Page 2558 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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received in relation to all of the schools that were involved. It is expected that a consolidated report on the use of all those schools will be presented in one fell swoop before the end of the year. That is the current state of play.
In relation to Gaudeamus, it suffered a loss of a range of office equipment as a result of a burglary at the Fisher Primary School. The Government has received a letter from the administrator of Gaudeamus seeking the loan of a surplus photocopier to replace the one that was stolen from its office at the former Fisher Primary School. Unfortunately, the organisation on that occasion did not insure its photocopier, so there is not much likelihood of recovery, but we are conscious of its difficulty, and its request has been dealt with as a matter of urgency.
Nurses
MR KAINE: I direct a question to the Minister for Community Services and Health and draw his attention to a comment that was made in a submission from the Australian Nursing Federation to the budget consultative committee in August, in which the federation made it quite plain that if there were any changes to the nursing shift arrangements at Royal Canberra Hospital they would "be challenged by legal and industrial means". Why is it that, having been given that warning, the Minister has let two and a half months go by and apparently has done nothing and we have now actually reached the point where industrial action is being taken by the nurses?
MR BERRY: As Mr Kaine would know, the normal and quite responsible response from the trade union movement to issues with which they disagree is that they will take actions described as "industrial", which may or may not mean a withdrawal of labour, and "legal", which may or may not involve the courts but may involve the industrial relations system. In terms of the issues which are addressed in the budget statement, it has been made clear, and I think I have said this in this place before, that the repetitive nature of the questions which are being fired from the Opposition is becoming, if nothing else, boring.
Mr Kaine: If you would answer one, one day, we would not be so repetitive.
MR BERRY: You want to listen to what I am saying, Mr Kaine, and then you will probably be able to get across the issues. The issues of the savings which have been required by the Government in its budget are being dealt with within a normal negotiating framework. That framework includes, incidentally, for the information of the Liberal Party, a situation where negotiations are conducted in a consultative way. We are pressing on with achieving the bottom line of the savings which were required by the Government in the budget process.
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