this approach. It is also insufficiently funded to achieve the wholesale conversion of water infrastructure and reduction in water demand that the ecosystems along the Murray-Darling basin need to recover. Our Solution A serious water conservation policy has to target the big industrial and agricultural water users. Currently the lack of water conservation by industry and agribusiness means that the efforts of householders to conserve water are being wasted. The Socialist Alliance says that water is not simply a commodity or an input into industry and agriculture but is the central element of our ecosystems. Instead of market-based approaches we advocate an all-round plan for water sustainability based on a thorough scientific assessment of rivers, wetlands and water tables. The knowledge of Indigenous communities is an essential part of making that assessment and developing sound proposals for water conservation. In the country, measures to preserve normal water flows in rivers and wetlands and implement low-input sustainable farming practices are essential. In the cities, we need to reduce water waste and start harvesting storm water and recycling waste water. There is enough water for everyone if comprehensive conservation measures are adopted and its use is allocated fairly. Such an approach will also remove the need to build further large, environmentally damaging, dams.

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To achieve the goal of water sustainability, public ownership and democratic, accountable management of water resources is essential. Unless the water supply is publicly owned, the profit motive will always disrupt scientifically-based water conservation measures. No privatisation of water •

No privatisation of water and water infrastructure (dams, water pipelines, pumping stations). Where these have already been privatised, they should be returned to public ownership

•

No public-private partnerships for water projects. All water projects to be 100% in public hands.

No water trading •

Establish water allocations for each catchment and region based on the assessed needs (scientific, environmental, agricultural/industrial, domestic) of that area

•

No trading of water “rights” for speculative purposes

•

End schemes for trading between regions, such as the pipeline being built to Melbourne from the Goulburn Valley

Create an all-round water conservation plan a. In the country •

Build irrigation pipelines to save water evaporating in open-channel irrigation areas

•

Promote and fund conversion to drip irrigation wherever practicable

•

Reduce water extraction rates from groundwater systems until depletion ceases

•

Stop land clearing and logging in important water catchments to preserve water quality. Increase funding to land clearing prevention services

•

Implement plans to restore water catchment areas and halt the damage done by land clearing, erosion and mining.. Prioritise the replanting of native vegetation in damaged catchment areas

•

Fund education and appropriate assistance for farming communities to move to lower water-use crops and farming practices

•

Phase out water-intensive monoculture crops in climatic regions which remain unsustainable

b. In urban areas •

Improve urban water conservation by providing grants to subsidise installation of water tanks, grey water systems, and dry composting toilets

•

Recycle water for appropriate industrial and outdoor use

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•

Enforce conservation measures on industrial and commercial water users

•

Require sustainable water use planning for all new industrial, commercial and agricultural developments

•

Establish comprehensive water efficiency standards for appliances

c. Desalination •

Use desalination, which consumes vast amounts of energy, only as a last resort

•

Oppose the building of desalination plants unless they use renewable energy and brine discharge is avoided (for example by producing commercial salt instead of waste brine)

Restore adequate river flows •

Establish adequate, scientifically based, flow targets for all river systems

•

Use the water made available by conservation measures to restore flow levels in rivers and wetlands to a level sufficient to sustain the river ecosystem in its natural state or as close as can be scientifically determined

•

Buy back water allocations to increase flows further if conservation measures are insufficient. If necessary increase funding for buying back water allocations

•

Fully protect the rivers of northern Australia in order to prevent a recurrence of the Murray-Darling disaster

Full support to affected communities •

Provide financial assistance for transition, including relocation and retraining, to regional communities where farming and other activity is stopped or severely curtailed by water conservation measures and/or ongoing drought and climate change

•

Assist rural communities to establish sustainable farming practices to maintain national food supply

•

Increase funding to Landcare to provide permanent employment for farmers displaced by water conservation measures and climate change

31. Climate Change Charter Second edition (2008), long version, final draft The fate of advanced human civilisation—and perhaps of our species itself—hangs in the balance. Fuelled by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, global warming is advancing at a pace inconceivable to scientists just a few years ago. 46

