Page 815 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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Party person, Bill Stefaniak, and the Labor Party representative, Mr Bill Wood. There was no need for the Rally to present an additional comment, simply because it happened to hold the middle ground and looked here for the balance, and that balance, as we perceived it, was between what business - small business and large business - and the unions wanted.
It takes into account compromise. I believe that consultation is about compromise and about still having what we believe to be effective legislation. The concerns that were presented to us by small business, particularly represented by CARD and others, and large business, particularly represented by the Australian Federation of Construction Contractors and others, led us to recommend the omission of the words "any involved union". Let me say that that does not in any way preclude unions from involvement in this legislation, but it does not compulsorily include them, and that - - -
Mr Berry: So that excludes them.
MR MOORE: It does not actually exclude them.
Mr Berry: That means they are excluded.
MR MOORE: I will get to you in a minute. The duty of care is the most critical part of this legislation, and it applies to everybody, completely, across the ACT, working within the ambit of this legislation. Occupational health and safety in the ACT Community and Health Service is very welcome. Mr Berry's statement today about occupational health and safety is very interesting in that it does not contain any mention of the designated work groups, which were considered by Labor to be most important in relation to this Bill. It was the Labor Party's wish that the compulsory designated work groups would apply right across any business at all. It was the wish of the Liberal Party that these designated work groups would start when businesses have a staff of around 20, and there was a certain number of submissions that wanted it larger than that - 30 and so forth.
I notice in the ministerial statement made by Mr Berry today that there is no mention at all of designated work groups. It was the Rally's intention to change the legislation to read "12", so that if you have more than 12 you would then be required to have a designated work group. But I was convinced by Mr Wood that if that were the case we would have then a number 13 for designated work groups and one could easily see the poor publicity that could be attached to that situation, in which people would say, "You are unlucky. You have 13. You have to have a designated work group".
It is critical, because I believe that the most important part of the occupational health and safety legislation will be the publicity, the education and the attitude. That is what this legislation is genuinely about. That is
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