May Day greetings from the Australian Greens

May Day rally, Sydney

Today we join with millions of people around the world in solidarity and celebration.

In particular we must remember our Iraqi brothers and sisters. Today they will defy the invading troops from the US, Australia and other countries to celebrate May Day. But they still cannot celebrate in peace.

We need to join with the Iraqi people in their May Day demand for all troops to leave Iraq now. That is the call of the Iraqi people - troops out now - it should be our demand also.

It is that lying, sneaky little cheat, John Howard, who along with Bush and Blair is responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of Iraqis and for the handover of their national assets to multinationals.

So let's remember this is the year we can remove the Howard regime. John Howard has to go.

This coming federal election is a critical one for the future of Australia, because Howard has not just followed Bush into war he is following him into a neoliberal economic rationalist agenda that will wind back many of the outstanding victories of the Australian trade union movement over the last century.

I am proud that the Greens will go to this federal election on a strong platform of commitment to the rights of working people and their unions. At the top of our list is the repeal of the Workplace Relations Act.

Individual contracts have to go, along with non-union agreements. But as well as dismantling the Coalition's anti-worker legislation the Greens will work to restore the right to strike. Once this fundamental right of working people was protected by law. Now we must reinstate legal recognition of the right to strike.

The Greens are ready to work with a federal Labor government in re-establishing workers' rights in this country.

Another priority we need to address is casualisation - very popular with the big end of town. Casualisation is a scourge on our society. Too many of the 2.2 mill Australians working as casuals face a life of uncertainity and poverty. And there is a clear solution here. Regular casuals should be able to become permanent employees after 6 months with the same employer.

Now we know that is not going to happen under howard because the Howard government is the Australian division of an international push to reduce the hard won wages and conditions of working people. Many of our jobs are under threat from the so called free trade agreements being touted by Bush and toadies like Howard.

Last month actors and entertainment industry workers took a stand against the US Free Trade Agreement. The Greens applaud their stand and the commitment of unions and communities around the world to say no to a regime that puts greed first.

Today in celebrating May day we are also celebrating a proud history. The fine traditions of this day stem from strike action in 1886 in the US city of Chicago. Workers striking for an 8-hour day were fired on by police. Four workers were killed and many wounded.

Today we remember the workers and progressive fighters who have died and suffered because they took a stand so we could continue their fine work.

And we do need to be vigilant or our collective achievements can be quickly stripped away.

Public education, public transport, public health are basic rights that we, the current generation, must preserve and hopefully improve on before we pass them onto the next generation.

No government has the right to dismantle or privatise such services, and I believe we are obliged to make sure they don't.

It saddens me to speak about the NSW Labor government's moves to dismantle much of this state's rail system. I acknowledge that there are many Labor members who are as concerned as the Greens are that Premier Carr and Minister for Transport Michael Costa are moving to destroy country trains.

We must stop the NSW Labor government's push to change CountryLink from a train based service to a bus based service, to close many branch lines and to sack hundreds of rail workers.

In the past two weeks I have been in northern and western NSW meeting with rail workers, farmers and many local communities to forge a strong alliance to save our rail services.

This is a critical campaign we must win. Public transport is a fundamental right.

On this day of international solidarity we need to extend our support to the people of nations struggling for their independence and self-determination.

While East Timor won its freedom from Indonesia to Australia's shame the East Timorese people have not yet won the battle to own and benefit from the oil and gas reserves that rightfully belong to them.

Under legislation passed earlier this year in the federal parliament Australia is set to rob the poorest nation in our region of $8billion over the next 30 years. Tragically for the East Timorese the Coalition and Latham Labor opposition allowed the moving of the boundary between our countries that supposedly legitimises this robbery.

On this May Day we stand with our East Timorese colleagues for justice and with all the millions who join the worldwide May Day celebrations for a safer, fairer and more just society.

The big contribution we can make to this cause is to defeat the Howard government.

Today we join with millions of people around the world in solidarity and celebration.

In particular we must remember our Iraqi brothers and sisters. Today they will defy the invading troops from the US, Australia and other countries to celebrate May Day. But they still cannot celebrate in peace.

We need to join with the Iraqi people in their May Day demand for all troops to leave Iraq now. That is the call of the Iraqi people - troops out now - it should be our demand also.

It is that lying, sneaky little cheat, John Howard, who along with Bush and Blair is responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of Iraqis and for the handover of their national assets to multinationals.

So let's remember this is the year we can remove the Howard regime. John Howard has to go.

This coming federal election is a critical one for the future of Australia, because Howard has not just followed Bush into war he is following him into a neoliberal economic rationalist agenda that will wind back many of the outstanding victories of the Australian trade union movement over the last century.

I am proud that the Greens will go to this federal election on a strong platform of commitment to the rights of working people and their unions. At the top of our list is the repeal of the Workplace Relations Act.

Individual contracts have to go, along with non-union agreements. But as well as dismantling the Coalition's anti-worker legislation the Greens will work to restore the right to strike. Once this fundamental right of working people was protected by law. Now we must reinstate legal recognition of the right to strike.

The Greens are ready to work with a federal Labor government in re-establishing workers' rights in this country.

Another priority we need to address is casualisation - very popular with the big end of town. Casualisation is a scourge on our society. Too many of the 2.2 mill Australians working as casuals face a life of uncertainity and poverty. And there is a clear solution here. Regular casuals should be able to become permanent employees after 6 months with the same employer.

Now we know that is not going to happen under howard because the Howard government is the Australian division of an international push to reduce the hard won wages and conditions of working people. Many of our jobs are under threat from the so called free trade agreements being touted by Bush and toadies like Howard.

Last month actors and entertainment industry workers took a stand against the US Free Trade Agreement. The Greens applaud their stand and the commitment of unions and communities around the world to say no to a regime that puts greed first.

Today in celebrating May day we are also celebrating a proud history. The fine traditions of this day stem from strike action in 1886 in the US city of Chicago. Workers striking for an 8-hour day were fired on by police. Four workers were killed and many wounded.

Today we remember the workers and progressive fighters who have died and suffered because they took a stand so we could continue their fine work.

And we do need to be vigilant or our collective achievements can be quickly stripped away.

Public education, public transport, public health are basic rights that we, the current generation, must preserve and hopefully improve on before we pass them onto the next generation.

No government has the right to dismantle or privatise such services, and I believe we are obliged to make sure they don't.

It saddens me to speak about the NSW Labor government's moves to dismantle much of this state's rail system. I acknowledge that there are many Labor members who are as concerned as the Greens are that Premier Carr and Minister for Transport Michael Costa are moving to destroy country trains.

We must stop the NSW Labor government's push to change CountryLink from a train based service to a bus based service, to close many branch lines and to sack hundreds of rail workers.

In the past two weeks I have been in northern and western NSW meeting with rail workers, farmers and many local communities to forge a strong alliance to save our rail services.

This is a critical campaign we must win. Public transport is a fundamental right.

On this day of international solidarity we need to extend our support to the people of nations struggling for their independence and self-determination.

While East Timor won its freedom from Indonesia to Australia's shame the East Timorese people have not yet won the battle to own and benefit from the oil and gas reserves that rightfully belong to them.

Under legislation passed earlier this year in the federal parliament Australia is set to rob the poorest nation in our region of $8billion over the next 30 years. Tragically for the East Timorese the Coalition and Latham Labor opposition allowed the moving of the boundary between our countries that supposedly legitimises this robbery.

On this May Day we stand with our East Timorese colleagues for justice and with all the millions who join the worldwide May Day celebrations for a safer, fairer and more just society.

The big contribution we can make to this cause is to defeat the Howard government.