The complete melting in late summers of Arctic sea ice—something that scientists used to predict for the final decades of this century — is now widely expected by 2013-15. As the highly reflective ice is replaced by dark water, much more of the sun’s heat is captured. Mean Arctic temperatures in recent years have been as much as 3°C above their long-term averages. A band of increased warmth 1500km wide stretches south from the Arctic Ocean to cover the main regions of Arctic permafrost. The permafrost is now melting. As it does so, ever-growing volumes of methane gas are bubbling from lakes and swamps. Given off when plant matter decays in an oxygen-poor environment, methane has a potent greenhouse effect. Though relatively short-lived in the atmosphere the gas, while present, traps heat at around 72 times the rate of carbon dioxide. Global warming threatens to become self-accelerating as natural “tipping points” are passed, triggering “positive feedbacks” that pour additional carbon from soils and forests into the atmosphere. After the sea ice, the next tipping point may lie in the forests of the Amazon. Heating up, drying out and burning, its trees and peatlands threaten to let loose a fresh flood of greenhouse gases. Scientific advances in the last few years have sharply changed the way researchers perceive the climate danger. Earlier computer models of the Earth’s climate suggested that if rises in average global temperature could be kept below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, compared to today’s figure of 0.8°C, the worst effects of global warming could be avoided. But new studies warn that there is no level of additional greenhouse gases that we can “safely” release into the atmosphere. Even present levels of warming are highly dangerous, as the swift decline of Arctic sea ice shows. Moreover, additional warming of at least 0.5°C, the result of greenhouse gases already emitted, is built into the climate system. To have any hope of avoiding disaster, human society must allot truly massive resources, immediately, to the task of cutting atmospheric greenhouse gases to a point no more than marginally above pre-industrial levels. The Socialist Alliance acknowledged at its sixth national conference in December that from its present level of just under 390 parts per million (ppm), atmospheric carbon dioxide needs to fall to 300-325ppm. Targets for future emissions must be set at zero, or even negative. And the time-frame? As soon as humanly possible. Our new position reads: “Current science indicates that annual emissions reductions of at least 5% will be essential. We propose immediate economy-wide and sector-by-sector planning for all greenhouse gases, to meet these targets on time or before. We must establish mechanisms to review and change these targets as scientific forecasts are updated.” It is true that life on Earth has thrived during long geological ages when temperatures were far above those of the present. But the plants and animals then were very different from today’s species, which evolved over millions of years to live on a relatively cool planet. 47

However, the rate at which global temperatures are now rising appears to be without precedent in the geological record. Could human beings flourish in the radically impoverished, highly unstable biosphere that business-as-usual emissions are likely to create? Small groups probably would, in a few favourable locations. But civilisation as we know it could not survive. In the boardrooms of huge capitalist corporations, the emerging picture has executives terrified for their profits. Giant polluters like Rio Tinto plead to be exempt from climate change legislation. Big-business media organs conceal the new science, belittle the scientists, and give top billing to ignorant claptrap from denialists and climate sceptics. And in the government offices, politicians loyal to the corporations frame emissions reduction targets which — like Rudd Labor’s 5-15% by 2020 — amount to suicide notes for most of nature and humanity. These miserable targets and Rudd’s carbon emissions trading system simply cannot produce the reductions required within 10 years. Yet the resources needed to avoid climate catastrophe exist — our enormous challenge is to organise a climate action movement strong enough to enforce implementation of a plan for climate sustainability. Without a plan the movement will be without perspective; without a powerful movement conscious of what it is fighting for, the best climate sustainability plan will never be realised. This is the understanding with which the Socialist Alliance has produced this second edition of its Climate Change Charter. It outlines the peril we face, and how ordinary concerned people can force history onto the path of climate sustainability. It’s time to stop looking to official Australia for any serious response to global warming. The only force capable of bringing real change to government policy is the climate change movement itself, organising, protesting, spreading awareness of the drastic seriousness of the crisis and collaborating across the planet. For the scale and speed of the changes now needed, the best example history offers is the conversion of major economies to wartime production during World War II. The Socialist Alliance will be doing all it can to help strengthen the movement to make that possible. Set the greenhouse gas reduction targets that the planet needs An emissions reduction target will fail to be effective if it still gives us runaway global warming. A target limit for greenhouse gas concentration of 550ppm, accepted by most governments, would produce “at least a 77% chance - and perhaps up to a 99% chance, depending on the climate model used - of a global average temperature rise exceeding 2°.” (Sir Nicholas Stern, 2006). For a safe climate we must aim for a target of 300-325 ppm of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This target is to be achieved as rapidly as possible through immediate and urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions with the aim of achieving zero net emissions and then carbon draw-down from the atmosphere. The planet has already warmed by nearly 1°C and even if

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warming stopped now, there would be extra 0.5°C due to the normal delay in temperature rises.. We need mandatory annual emissions reduction targets of at least 5%. We propose immediate economy-wide and sector-by-sector planning for all greenhouse gases, to meet these targets on time or before. We must establish mechanisms to review and change these targets as scientific forecasts are updated. Businesses, local councils and government departments should all be required to commit to reducing their overall GHG emissions to zero as part of a national plan. Negotiate a much stronger treaty after Kyoto The rich industrial countries are mostly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, and they must lead the campaign for strong and rapid international climate action. Per head, Australia is one of the highest GHG emitters in the world. Our government has an obligation to play a leading role in formulating a new international treaty at Copenhagen in 2009 that aims to get all nations to agree to the targets the planet needs. It is impoverished developing countries like Bangladesh and Kiribati that will be most affected by climate change. Many poor nations will struggle to deal with the symptoms of climate change without massive technical assistance. The rich nations must assist poor nations to develop economic plans that avoid high-pollution industries and encourage the use of renewable energy. This assistance is just part of repaying our ecological debt. Australia must also accept some of the environmental refugees to be displaced by rising sea levels, especially from the Asia-Pacific region. Attack energy inefficiency - aim for zero waste One of the easiest ways to reduce GHGs is by increasing efficiency and reducing waste. More efficient appliances, insulating homes, better recycling, improved and more efficient public transport, producing locally-produced goods—these are some of the simple but effective changes that are possible right now. But these changes will not happen fast enough if they’re left to the individual consumer's response to appeals to save energy, and to the “sticks and carrots” approach of energy price hikes and tax rebates. To begin the transition to sustainability, we must set energy efficiency as a national goal, and then develop targets, standards, regulations and national and local campaigns to achieve it. In Venezuela and Cuba the goal of eliminating incandescent light bulbs was achieved by having teams of volunteers installing free government-supplied, low-energy replacement bulbs. This is the sort of initiative that’s needed to make Australia’s 5.5 million homes energy efficient. Governments committed to energy efficiency should have sustainable energy household conversion plans, with annual targets for solar power and heating installation compulsory for 49

