Page 330 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 20 February 1990
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under the very capable chairmanship of Mr Bill Wood, then I say to them that in society, having grown up in Wollongong myself, one cannot combine the uncombinable; one must come to the table with clean hands.
I think my colleague Mr Humphries has tabled one of these letters; I did not know he had one himself. This type of letter is antithetical and inconsistent with the somewhat pious offerings made today. I call upon the Opposition to publicly withdraw that divisive letter and to reassure community agencies that we are not going to do what that letter claims we are going to do. The Opposition has heard Liberal, independent and Rally members of this Government all give these assurances and I do call upon them to do it.
Nevertheless, I agree with the need to achieve a level debate on this issue and I thank the Opposition, as much as I like to answer questions without notice, for not pressing us too greatly on the welfare issue.
Opposition members are aware of the sensitivities of the current situation where we are looking, hopefully conjointly, at some significant restructuring of priorities and responses. In that regard I endorse what Mr Berry said about the need to review the Children's Services Act. Of course, he is referring in particular to such provisions as determining what the overall role and the level of intervention should be by the Director of Welfare. Time does not permit me to go on about that, but certainly if we can work cooperatively I would deeply appreciate that on behalf of all the sectoral interests.
Let me turn to the birthing centre. There has been a marvellous centre in Wollongong, at Wollongong Hospital, for some years now. I am sure that my colleague Mr Humphries has already in his public utterances indicated that the Government is going to consider that aspect seriously in his overall review. I will leave comments to him.
I have had no time to consult my leader, the leader in whom I am having increasing confidence on issues such as social equity and justice, on the child-care side, but we agreed in Cabinet yesterday to advise the Commonwealth that we would agree to an international labour organisation convention that calls upon the state to provide for child-care and to acknowledge family responsibilities of employees. That is a significant move that the new fledgling Canberra Government has taken and no doubt the Minister responsible, Mr Duby, will make some public utterances on that. I have just brought that forward; no doubt I will be caned for doing it.
A socially just Government is not simply one which bows to electoral realities. I think my colleague Mr Kaine has said, "We won't be afraid to make the hard decisions". We will make the hard decisions because truly there is a funding gap; there is a social and economic limit to the
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