From 1983 until 1996 successive Labor governments held office. In tandem with the unions, they imposed a program of economic restructuring every bit as devastating as the policies carried out by Reagan in the US and Thatcher in Britain. At 32 years of age, Culley would have been just 17 when the Hawke Labor government first came to power. For most of his working life he witnessed first hand the cruel betrayal of his concerns and hopes by the Labor Party and the trade unions. The upshot has been that under various industry restructuring plans and enterprise bargaining agreements, one third of all coal mining jobs have been destroyed in the last 10 years.
Companies can now force miners to work rosters around the clock, seven days a week.
Safety standards have deteriorated badly. Similar measures have been implemented in industry after industry with catastrophic results for the working class. In the Hunter Valley, unemployment stands at 9.8 percent and in the town of Cessnock, where Culley lives, is as high as 14 percent. Not only have jobs been destroyed but social services and public education slashed, and public hospitals shut down. Since then, workers in the region have voted for so-called independents, for the Greens and Democrats, and even for the conservative Liberal and National parties, in an effort to pressure Labor to alter its course.