 The story of how worker rights and wages have been slowly eroded over past decades.
Income inequality fell in Australia during the postwar period, and by 1979 inequality was at its lowest. Then neoliberal economics took hold, championed by leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Economic liberalisation started under the Labor Hawke/Keating governments, and was accelerated under the Liberal Howard government, with its anti-union policies and increase in temporary foreign workers. Age journalist Ben Schneiders has broken major stories of employee underpayments involving some of the biggest names in business. While that reporting has rightly sent shockwaves through the community, it is the bigger picture of how we got here that is even more compelling. A whittling away of workers’ rights and the large-scale reduction in trade union membership has paved the way for systemic exploitation and underpayment. (Schneiders also exposes how some corrupt unions have colluded with big business to exploit their members.) Shareholder capitalism, demanding ever- bigger returns, continues to ruthlessly crush labour. As Schneiders shrewdly observes, we live in a democracy, but many a workplace is authoritarian. The work of restoring lost equality will take decades of activism and commitment. It’s hard to understate how essential Schneiders’ book is to our understanding of how worker rights and wages have been steadily eroded over decades by both Labor and Liberal governments. Hard Labour is a vital and illuminating contribution to the equality debate that deserves a wide readership. Hard Labour: Wage Theft in the Age of Inequality, by Ben Schneiders. Published by Scribe. $32.99 (Release date 18th October). This review by Chris Saliba first published at Books + Publishing.  A short novel that deals with institutional child abuse in Ireland during the 1980s.
It's 1985, a small town in Ireland. Bill Furlong works in a timber and coal yard. He has a family of five girls. It's Christmas and the family are preparing, making fruit cake and writing letters to Santa. Despite all this festive cheer, there is one thing niggling at Bill's conscience. A local laundry, run by the Good Shepherd nuns, is clearly mistreating its charges, although the power of the church means this could never be said out loud. He meets a girl from the laundry – a young woman, really, she's given birth to a child – named Sarah. She's clearly abused, often locked in a shed and kept in a filthy condition. Bill thinks of his own daughters, and also his mother, who had him out of wedlock, and managed to escape a similar fate. Is there something he can do to help? Based loosely on Ireland's Magdalene laundries, homes for “fallen women” where many abuses took place, Claire Keegan has woven a sparse, elegiac story, centring on a good-hearted man who must confront a difficult moral choice. A novel of quiet grace and dignity. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan. Faber Fiction. $22.99 Review by Chris Saliba  A grieving woman finds healing in the Italian countryside.
A young woman is invited to the wedding of her friends, Giulia and Fab. The wedding is to be held in an Italian village, where the couple currently live. Travelling by train through the Italian countryside, it is announced the journey must be delayed. An accident has happened on the tracks, possibly a fatality. The young woman, who narrates the story, is triggered. She feels a panic attack coming on. Some breathing exercises help her cope and the journey continues. When she reaches her friends' house, she feels enveloped in love and care. But grief and guilt still pursues her. Back in her home city of Melbourne, she has lost someone. A loved one has died, tragically before his time. She feels somehow she could have prevented this death, but also knows she couldn’t. Torn between grief and a desire to heal, her mind continually returns to Melbourne and memories of what happened. Sunbathing, the debut novel from writer and editor Isobel Beech, follows a pleasingly straightforward narrative. While set in the gorgeous Italian countryside (the descriptions of growing food, the locals and rustic landscape are a tonic), the story regularly weaves back to Melbourne and memories from the past. Based on a real personal loss, this is an autobiographical novel that is succinct, dignified and genuine. Its quiet honesty and empathetic tone make for a moving and cathartic experience. Sunbathing, by Isobel Beech. Published by Allen & Unwin. $29.99 Review by Chris Saliba  The remarkable story of a young man's life in the wild
From a very young age, Geoffroy Delorme never felt that he fit into human society. On a school swimming excursion a teacher threw him into the water, which proved a catalyst for his decision to turn away from humans. His parents enrolled him in remote learning, so he no longer had to attend school. The forests of Normandy were nearby and he started escaping into them. It was here that he had his first encounters with the local roe deer. His sensitivity and care meant that the deer came to accept him, allowing him to walk behind them. Eventually Geoffroy would come to spend most of his time in the forests and would learn to interact with the deer, following their births and deaths through the seasons, and also sharing many an emotional moment. Deer Man chronicles a seven year period of living with deer in the forest. Delorme's narrative of that time mixes the idyllic – descriptions of close friendship with the animals and the beauties of the forest – with the harsh realities of nature: cold, exhaustion and hunger. Written in stunningly beautiful prose, this is a book that has much to teach us. Deer Man: Seven Years of Living in the Forest, by Geoffroy Delorme. Published by Little, Brown $36 Review by Chris Saliba |
AuthorNorth Melbourne Books Categories
All
Archives
March 2025
|
RSS Feed
