Page 2008 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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The Australian Labor Party, in government in the ACT, will ensure that workers in the ACT have the strongest occupational health and safety legislation that this Assembly will permit. I think that the rest of the members of this Assembly should feel considerable concern that the Liberals have set out to weaken the attempts of the Australian Labor Party to introduce strong occupational health and safety legislation.
In relation to the criticism that was rightly levelled by Mr Jensen at the Federal Labor Party, I can say that there were uncalled-for delays in the introduction of occupational health and safety legislation in the ACT. The legislation that was to be introduced was, of course, of the strongest variety which has been supported by Labor in office here.
One other issue needs to be talked about. I know that there were a number of issues raised by the Liberals in relation to some of their more conservative constituents where criticism was levelled at strong occupational health and safety legislation, but I will talk about only one of them. One has to recognise that there are a lot of responsible employers in the ACT and I am happy to say that not all of them support the Liberal Party. But to give members an idea of what to expect, I point out that one employer group, CARD, proposed that payroll tax be dumped in the ACT.
Mr Humphries: Very sensible.
MR BERRY: Of course it is, and who pays the taxes then, Mr Humphries? Do we do what the Federal Liberals intend to do and get stuck into the people who need help most?
Mrs Grassby: That is a Liberal tradition, Wayne. You understand that.
MR BERRY: Yes, it is the tradition of the Liberal Party to hit the ones who are in the worst position to fight. They have been doing it for years, and I suppose that we cannot expect change in such a short time.
Mr Duby raised the issue of the committee recommendations, and I must say that I share some of his concerns about the issue of the consideration of matters by committees and what is done with them after the recommendations are made. The fact is that this was not a consensus committee. It did not reach consensus, and therefore I think that the committee and members of this Assembly would have to expect that the various political parties here would take different views about the recommendations which were eventually put to the Assembly in the report. Therefore, I would call on Mr Duby to reconsider his position in relation to the committee report. I think that, being a man of good sense - - -
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