energy utilities These plans would build on and promote the various community initiatives dedicated to goals like creating “zero emission” housing, schools and other facilities. They would require the same approach from business, with systematic energy audits and set compliance deadlines. Firms that don't upgrade to low emissions technology and processes would have to close or be taken over. They would also monitor and establish strict standards for the energy use of business products. Businesses that operate in a market-based capitalist economy concentrate on selling products, and are unlikely to implement climate-friendly techniques unless strong regulations are introduced. Integral to the plan would be the phasing out of the $9 billion in fossil fuel subsidies to energyhungry industries like aluminium refining. Industries that are heavy users of energy would be required to obtain their energy needs from sustainable sources. All products require energy to be manufactured. Waste of energy and resources are built into the entire economy. More profits are made from designing products not to last, and pollution produced along the way goes on to become someone else’s problem. Even traditional recycling largely ignores manufacturing waste and assumes relatively few products can be reused or recycled at the end of their lives. Most consumer products—with all the energy and raw materials that have gone into their production—one way or another become landfill. In a zero waste economy, products are designed so that they can be repaired, re-used and disassembled for recycling. We must start to require manufacturers to take back their used products (cars, TVs, computers, etc.) and re-use the components. Governments and the coal industry are spending millions of dollars researching “clean coal” technology. This costly and unproven technology endeavours to capture carbon dioxide from coal burning and then bury it underground, where it would remain a potential threat to future generations. Coal burning now accounts for around 36% of Australia's GHG emissions; mining and handling coal adds even more. A plan for phasing out coal mining and export must be developed, and this must involve creating new jobs for miners in sustainable industries. Transitional assistance should be offered to help developing countries like India source their energy needs from renewables. No new coal mines or coal-fired power plants should be approved. The nuclear lobby began its push for the expansion of uranium mining well before the impacts of global warming were fully known. It then decided to use concerns about climate change to promote the nuclear agenda. Expanding the nuclear cycle will not solve climate change. The time needed for approval and construction of nuclear reactors is much too long to reduce achieve the necessary reduction in emissions within the next 15-20 years. Huge amounts of energy and water are used in uranium mining and power generation, and the development of nuclear technology risks further nuclear weapons proliferation. The dangers inherent in the long-term storage of nuclear waste remain present, and the risk of disastrous accidents such as occurred at Chernobyl can never be discounted. 50

Aboriginal communities have resisted the expansion of uranium mining and the dumping of nuclear waste on their traditional lands. Their right to have a say over whether mining can take place on their lands, must be restored. 100% renewable energy by 2020 Australia could meet its basic energy needs from a combination of non-fossil fuel sources like solar, wind, biomass derived from agricultural wastes, tidal and geothermal (hot rocks beneath the Earth's surface). Countries like Spain and Denmark already produce more than 20% of their energy from solar and wind power. Australia should set a target of having all of its electricity generated by renewable energy by 2020. While massive government subsidies continue to be given to dirty fuels like brown coal, research into renewable energy technologies is not given adequate funds. This lack of serious research and development funding for renewable energy means that the fossil fuel and nuclear industries can delay any change towards sustainability. It hampers the rapid development of renewable technologies with reduced unit costs that would enable them to compete with their cheaper polluting products. The quickest way to guarantee that renewables are taken up at the speed needed to limit GHG increases is not to leave this job to the market and private industry - even “green” industry - but to create an adequately funded, publicly-owned renewable energy network. The Socialist Alliance calls for the creation of a Sustainable Energy Authority to drive this effort, and the overall conversion to energy sustainability. Towards a new agricultural model—encourage organic farming, protect the forests Agriculture accounts for 16% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Our current agricultural practices—based on highly mechanised planting and harvesting of single crops and on artificial fertilisers—consume huge quantities of fossil fuels. This not only creates pollution, but when fossil fuel supplies start to diminish, food security along with the climate will be threatened. Australia must start a transition to carbon-neutral and organic farming. The use of naturally arid areas to grow water-intensive crops, such as rice and cotton, must end. Existing farming communities should be encouraged with income, resources and training to make the transition to organic agriculture. Food production should be decentralised and localised to reduce the energy needed to transport and refrigerate foods. The Socialist Alliance supports the growth of urban agriculture, especially as many cities are built on our most fertile lands. All organic waste, including green waste and sewage, should be composted and the methane gas by-product harnessed for use as an energy source. This avoids methane gas escaping into the atmosphere from landfills, which currently occurs. Land clearing and outdated forestry practices such as old-growth logging are the biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Tasmania, and account for 6% of national GHG 51

