In a small article on the front page of Monday's SMH (print version) there was a throwaway comment on the number of employment conditions covered by the award. Currently there are 20 conditions covered by the award. The Howard government plans to introduce legislation to reduce that number to 16. No big deal? Casually mentioned was the exclusion of superannuation in employment conditions. I wonder if this stems from a clever ploy of Costello to mitigate the problem of an aging workforce? Is this an indication of the intent to remove compulsory employer contributions? With our already miserly contributions to super taken away, will the average Australian no longer be in a position to retire at 55/60?

Of course all their buddies will have maneuvered themselves outside the super system, capitalising on all the super they no longer have to pay their workers. Some Australians are going to get a major bite in the arse. Some of them deserve it.