The Coalition's attack on trade union officials as thugs and stand-over merchants is misrepresentation and exaggeration. The use of the derogatory term 'union bosses' betrays the mind-set behind the government attack. I'm not surprised that it is so offensive to many in the trade union movement. But the real and immediate target is the Labor Party; the unions themselves are only secondary and longer-term targets.
How might the government's attack on Labor and the trade unions be rebutted? There are many different options. Those who want a full-blown stoush say Labor should in turn just attack the links between the Coalition and the top end of town. Wiser heads have prevailed and Labor has chosen instead to emphasise the positive contribution of unions to the community.
Kevin Rudd points out that Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were themselves union officials and that Hawke was a union leader of such prominence that he became president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
The government's attack on Labor-union links (alleging that 70 per cent of the Labor front bench are former union officials) has several elements that must be disentangled for its potential electoral impact to be judged. Some have no sting at all, but others might be persuasive and ought to be taken seriously.
The government first tries to scare the electorate with allegations of union power and control. Professor Ian McAllister, reporting on his election surveys in Trends in Australian Public Opinion: Results from the Australian Election Study, 1987–2004, demonstrates that this won't wash anymore. The electorate, by 2004, actually feared the excessive power of big business (71 per cent) much more than the excessive power of trade unions (41per cent); though 41per cent is still no small matter.
John Howard also claims explicitly that the union connection is 'out of whack', that is unrepresentative, because only 15 per cent of the private sector workforce is unionised. This claim is harder for Labor to rebut, other than by the truth that Labor is after all a trade union party so what else would you expect.
Labor has also tried, with some success, to deflect the attack by pointing out the large number of lawyers and party officials in the Coalition's own ranks. While this shows the shallow pool from which all parties draw their representatives, it is only a partial rebuttal.
Thirdly, the government implies that the union link makes Labor old-fashioned because it reflects