emissions. Moreover, native forests that have not been logged store up to three times more carbon than forests that have been logged. To increase this “carbon sink” capacity, extensive programs of native-forest planting must be initiated, as well as programs to increase the capacity of soils to capture carbon. Carbon in the form of finely divided particles of charcoal, or “biochar”, is extraordinarily persistent in soils. In the Amazon basin in Brazil, indigenous peoples practised a slash-andchar economy that involved burying charcoal to create, over time, rich black soils known as “terra preta”. Some of these soils have been found to be thousands of years old. Biochar is produced through a process known as low-temperature pyrolysis, in which plant matter is heated to 350-500 degrees Celsius in an oxygen-poor environment. The plant matter undergoes reactions that release further heat, maintaining the process. Various gases are given off, some of which can be condensed to form a liquid biofuel, while others can be burnt to produce electricity. As much as 50 per cent of the original plant matter remains in the form of biochar, which in turn can be used to scrub carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from the flue gases. The result is to make the biochar a rich nitrogen fertiliser. Experiments in Western Australia show that when buried in soils, biochar dramatically increases yields of wheat. The porous grains of carbon also improve retention of water and of plant nutrients. It has been estimated that by the end of the century, as much as 9.5 billion tons of carbon – more than currently emitted globally through the burning of fossil fuels – could be buried each year by adding biochar to soils. Not only could global warming eventually be reversed, but the impact on food production would be enormous. Although biochar production can be based on forestry waste and crop residues, in Australia a better source of plant matter would be mallee species currently grown as windbreaks on grain farms. Mallee can be harvested every three to five years. As global warming makes marginal grain areas too dry for cropping, mallee cultivation could be substituted. In large areas of central Queensland land cleared for cattle-raising could be put back under its original tree cover of fast-growing brigalow. This could then be harvested for pyrolysis. As well as being used for carbon sequestration and soil improvement, biochar could provide an emissions-neutral substitute for coal in metals smelting. Creating a large biochar industry would require the designing and mass production of small pyrolysis plants. These would be sited every 50 km or so in appropriate regions. The impact on rural employment – and on job prospects for displaced coal miners – would be obvious. Make public transport free, frequent, accessible and reliable Transport is responsible for 14% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, a share that is still increasing. Road transport accounts for around 90% of that share. A transport system where cars carry 80% of people to work and trucks carry 60% of goods is not only highly inefficient, but it creates huge volumes of GHG emissions.

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To reverse this trend we have to put public transport at the centre of our urban development plans. Although trains are 40 times more energy efficient than cars, we won’t reduce or stop using cars and trucks unless there’s huge investment in public and rail freight transport to make it a real option for commuters and industry. A successful public transport system will have reliable, frequent services available to everyone within 10 minutes walk of a service, especially in outer metropolitan regions. It will have to be a publicly owned, integrated system of heavy rail, light rail, ferry and bus services. But we need to make it more attractive to users. To accelerate the switch to public transport it has to be free. That’s what transport authorities have always done when they really need to move large numbers of people quickly, as in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It’s what has happened in the Belgian city of Hasselt: within a year of introducing free bus fares, patronage increased by 870%. Most people think that this proposal would cost a vast amount of money. However, this reaction fails to measure the total (economic, social and environmental) cost and benefit of public transport against the total cost and benefit of continuing to shift people and goods by private car and truck. On that scale, public transport wins hands down. For every 10% switch from car and truck and into public transport, the costs of air pollution, greenhouse gas emission, car accidents, traffic congestion, motor vehicle waste disposal, noise pollution and road maintenance would drop by at least $1.4 billion. Free and frequent public transport combined with policies that stimulate cycling and walking is the only serious approach to curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. Carbon trading schemes won’t solve the crisis Mainstream political debate on global warming is dominated by discussion of emissions trading systems [ETS]. These involve “capping” national GHG emissions at a target level and issuing permits or licences to polluting industries that aim at restricting the volume of carbon dioxide they emit, by requiring polluters to pay for these licences. The Rudd Government proposes that such a system, its carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, will commence in 2010. These schemes are riddled with loopholes. In theory, the total amount of carbon that can be released is reduced each year, the price of carbon rises and those who don’t make the change to carbon-saving technologies pay the price. In practice, the schemes are very difficult if not impossible to police and the price of carbon is set far too low to force business to abandon its polluting practices quickly enough to have anything like the impact on overall emissions that is needed. For example, the CSIRO has calculated that carbon would have to trade between $350 and $575 a tonne to produce the (inadequate) level of carbon emission reductions targeted in the Stern Review. In early 2009 the carbon price in the European ETS had fallen to $20 a tonne. Carbon credits are also given out for “carbon offsets”, such as planting a forest plantation somewhere, even if the plantation would have gone ahead anyway or if another forest was 53

