I’ve downloaded a copy of the LPA’s “Real Solutions” booklet as I expect it to hold up about as well as Abbott’s Direct Action Plan. To be honest, I didn’t expect to find such an obviously misleading point so quickly.
Firstly, I find it funny that the booklet is littered with quotes from Abbott now nearly 20yrs old. Has he not said much of inspiration since? Furthermore, he has made it clear that dredging up old quotes of his that are not in his favour is a mugs game – how is it different here?
Anyway, that’s a side note. What interested me straight away was this graph on page 14.
Okay, initially you might find it reasonable. He’s showing the difference between the last year of the Howard era (blue) against the ALP period (red), showing a steep increase in working days lost. Shame on you ALP!
But, wait a minute. If the climate deniers have taught me anything, it’s to be weary of graphs.
So, I went to the effort of going to the ABS website and downloading the actual working days lost data back until 2001. Here’s what I found;
Incredible! 2006 and 2007 are amazingly among the lowest years. The pretty picture fails as soon as we head back further in time – the Howard era actually has the highest values in the graph!
It must be noted my values are slightly different because I went with calendar years, not financial years.
So there you go, Abbott’s “Real Solutions” on a cursory glance holds real misleading information.
More to come as I wade through it.
UPDATE:
The above is now in an info-graph:
Click to download web-sized and HQ versions. Please share!
newanthropocene.wordpress.com 
Good job. Keep at it!
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Why is “working days lost” an issue here?
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Good point. Grasping at straws I suspect. The Coalition are nothing if not negative spin doctors; it’s just one point, if framed a certain way, they can use to take a cheap shot at the ALP.
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Would it be not to say Why those days were lost I would suggest it Was for the Good of All workers of Those that are fighting for better award rates and conditions from the elitist Liberal employers that want to push wages down by importing overseas labor.
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Which would also lead to why the Howard era was actually hidden within Abbott’s booklet – without stripping workers rights under WorkChoices, his government saw much higher working days lost.
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Note the first figure is made to appear smaller by having its arm up.
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And the only NLP figure is exaggeratedly small by being on it’s knees… all in all to make the trend look a lot worse than it is.. Unless of course you mean the bottom version that I created? If so, look again – I took their image and repeated the pattern of figures in my continuation. Of course, I couldn’t use the bloke on his knees as he took up too much space when blown up… But if you don’t like that image used, I can easily change it.
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How much of this is being done during working hours? Jeff
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None.. I write in the evenings and on weekends but try to post around 9am to catch the early news readers and 2pm (auto posting) with posts that I’d like to proof read (in my lunch break). Admittedly I check RSS feeds throughout the day and highlight articles I wish to read later for potential posts, but I don’t read more than the headlines.
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So if Moth can do this thinking in his off hours, why can’t others do at least as good a job of thinking when they’re paid to do it?
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Cheers Ed. A few years ago I had no idea how big the political mouth piece was… Now I’m just disappointed.
The culture we have is one of insecurity which mutes critical review and thus informed decision making and ultimately democracy is undermined.
I joined the “trench warfare” because I care about this precious and hard won body of evidence that has recreated the world and is the only one that can promise my children a bright future. It’s a shame that this attitude is not universal.
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