Over the weekend the government unveiled more details about its proposed changes to Australia’s industrial relations laws. So far, the proposals, have been condemned by the Labor party, the Democrats and the Greens as well as the unions, and warmly welcomed by business groups. Government says its proposals will implement a much needed national IR system, simplify the agreement-making process between employers an workers and redress imbalances in unfair dismissal laws. While there has been talk a “softening” of some of the more controversial elements of the laws, some observers at least remain unconvinced. Rae Cooper is a lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies at Sydney Uni’s School of Business. She says any claims of a softening of the government’s approach has more to do with public relations that policy reform. Earlier in the year she a long with 16 other IR academics released a report condemning the proposed changes. The report was dismissed by the Government and criticised by the conservative think tank, the Institute for Public Affairs, who claimed the academics appeared to be “fighting a class war from last century”. Dr Cooper stands by the reports, and claims its criticisms are still warranted. She responded earlier to claims by the Government that the changes are necessary to make Australia more globally competitive in the 21st century.

This Saturday’s earthquake in South Asia is believed to be the most severe one to hit the region over a 100 years. Pakistani officials report that so far 30,000 people are dead, but the number is expected to rise significantly over the next few weeks. Many International and local rescue teams have been unable to reach the affected area, that is centred below the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistani Kashmir, and is difficult to get to. The humanitarian group Caritas Australia is working with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) organisation, already based in India and Pakistan. The group is currently conducting assessments to determine what type of aid is needed. They are expected to arrive to India’s Jammu and Pakistan’s Muzzarafad in the Kashmir region in the next few days. The Wire’s Hagar Cohen spoke to Marc D’Silva from CRS in New Delhi about his initial assessment.

Psychiatric experts and community groups have today called on state and federal governments to dramatically increase funding for mental health care. To mark International Mental Health day, The Human rights commission said Australia has a responsibilty under international law to ensure a very high standard of care, something that is currently not happening. The Mental health Council says psychiatric care is the poor cousin to general health funding Mark Robinson asked Council CEO John Mendoza to comment on the current state of care in Australia.

An East Timorese NGO has learned its lesson the hard way: if you are hoping to receive aid from Australia, don’t criticise Australian government policies. The Australian government’s aid agency, AusAid, has withdrawn the Human Rights grant it awarded to an NGO in East Timor, Forum Tau Matan (Mat-an), last December. Forum Tau Matan or FTM received the grant to fund a project which would monitor prison conditions and promote legal rights in East Timor (also now known as Timor Leste). In June, AusAid wrote to FTM saying that the grant had been revoked because of a change in its own internal policies. In late July the NGO was informed by AusAid’s Counsellor in Dili that the decision had actually been taken because FTM had added its name to a press release that expressed political views contrary to Australian policy. FTM had joined eight other NGOs last September to ask Australia to respect Timor-Leste’s sovereignty and negotiate a fair and legal maritime boundary. La’o Hamutuk, the East Timor Institute for Reconstruction, Monitoring and Analysis, an independent NGO, has released a statement describing AusAid’s decision as ‘arbitrary and punitive’ and claiming that the withdrawal of the Human Rights grant constitutes an attack on the right to free speech. Sarah Greenlees asked Alex Grainger of La’o Hamutuk why he thought the Australian government shouldn’t object to political criticism from its aid recipients. Tim Anderson, lecturer in Political Economy at Sydney University and volunteer at AidWatch also spoke with Sarah Greenlees.

Afghanistan has almost finished counting the results of the latest election. And while one Washington source quoted by the New York Times claims that the make up of the new legislature will have more of an “Islamic flavour” than the current one, one surprising outcome us that it is expected that more women will also represented. With almost 70% of the vote counted, results so far show women have held their own against a number of male candidates, even in some traditionally conservative provinces. But one observer of women’s rights in the country ? which co-alition forces invaded in 2001 ? is less than optimistic about the future for women. Amena Shams is the foreign affairs spokesperson with the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan. Currently in Australia on a speaking tour, she claims the West must do much more to help advance the cause of women in Afghanistan. She has also condemned what she terms as the hypocracy of the War on Terror, because Western countries continue to protect former Afghani warlords that she claims have committed war crimes in the past. Instead, she says the west should follow the example set by the trial of Faradi Sarwar Zardad, a former resident of London, who was recently given two 20-year terms for hostage taking and kidnapping in Afghanistan. She’s speaking here on how much life has changed since the fall of the Taliban.