cut down in order to plant it! These credits permit companies to carry on polluting, while continuing to profit. If the credits are given out by governments instead of being sold or auctioned, and if the caps are too lenient, industries suffer no penalties and can keep polluting as usual—which is what has happened with the European Union's scheme over the last two years. No solution without public ownership and democratic control The principle of “polluter pays” means that the polluting companies should be directed to clean up the mess they have made. Individual consumers do use polluting products but they are rarely responsible for the decisions that result in the pollution occurring: it is the big industries that must bear the costs. The first measure to ensure a just solution is to take over industries that will not stop polluting, and place them under public ownership and scrutiny. In this way, those operations that are essential can be identified and kept (and cleaned up) while non-essential aspects can be scaled back or shut down. The profits that these public enterprises will still make can be reinvested in further programs. Private power companies have a vested interest in making us all use more energy, whereas what is really needed is less use of energy and clean power targets that can be met with renewable sources. But Australian governments have continually privatised public utilities, handing vital infrastructure over to the private sector. Public ownership and control over the vital area of energy generation and distribution is essential to bring this sector under an overall plan for greenhouse gas reduction and environmental sustainability. Guarantee jobs, involve workers in the fight for a liveable environment As old industries die, their workers are normally thrown on the scrap heap of unemployment. For example, as oil prices rise and cars become too expensive, the fossil-fuel based auto industry may well shrink to a boutique luxury service and masses of workers lose their jobs. The same can be said for unsustainable agriculture, coal mining and similar industries. A plan for a transition to a sustainable and just economy is therefore essential. These workers would become the driving force and moral guarantor of the new sustainable society, and not left behind with the de-commissioned machinery. Workers are critical to identifying and eliminating waste and pollution in the workplace, closing down old industries and opening new ones. The transition also needs government-funded “climate action brigades” - teams of people who can provide practical assistance and resources to assist households and communities improve their energy efficiency. Socialist Alliance proposes a massive program of converting energy infrastructure that will demand a large number of workers, requiring extensive redeployment and training. We will also need an expansion of free public education to provide sufficient numbers of skilled professionals to achieve the necessary research and development goals.

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Working people and their unions can also show the way to sustainability to the rest of society by producing model projects, like high standard, carbon neutral, sustainable housing - proof that the combination of appropriate technology with workers’ skills will be key in the transition. Change the system, not the climate! None of what we have outlined is going to happen unless it is fought for by an informed and mobilised community. In the words of climate scientist James Hansen: “The alternative scenario is feasible, but it is not being pursued. Our best hope? The public must become informed and get angry.” Australia's fossil fuel industries won't accept these measures. For years they funded climate sceptics to produce reports that threw doubt on the reality and severity of the problem. The former Howard Government was their faithful servant, by trying to undermine the Kyoto protocol and by refusing to take action that would reduce the profits of the coal, aluminium, electricity and forestry industries. Now, faced with overwhelming community concern, organisations like the Business Council of Australia are concerned to preserve their members’ polluting capital for as long as possible behind a new thin coat of “greenwash” as they pressure (successfully) the Rudd government to implement GHG reduction targets so inadequate that they have been condemned by Ross Garnaut’s, the government’s chief adviser on the issue. Despite its strident criticism of Howard’s denialism, the ALP is almost as much the creature of the big polluters as the Coalition, fixated by “clean coal” and allowing more uranium mining. It proposes targets for emissions reductions by 2050 that would mean Australia emitting 6-10 times (per person) the Earth's estimated capacity to absorb carbon, and lead inevitably to catastrophic climate change. Both major parties cynically claim to be protecting jobs, despite the decline in working conditions in some industries (e.g. speed-ups and health and safety declines in coal mining), and job losses in others (e.g. forestry). The Socialist Alliance says that the planet and future generations are more important than corporate profits. By knowingly spreading disinformation, standing over elected governments and resisting change despite the risks to all people and our planet, these corporations have lost the right to control the resources they are wasting. The community cannot afford vested interests like theirs to continue to determine policy. To replace their control of policy will require a movement that is independent of either of the major parties, but is strong enough to put pressure on whichever party is in government. Just as previous mass movements forced the Australian government to withdraw from the war in Vietnam and stop plans to dam Tasmania’s Franklin River, so the movement to avert climate catastrophe must mean more than just voting for change. The campaign must also happen in the streets, workplaces, schools and universities to win wide public support for the changes that need to be made. Creating those changes also means challenging the capitalist market, which has failed to protect future generations and can no longer be allowed to stop us from averting climatic 55

