this is waht john howard will do to our kids, page-12

re: this is what john howard will do to our kids My dear lucas,

I don't recall blaming Howard for the competitiveness of world markets. That would be far beyond the scope of his abilities though he may beg to differ.

Keating left us many legacies some, which a bigger man than you, would acknowledge eg deregulation of financial markets. I agree that not all that Labor has done in the past is good. Indeed, Dawkins started the rot as far as our tertiary sector is concerned.

It's nice to see you admit that skilling is of vital importance and therefore tacitly agreeing with me about the abject failure of the Howard Government to do anything at all about this disaster. That is the real crime against the people of Australia.

This last para of yours is rather telling...

"The new IR laws will aid as an powerful incentive for all people to skill themselves or risk being marginalized and so they seem to be a win-win for industry and the working community."

So you this IR "reform" as a form of coercion, allowing those who for whatever reason are unable to skill themselves to be punished by a system that condemns them to a life of abject poverty.

I've seen that kind of poverty in the US lucas. It's what fuels social disruption, fills prisons and splits society. I take it you are quite comfortable with that....