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UNI’s General Secretary, Philip Jennings, gave the formal Labour 20 response to the Australian Federal Employment Minister Eric Abetz at the L20 in Brisbane. Jennings called on Australia as the chair of the G20 to deliver on jobs and the fight against inequality.

In his reply Jennings made a reference to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s threat to “shirt-front” (a violent Australian football tackle) President Putin over the downing of  Malaysian Airline flight MH17. Jennings said he wanted to play fair but make a serious point about the G20’s obligations.

Jennings was quoted in the Australian press saying, “"My job is to tackle you fairly, but tackle you all the same."

"We lay down a challenge to you. We want this G20 to deliver real things to real people."

See full article in press here:

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/25498644/unions-tackle-abetz-but-no-shirt-fr...

Union leaders, including Jennings and ITUC general secretary, Sharan Burrow meeting at the L20 in Brisbane also expressed their outrage that L20 leaders were not invited to meet with G20 chiefs alongside Business 20 (B20) leaders ahead of the G20 summit.

Burrow said, "We were shocked to find here that in fact the business community has been invited to meet with leaders, but not labour.

"The real economy actors have to act together."