Tens of thousands of workers rallied in Australia Thursday to protest at plans by Prime Minister John Howard for labour law reforms which they say will cut pay and worsen working conditions and job security. A march which unionists said drew more than 100,000 workers choked the centre of Victoria state's capital Melbourne, while thousands more turned up at demonstrations in other cities around the country.
Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews said the protests had cost business tens of millions of dollars and were in breach of the law as they were "political action rather than industrial action".
The protests came just a day ahead of Howard becoming the most powerful Australian leader in a quarter-century, when his conservative ruling coalition takes control of the Senate as well as the lower house.
Howard has pledged to use his new majority to push through reforms including expanding the use of individual contracts, abolishing state-based industrial relations systems and creating a new commission to set minimum wages.
He also plans to remove unfair dismissal protection for employees sacked from businesses with fewer than 100 workers - a move which unionists say will affect 3.6 million workers.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) launched a week of protests against the reforms Monday with a 24-hour strike by several thousand mining and construction workers in the Pilbara iron ore mining centre of Western Australia state.
The ACTU predicted that a quarter of a million workers would join the protests over Thursday and Friday, when rallies will be held in Sydney.
"We've got one piece of advice to the prime minister today: Bring it on," the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Bill Shorten, told marchers in Melbourne.
Victorian Trades Hall secretary Brian Boyd put the crowd size at 120,000, which he said was one of the biggest protests the city had ever seen, while police declined to estimate the number of marchers.
In the Western Australia state capital Perth, an estimated 25,000 workers rallied in protest against the planned reforms, unionists said, while about 5,000 marched in the South Australia state capital of Adelaide.
In the Tasmanian capital of Hobart some 3,000 protesters heard Unions Tasmania senior vice president David O'Byrne describe the planned reforms as "the biggest attack on workers' rights in 100 years".
In Queensland state's capital Brisbane, trade union officials said a protest rally which drew 25,000 to a central square was the largest seen in the city for a decade.
Opposition Labour Party leader Kim Beazley addressed the Melbourne rally, saying the protest would send a strong message to Howard.
"I've spoken at many protests in Melbourne in the 25 years I've been in parliament, I've never seen a crowd like this," he said.
"There's no doubt that (Howard's) got massively improved powers with what's happening in the Senate as from this Friday, and that will mean that we will have to redouble our efforts and put the pressure on him to get him to change his mind," Beazley said.
The government's Senate majority, which reflects Howard's crushing victory in last October's general election, makes him the first Australian prime minister for 24 years to control both houses of parliament.
It means he can enact a radical agenda that had previously been blocked by minor parties in the upper house during his nine years in office.