KEY POINTS:
The focus for Saturday's election is narrowing on to Prime Minister John Howard's industrial laws following the Government's refusal to release secret Cabinet papers proposing even further changes to the working conditions of millions of Australians.
Howard's WorkChoices laws, one of the defining markers of his 11 years in power, hammered unions, increased employers' rights, cut pay and conditions, and stripped protection from unfair dismissal for the overwhelming majority of workers.
The laws have become central to the furious debate over economic management that is driving the final days of the six-week campaign, and are one of the toughest hurdles for Howard to leap in his race for a fifth successive term.
The refusal to allow the release of a Cabinet submission from the Prime Minister's department has given heavy new ammunition to Labor Leader Kevin Rudd, who warned that the Government had a draconian new agenda for the nation's workplaces, and if returned on Saturday would use victory as a mandate to impose it.
"Mr Howard said recently he thought this election should be seen as a referendum on industrial relations," Rudd said. "Well, it will be a referendum on industrial relations. It will be a referendum on whether we want decency and fairness in the workplace or whether we want Mr Howard's laws to continue and get worse."
Howard hardened the suggestion of a mandate by promising his industrial laws would become forever set in stone if he was returned to power. "They will become part of the furniture, they will become so embedded in our business and workplace culture, that no future Labor Government will be able to reverse it."
But the revelation that further changes had been proposed for WorkChoices, and that the Seven Network had been refused a Freedom of Information Act application to see them after a 29-month legal battle, has come as a further blow to the embattled Howard.
In other developments:
* The Liberal Party said last night that it had legal advice that 13 Labor candidates were ineligible, including George Newhouse, the man widely expected to tip Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull from his Wentworth, Sydney.
The claim opens Labor to a series of challenges if it wins on Saturday, and the possibility of by-elections. Labor has dismissed the claim, but internet bookmaker Lasseters Sportsbook yesterday suspended betting on the election.
* Turnbull last night endorsed Treasurer Peter Costello as the next leader of the Liberal Party. Long touted as a leadership aspirant, Turnbull said he was focused on remaining as member for Wentworth and Environment Minister.
* A Newspoll in The Australian yesterday showed Howard had snipped 1 per cent off Rudd's commanding lead to narrow the gap to 8 percentage points, that he is within four points of Rudd as preferred prime minister, and has widened his lead as the better economic manager to 16 points.
But he continues to trail well behind Rudd in the other key election battlegrounds of education and health, and is fighting polls showing most voters oppose WorkChoices.
Yesterday Rudd was presented with a petition of 90,000 signatures opposing WorkChoices at a rally in Sydney. Labor and the trade union movement have been waging an intense and as far as polling research can tell a telling campaign against the law. Labor has promised to tear up the legislation if it wins power.
Howard's biggest headache is the Administrative Appeals Tribunals rejection on Monday of the Seven Network's FOI request on the grounds that publication of the secret Cabinet submission would lead to speculation of further changes. Howard, denying claims of a cover-up, said the decision was proper because of the requirements of Cabinet confidentiality and because the proposal had been considered and rejected. Costello had earlier said that there was "still a lot of work to do" in industrial relations.
"This is a total beat-up, a total falsehood," Howard said. "The laws we now have are the laws that will stay if we are returned to power."
Gillard replied: "If they had nothing to hide then they would be releasing those documents."
JOHN HOWARD'S WORKCHOICES RULES:
1 Introduced individual workplace awards with five minimum conditions, including minimum pay, 38-hour weeks, four weeks' annual leave, and personal and unpaid parental leave provisions.
2 Stripped protection from unfair dismissal in companies with fewer than 100 employees, and allowed bigger companies to sack workers for "operational reasons".
3 Reduced the number of conditions allowed to be covered by awards. Gave employers more power to decide working hours, and cut pay and conditions such as holiday and weekend pay, penalty rates and overtime.
4 Enabled employers to require workers to sign a workplace agreement, and to refuse collective bargaining.
5 Allowed bosses to sack workers and employ them again on agreements offering reduced pay and conditions.
6 Gave employers the right to refuse entry to union officials, tightened laws on strikes and industrial action and outlawed pattern bargaining and industrial action across industries.
