The opposition calls for shorter working hours and more jobs.
Bill Cosby mourns his murdered son.
And Pakistan's Amir Sahel suspended for questioning the umpire.
From National 9 News, this is Nightline with Gina Boone.
Good evening.
It was once opposed to the idea, but now the federal opposition says Australian workers
should be prepared to consider job sharing in a bid to cut unemployment.
Former union boss Martin Ferguson, who's now Labor's spokesman on employment, has thrown
his weight behind the idea.
But it has already been rejected by both the government and business groups.
Laurie Wilson has our report.
The federal opposition has seized upon the latest job figures to push the idea.
Job sharing, provide employment for those who want to work but can't find jobs.
The issue of job sharing creates family friendly options.
And everyone now knows someone in their family who's unemployed.
As a former head of the union movement, Martin Ferguson is convinced job sharing is an idea
which will work.
Many workers, he says, would be prepared to sacrifice some income in return for shorter
working hours.
Something he says which is already happening in the car industry.
It's not about giving up your entitlements, but saying, look, rather than a wage increase
based on productivity of X percent, I'll take Y, a lesser wage increase, but have increased
hours off work.
But the government has already made it clear it's not impressed with the idea.
I personally believe that's a hiding your head in the sand approach.
Simple fact is we need more real jobs.
And the business sector apparently agrees.
We need to recognise that there's no simple panacea to unemployment and job sharing off
itself will not fix the unemployment problem.
Laurie Wilson reporting for Nightline.
The ANZ is planning to make customers pay some of the biggest bank fees in the country
for service over the counter.
The bank wants more transactions made through electronic banking, but even that could incur
extra fees if the customer makes too much use of automatic telemachines.
The ANZ is the last of the big four banks to restructure fees in the wake of a price
of surveillance authority probe.
The ANZ says increasing over the counter charges is the quickest way to make customers change
their banking habits.
It will help us reduce our costs in the long term because obviously it's a lot cheaper
for us to provide electronic delivery than through bricks and mortar.
ANZ chiefs say 80 percent of its New Zealand customers switched to electronic and phone
transactions in a recent overhaul of services across the Tasman.
But consumer groups say it's a cynical ploy.
Well I suppose when you look at a $1.1 billion profit recently announced and try to understand
the bank's intention to actually increase fees and charges at the same time, customers
are going to lose out.
Of the big four, Westpac allows 10 counter withdrawals a month, charging $1 for every
transaction after that.
The National allows four free withdrawals as does the Commonwealth, but ANZ customers
are now charged $2 for additional deals, an increase of 60 percent.
The fee increase coincides with the ANZ's announcement of a new telephone banking service,
but the bank won't say how many jobs may go as a result or how many branches may eventually
close.
Critics say the Y-