Industrial relations are once again in the spotlight, with the mining industry and Qantas joining the Coalition in their attacks on the Labor government’s proposed legislation.

And the big sticking points for these large companies is that issue of workers from different companies to collectively negotiate pay rises – but it seems that business just wants everything on its own terms.

It’s the weekend of the Victoria election – and we think that it’s one of the most important state elections for some time – not so much about the result, but the behaviour of the Liberal Party and the mainstream media. A three-year anti-Daniel Andrews campaign that commenced during the pandemic, with all of the media’s anti-lockdown stories, interviewing café owners, gym owners and pub owners about how unfair all of this was, and now filling the campaign with as much hate and bile as possible – we’ve just never seen anything like this in an election campaign before.

The court cases against whistleblowers David McBride and Richard Boyle are ongoing, but the Attorney–General, Mark Dreyfus needs to use his discretionary powers to drop the charges and set them free.