Page 2559 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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estimated at $120m to $240m per year, it is important to ensure that we improve workplace health and safety arrangements.
It seems that since the conservatives opposite decided to oust the Follett Labor Government any interest in or improvement of the provision of workplace safety is on the back burner, despite what the former No Self Government member says. That member is now in the Independents Group, which is, I suppose, the Independents duo now that their numbers have shrunk by a third. That sounds like a major loss of membership.
Mr Jensen: I raise a point of order, Mr Acting Speaker. I have listened to Mr Berry for a while, but I would suggest this is irrelevant and tedious repetition.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Yes, please stick to the point, Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: I would have thought that Mr Jensen would be concerned about this legislation because he would be severely embarrassed that the workers of the Territory have suffered at the hands of the Residents Rally in this matter. Of course the workers will remember that. They also remember being called sheep who grunt and all of those sorts of things; they will long remember that and they will long remember who said it. The leader of the Residents Rally - - -
Mr Jensen: It was not me.
MR BERRY: I think I should remind you - it was Mr Bernard Collaery.
Mr Collaery: I think that memories are going to be longer about recent events in your party.
MR BERRY: Mr Bernard Collaery - that is the name on the tip of the tongue of every worker in the Territory when he or she thinks about loss of occupational health and safety and workplace conditions and the loss of jobs because of the decline in ACT industry resulting from lack of confidence in this Government.
Before I am pulled into gear on the issue of relevance, I will move on to the Liberal policy in relation to occupational health and safety. It needs to be debated over and over again to ensure that the community is aware of the philosophical position of the Liberals - they are not interested in power sharing in the workplace. They are interested in preserving the traditional power of employers on all issues. That draconian position is the reason why there has been a need for massive structural changes in the workplace and the only people who have been able to produce that have been those in the Hawke Labor Government in concert with the trade union movement. While we persist with those draconian measures of power to the employers,
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