Page 1313 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Duby: As what?
MR BERRY: As "grunting sheep", or "sheep which grunted".
Mr Duby: Sheep do not grunt. They baa.
MR BERRY: According to Mr Collaery, they do. Mr Speaker, it is appropriate that legislation is enacted to smooth out the administrative arrangements in relation to the board. As the Minister, Mr Duby, has said, that is what this legislation sets out to do. It is also appropriate for legislative changes to follow circumstances where concerns about the administration of the legislation are expressed by those responsible for auditing the way that the board operates. This proposed legislation sets out to do that.
One of the concerns of the Labor Opposition in relation to the legislation was the allocation of funds for training. Following some consultation with the unions whose members are affected by this legislation, those concerns were relayed to Minister Duby. I am happy to say that agreement has been reached in relation to some amendments that will turn up when I move those amendments at the detail stage of consideration of the Bill. Those concerns relate to the sole use of funds for training rather than expanding the use of those funds for other projects, which the board has a right to do with ministerial consent.
Mr Speaker, I will not go on for much longer about the Bill other than to repeat that it is a Bill of importance for workers in the construction industry. It is important that the funds which are assigned under the provisions of the legislation are assigned for the purpose of training, and the amendments that I will move in the detail stage will set out to confine the use of those funds to that.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (11.34): Mr Speaker, the Long Service Leave (Building and Construction Industry) Act 1981 established a scheme which enables workers in the ACT building and construction industry to accrue long service leave credits for work in that industry. Credits continue to accumulate if a worker moves between employers and may accumulate across States if the State concerned is a party to a long service leave credit portability agreement.
The scheme is funded by a levy, currently 2.5 per cent of ordinary wages, on employers in the industry. The levy is paid into a fund administered by the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Leave Board. The three-member board is appointed by my colleague the Minister for Finance and Urban Services and comprises one employer and one employee representative and an independent chair. Similar schemes exist in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia.
The amendments to the Act have arisen out of consultation between the board and relevant employee and employer
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .