Tue 28 Nov 2006
Thousands tipped to protest over IR laws
Hundreds of thousands of workers are tipped to attend a protest across Australia on Thursday to call for action against the federal government's workplace laws.
Hundreds of thousands of workers are tipped to attend a mass protest across Australia on Thursday to call for action against the federal government's workplace laws.
The centrepiece will be a rally at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where organisers say up to 80,000 people will be entertained by a star-studded cast including singers Jimmy Barnes and Casey Donovan, and comedians Corinne Grant and Dave Hughes.
The Melbourne rally will be beamed live to more than 300 venues across Australia while union organisers hope marches by thousands of workers will bring the city centres of Melbourne and Sydney to a halt.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow said the industrial action would be Australia's biggest ever simultaneous community protest.
The Australian Education Union is predicting hundreds of public schools in Victoria will close for the day or operate with a skeleton staff as principals and staff attend the rally.
An Education Department spokeswoman says all students will be expected to attend school and will be catered for.
But Prime Minister John Howard accused Victorian teachers of helping lower confidence in the government school system by attending the rally.
"They shouldn't be gathering in Melbourne on Thursday, they should be at school on Thursday," Mr Howard told federal parliament.
"Instead of attending a rock concert in the MCG ... instead of attending a Jimmy Barnes concert in the MCG, these teachers should be in their classrooms.
"This action by Victorian teachers will further reduce the esteem of the government education system in the eyes of Victorian parents. If they want to demonstrate against our laws, do it in their own time."
Protesters will meet at the MCG from 7am (AEDT) for the rally and workers will be bused in from outlying suburbs and country areas.
The protest will end with a march at 10.15am (AEDT) to Federation Square for a Victorian Trades Hall Council demonstration.
In Sydney, tens of thousands of people are expected to rally at the intersection of George and Liverpool Streets at 10am before marching up George Street to Bridge Street to hear speeches by NSW Premier Morris Iemma, Unions NSW secretary John Robertson, and workers.
Union organisers say more than 60,000 people are expected at rallies around Queensland with up to 25,000 union members expected to meet on the Cultural Forecourt at Brisbane's South Bank for the main rally at 8.30am (0930 AEDT).
As many as 20,000 people are expected to rally in West Australia, with the main protest at Perth's Members Equity Stadium to include an address by Premier Alan Carpenter.
In Darwin at least 2,000 people are expected to gather for the protest at the Turf Club at Fannie Bay about 8am (0930 AEDT) with nurses, teachers, firefighters, health workers and public servants expected among the crowd.
The national day of protest follows a recent high court decision which ruled that the commonwealth's Work Choices reforms were constitutional.