disaster. The measures outlined above are not only absolutely necessary to prevent global warming getting out of control, they also lay the basis for a society that is sustainable on an ongoing basis, because they subordinate production to human and environmental imperatives. The Socialist Alliance 10-point climate action plan 1. Implement immediate emission reduction targets with the aim of reducing net emissions to zero as soon as practicable, with a goal of achieving 100% of power from renewable sources by 2020. Introduce annual reduction targets of at least 5% to ensure that these targets are met. 2. Initiate further international treaty negotiations aimed at getting all countries to agree to these targets. Prioritise cutting rich industrial nations’ emissions, and supply aid to poorer countries to assist them in harnessing renewable sources of energy for industrial development. 3. Start the transition to a zero-waste economy. End industrial energy waste by legislation. Improve or ban wasteful consumer products. Engage workers in industry, with the appropriate technical experts, to redesign products and jobs sustainably. 4. Require the fitting of all feasible energy efficiency measures to existing houses and subsidise owner-occupiers for the costs. Allow renters to use the same system. Install photovoltaic solar panels and solar hot water heaters on home roofs, subsidised or owned by the electricity authority. Give commercial buildings a deadline to meet six-star energy standards within two years, and 10-star standards within 10 years. 5. Bring all power industries under public ownership and democratic control. Begin phasing out coalmining and coal-fired power immediately. Provide guaranteed jobs and retraining on full pay for coal mining and power-station communities, with new sustainable industries being built in their areas and paid redundancies offered. Run the maximum possible base-load power from existing natural gas and/or hydro power stations instead of coal only as an interim measure until renewable energy is available. Coal to be used only for predicted energy peaks in the short term. 6. Bring the whole car industry under public control. Re-tool this industry to manufacture wind turbines, public transport vehicles and infrastructure, solar hot water, solar photovoltaic cells. Subsidise the conversion of private cars to electric power. 7. Accelerate the construction of wind farms in suitable areas. Boost research into all renewable energy sources. Build pilot solar-thermal and geothermal plants now. Create localised power grids. 8. Stop logging old-growth forests and begin an urgent program of re-forestation and protecting biodiversity to ensure a robust biosystem that can survive the stress of climate change and provide an increased carbon sink. 9. Phase out industrial farming based on fertilisers, pesticides and fuel sourced from petroleum. Work with farmers and their organisations to make food production sustainable and carbon negative. Restrict farming areas to ensure that riverine, forest and other indigenous ecosystems return to healthy states. Encourage new farming practices including 56

organic and urban farming. This process must allow for security of food supplies, and guarantee full employment and retraining for rural communities. 10. Make all urban and regional public transport free and upgrade services to enable all urban residents to use it for regular commuting. Nationalise and upgrade interstate train and ferry services to provide real alternatives to air travel. Prioritise rail freight. All rail, light rail and interstate freight to be electrified or to run on biofuels from waste where possible. Encourage bicycle use through more cycleways, and better facilities for cyclists. Implement free or very cheap bicycle rental networks.

32. Bolivia Adopted at the Sixth National Conference, December 6-7, 2008 The democratically elected government of Bolivian President Evo Morales, that nation’s first ever president to come from the ranks of the impoverished indigenous majority, is leading a process of change that aims to overcome 500 years of indigenous oppression and reverse two decades of a brutal neo-liberalism that has left Bolivia the poorest country in South America. The Morales government has overseen a key popular demand for a constituent assembly for a new constitution based on justice and inclusion for the indigenous people. It has nationalized the country’s gas reserves and other industries and begun redistributing the wealth via programs aimed at assisting the poor. Morales was elected with 54% of the vote, the highest in Bolivia’s history, and his mandate was re-endorsed in August 2008 with a remarkable 67% in a referendum. Despite this democratic mandate, the United States government has worked overtime to destroy the government and the process of change it leads. The US has helped fund and organise the right-wing opposition in its campaign of destabilisation. This campaign reached a head in September 2008 with a coup attempt by the opposition that involved fascist violence against state institutions, indigenous peoples and social movements. The Bolivian government expelled the US ambassador, Philip Goldberg, for his role in coordinating the campaign to bring down the elected government. That month, the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) unanimously expressed its full support to the legitimate government of Evo Morales, repudiating the US-organised coup attempt. In light of all of this, the Socialist Alliance: • Offers its support to Bolivian government’s attempts to implement policies based on justice for the oppressed indigenous majority and to reverse neoliberalism.

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• •

Calls on the government of the United States to cease immediately its intervention into Bolivia aimed at destabilising and overthrowing the government. We support selfdetermination for the Bolivian people, according to the principle of national sovereignty. Calls on the Australian government to follow the lead of Unasur and declare its support for democracy and national sovereignty in Bolivia and reject all attempts to overthrow the legitimate government.

33. Western Sahara The Socialist Alliance (a) notes that: (i) Moroccan invaded and illegally occupied Western Sahara in 1975; (ii) (ii) The UN efforts to accomplish the decolonisation process in Western Sahara have not been successful yet; (iii) (iii) Over 165,000 Saharawis have been living in refugee camps in South West of Algeria for the past 32 years in dire conditions, waiting to return to their homeland which is occupied by Morocco, (iv) (iv) the only just, legal and lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, is to end the Moroccan illegal occupation and allow the Sahara people to exercise their right to self-determination, in accordance with the UN decolonisation doctrine; (v) (b) Strongly supports the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence; (c) Condemns the gross violations of human rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara by Morocco; (d) Asks the Moroccan Government to respect human rights in the Saharawi occupied territories and to release all Saharawi political detainees forthwith; (e) Calls on the UN to proceed without further delay with the organisation of the long overdue referendum of self-determination; (f) Urges the Commonwealth Government to: 1. Grant full diplomatic recognition to the Saharawi Republic (SADR) which is a member of the African Union (AU) and recognised by over 80 countries worldwide; 2. Extend the necessary support for the Saharawi people in their struggle for freedom and independence, under the leadership of their unique and legitimate representative the Frente Polisario; 3. Declare illegal the exploitation of the natural resources of Western Sahara through deals made with the occupying Moroccan regime; Provide all the necessary assistance to the UN in its efforts to organise a free and fair referendum for the people of Western Sahara

