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Gary Looney (Menindee. NSW. 2879) 5 December 2010

About me: I have lived in Menindee from 8 years old, traveled and worked around Australia employed

and valued in many fields including Engineering using plasma cutter, welding, press, Gallatin and

bending machines. Agriculture, roofing, mines camp construction from concrete to plumbing, Installing

solar traffic monitoring devices, landscape gardening, making custom packaging for the export of 

Australian goods, all employers except maybe a fumigation company demonstrated very good morals.

I have always thought outside my own personal interests and district, believed in equality of 

information, communications and means of access as fundamental democratic rights, to be informed

and have a say which is not based on wealth, power, assumed credibility or social standing.

Some years back I worked at Tandou Cotton farm chipping the weeds from cotton, conditions were very

bad with lack of drinking water, no first aid kit or qualified person, no water to wash chemicals from

hands before eating, no shade, missed or no breaks with up to 14 hour days. Workers collapsed in the

field, we were told to leave them on the ground and keep working or be sacked. We were not being paid

the correct rate or overtime and were charged for company fuel to drive our self’s and others to work in

our own cars, we were charged rent for windowless caravans or a car chassis or a tarp between trees,

the camp did not meet any health and safety standards, the camp sold home slaughtered products,

alcohol and cigarettes. The farm Arial sprayed the chippers with Endosulfan insecticide and told the

workers to wash thoroughly before denying it happened. The farm employed workers onunemployment benefit and illegal immigrants, demonstrating a means of controlling the work force.

Over a period when I had returned home, the Australian Workers Union held a meeting with employees

including illegal workers to change the rate of pay to be less than the award rate, also removing almost

all penalty rates. The justification given by the AWU was that the workers would have to accept this to

keep their job. Employees including illegal immigrants and those on benefit voted in a reduction of the

award rate and penalties effectively leaving the workers worse off through an illegal process with

illegitimate union members paying AWU union fees and voting to change wages.

When I returned to work I demanded to see the Union official who was still on the farm and efforts were

made by the contract employment company and Tandou to prevent me, so I walked and eventuallyfound the AWU official, I explained that what he had done was not only immoral but illegal and the

mythology used for calculating the flat rate was unjust, I shared my calculations on how a fair rate of pay

could be achieved and what my figures were based on.

I had put my own season of wage sheets with hours worked together, calculated my total income with

award rates and penalties to find the total earned in dollars than divided this by total hours worked in

the season, putting this figure forward as a starting point. I included calculations of costs that would not

be incurred by permanent employees and suggested legal employees/union members might be willing

to accept a small reduction of this figure in a flat rate. Needless to say the AWU official was not willing to

accept any mistake or wrong doing or interested in my figures or what I had to say.

At this stage I was sending all my documentation to every AWU office and the Australian Government, I

continued sending documentation of conditions, illegal immoral union and company action over several

years. Health authorities and OHS forced changes upon the company, Police, immigration and Social

Security raided the farm, and a wage change took place very similar to my suggestions, many benefited.

I believe the Union official got a promotion and I got blacklisted from every farm in Menindee by

Tandou. Several farmers and friends of our family had the decency to stand by me and inform me of the

black listing, one of which later sold up and left our district. Water is another subject and I treat it as

such. If Tandou decommissioned flood and piped from river to field? I continue to act and demonstrate

genuine equality, something Governments, Unions and some corporate business can only talk about.