Page 1989 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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A lot has been said, both tonight and certainly beforehand, as to what happened before the committee. Indeed, a large number of submissions were put before the committee in a very short period. It was the first Assembly committee. It was somewhat rushed, but various organisations did a lot of work and put forward a lot of learned and reasoned submissions before us.
I think it is interesting, in considering where the pendulum swings in relation to this piece of legislation, to consider the size and the content of some of the submissions. The Trades and Labour Council of the ACT put forward a one-page submission raising three points, and that is interesting. It obviously was fairly happy with most of the legislation. It wanted no number put on the designated work group. It thought 10 was far too many. It would prefer no number at all, and there were a couple of other points. But I think perhaps that is indicative because the employer organisations and the persons representing employers, subcontractors or small business put forward much more detailed submissions. They obviously had a lot more points to raise and problems with the Bill. I will just read out a few of them, Mr Speaker.
The Master Builders Construction and Housing Association of the ACT, an organisation that looks after the interests of large numbers of private employers, both small and medium size in the Territory, stated:
The two main issues on which the Association has been specifically concerned are:
1. The provisions of the Bill dramatically increase the potential for interference with procedures designed to enable individual employers and their employees to reach a mutual agreement on health and safety issues at the enterprise level.
We believe that all requirements for individual employers to consult with Unions, in addition to their own employees, are unwarranted.
The role of the Union is to advise its members on issues that affect employment, and this we fully accept, but we do not believe that the Union should be given the statutory right to become a third party to all negotiations, procedures, inspections and appeals.
2. The Bill unnecessarily imposes on small businesses the full range of procedures that would apply to heavy engineering and large scale manufacturing establishments.
The Bill applies the formal arrangements for Designated Work Groups, Safety
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