34. On the campaign for the abolition of the ABCC

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Conference notes the important role that Socialist Alliance trade unionists have played in building the campaign against the Australian Building and Construction Commission, in particular the role of Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden, who initiated the “No Cooperation with the ABCC sign-on statement” and the first building worker demonstrations over the charges laid against CFMEU organiser Noel Washington. The surprise withdrawal of charges by the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecution against Noel Washington the day after the introduction into parliament of the Rudd Government’s Fair Work Bill shows that the Rudd government is sensitive on the issue of labour rights and that determined campaigning can bring gains for workers and their unions. The success of the spirited December 2 protest rallies against the ABCC around the country showed that the most organised and conscious parts of the working class movement are determined to win back rights at work lost under the Howard government. Conference recognises that the campaign to abolish the ABCC is the spearhead campaign in the broader fight to properly restore workers rights. If it is won, the battle to neutralise the anti-union parts of the Fair Work Bill will be much easier. Conference resolves that the Socialist Alliance will continue to give full support to the building union-led campaign against the ABCC. Socialist Alliance unionists and trade union committees will continue to urge that non-cooperation with the ABCC as courageously practised by Noel Washington become the general approach and a central part of campaign. Conference recognises that the campaign will have to be escalated to achieve its goal of ABCC abolition, and in this perspective advocates ongoing industrial action and protest demonstration against ALP MPs who support or have yet to come out against the ABCC (like the October protest against Corio MHR Richard Marles and the Darwin December 2 building union protest outside the office of Solomon MHR Damian Hale). Conference also urges Socialist Alliance trade unionists to propose in their unions and in union peak bodies the idea that May Day 2009 be a National Day of Protest against the ABCC.

35. The Fair Work Bill The Socialist Alliance: 1. Recognises that while Labor’s Fair Work Bill removes some of the worst aspects of Work Choices, it preserves its punitive heart, maintaining the balance of power on the side of the capitalist class and selling short the demands of the Your Rights at Work campaign and reneging on Labor’s promise to “tear up” Work Choices. 2. Notes that, while there has not been enough time to fully study the Fair Work Bill in detail and that the impact of much of its content will be determined by the struggle on the ground, the basic intention of Labor’s “Fair Work” system is to give some legal protections

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to unions in industrial bargaining while severely restricting their capacity to fight for better conditions than those business is willing to concede. 3. Notes in particular that the Fair Work Bill will: •

Severely limit the right to strike (including banning the right to strike over non-industrial issues);

•

Still curtail union officials’ right of entry to work sites;

•

Retain the ban on “pattern bargaining”, except in a limited “low-paid stream”, in which all industrial action is banned;

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Retain Work Choices’ distinction between “protected” and “unprotected” industrial action, and make payment of wages during unprotected action illegal;

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Retain Work Choices distinction between “allowable” and “unallowable” content in agreements, outlawing the right to negotiate on social or environmental content;

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Restrict the right to seek compensation for unfair dismissal.

4. Resolves that the Socialist Alliance will prepare its own plain language question-andanswer guide to the Fair Work Bill.

36. Socialist Alliance attitude to worker and union candidates in future elections Conference notes that the first federal Labor government in over a decade won the 2007 election on the basis of union and social movement organisation against the Howard government, as well as re-winning some working-class support though its commitments in the areas such as health, education and welfare. While the Rudd government largely maintains support from progressive, broad left and union circles, its future responses, especially in the area of labour rights and action against climate change, are highly likely to disappoint many of its present supporters. At the state level disillusionment with Labor administrations is much farther advanced, particularly in New South Wales. This disillusionment is being expressed in increased votes for Green, progressive independent and, at the local government level, socialist candidates. The Socialist Alliance acknowledges that, in this context and especially in the case of major clashes between Labor and sections of the union movement, union-based forces may well choose to directly challenge ALP governments electorally. In such a case the Socialist Alliance will engage with attempts to run progressive union-supported candidates in coming elections. This is particularly the case if these candidates are generated from progressive campaigns, movements and unions.

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37. Perspectives for building Socialist Alliance and left regroupment 1. The international financial crisis has provoked large numbers of people to question the capitalist system and the ability of the market to solve problems such as the threat of climate change. For the first time in a long time, people are starting to talk about public ownership and question why governments can instantly come up with the funds to bailout the banks but never find the money to fix the problems in other areas such as health and education. 2. At the same time, the threat of runaway climate change and the need for a restructuring of our economy to phase out the use of fossil fuels is challenging many people who are worried about global warming to think about radical social change. The worldwide food shortage which has been exacerbated by farmers switching from food production to the production of biofuels is a graphic example of the lunacy of relying on market mechanisms to prevent climate change. 3. The inability of capitalism to solve any of these problems creates the potential for large numbers of people to reject capitalism and consider a socialist alternative. However, this potential is more likely to be realised if the socialist movement can become more united and develop stronger campaigns of resistance, as well as developing deeper roots in the working class. 4. Twelve months after the election of the Rudd Labor government, activists in the trade union, indigenous rights, refugee rights, climate action, anti-war and other movements are realising that Rudd Labor only intends to get rid of the worst features of the Howard-era laws, but leave the bulk of Howard’s legislation in place. As disenchantment with the federal and state Labor Party governments grows, there is more interest in an alternative to the left of Labor. 5. Socialist Alliance exists to help build stronger working class movements and campaigns for rights including in the unions, the climate action movement, Indigenous rights and LGBTI movements, and the anti-war movement. Its members have helped to spearhead, and lead, a number of successful campaigns over the past couple of years including in the anti-Work Choices and anti-ABCC campaigns, against George Bush’s 2007 APEC visit, for gay, lesbian, transgender and bi-sexual people rights, for the rights for refugees, the campaign against the Northern Territory intervention, and for international solidarity campaigns with radical and revolutionary movements overseas – including Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba. The focus on building these campaigns with a focus on mobilising community sentiment and involving new activists must continue. 6. SA’s national union working group and environment working group have kept up a regular meeting schedule and successfully planned out our work. This should continue. With the decline of the anti-war movement following the invasion of Iraq, it has been difficult to keep the anti-war working group meeting, although SA activists are still involved in anti-war and civil rights campaigning in their respective cities and there is a need to rebuild this movement as the Australian governments steps up its war in Afghanistan. 61

7. Socialist Alliance electoral work has engaged some of the less active members, and standing in state and federal and local elections has put us in touch with a range of leftists and raised our profile. However, our votes have generally been small, with the Greens still attracting the majority of the protest and left-of-ALP vote. Socialist Alliance should continue to stand in elections, but should also be open to looking at initiating and/or running on tickets with other left activists, particularly where we have not managed to get party registration. 8. Socialist Alliance has consolidated some of its branches including in Wollongong, Brisbane, Sydney West, Hobart and Geelong. It should strive to do the same in cities and districts across the country. While the Sydney and Melbourne inner city branches have been hard to consolidate over the last couple of years, members and supporters are contacted for events and meetings and help in election campaigns. A new branch has just been chartered in Cairns, and there are plans to do the same in Blacktown in Sydney. 9. Socialist Alliance was established in 2001 with a perspective of uniting a fragmented left. Socialist Alliance needs to continue striving to build a stronger socialist voice in Australia by continuing to look for new alliances with communities, organisations and individuals on the left who want to be active in struggles. Our work with the Sudanese community in western Sydney, the Turkish community in Melbourne, and he Tamil communities across Australia (and pro-Tamil Sinhalese individuals) have been important steps in this regard. It helps draw socialists and leftists from migrant communities into the Australian political movement, and in the process enrich and diversify the movement.

38. Seasonal workers The Socialist Alliance stands in opposition to the federal Labor government's seasonal worker scheme in the horticulture industry. Under the current trial, up to 2500 visas will be available over three years for workers from Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to work in Australia for up to seven out of any 12 months. The program follows in the footsteps of the massive expansion of the 457 visa program, which has become notorious for ripoffs and abuse of migrant workers. It will further entrench a system that affords temporary migrant workers fewer rights than permanent resident workers. The right to remain in Australia to work is directly linked to narrowly defined work rights (either spnsorship with a single employer or group of employers in a specific occupational categroy). Temporary migrant workers do not have the right to tell the boss to get stuffed and find another job. To do so means being deported. It is for this reason that temporary migrant workers highly vulnerable and employers are able to pay lower wages and conditions than are required to attract workers with full residency rights to the position.

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Employers have claimed a labour shortage to justify the program. While an absolute labour shortage does not exist there is a shortage of workers prepared to work in low-paid casualised jobs in rural areas, without access to transport and services including affordable accommodation. If a genuine generalised labour shortage exists, an increase in permanent migration would solve the shortage. However, the reality is that migrant workers with full work rights would seek the best wages and conditions available in the labour market. To attract workers, the agricultural industry employers would need to pay substantially more, facilitate continuity of work and provide access to facilities such as accommodation. The Australian Council of Trade Unions and Oxfam Australia have expressed qualified support for the pilot claiming benefits for poor Pacific Island nations through funds sent home by the migrant workers to their families. However there is strong evidence that permanent migrants are equally likely to send money to their families at home to provide some immediate poverty relief. Support for the pilot program based on arguments about Pacific Island development will allow big business to get away with establishing a program that will result in more super-exploited migrant workers in Australia, while failing to address to the real causes of poverty in the Pacific. The Socialist Alliance stands for full citizenship, democractic and work rights for all migrant workers. We stand for a large scale expansion of permanent migration programs including from poor pacific island nations in the region. Temporary migration schemes where workers have diminished rights will result in the super-exploitation of migrant workers and the undermining of wages and conditions for all workers.

39. Tibet The Socialist Alliance condemns the violation of human rights in Tibet and affirms its support for right of self-determination of the Tibetan people and other oppressed minorities in China. We also call on the prime minister Kevin Rudd not to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games.

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