Page 4965 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 11 December 1990
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MR BERRY: We did. As you claim to have such a close relationship with them, perhaps when they explain to you that they are not entirely happy with what you are doing it might eventually sink in.
Mr Kaine: They do not have to be entirely happy. They are not the Government.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister!
MR BERRY: That is right. We understand the confrontation between conservatives and the trade union movement and their worry about the power of the trade union movement versus the power of capital and all of that old stuff. The fact of the matter is that you have not been able to stitch up a deal yet and it is an embarrassment to you. What you cannot do is move to the corporatisation of organisations as a means to ensure that wages and working conditions are cut and to ensure that the savings from those cuts in wages and working conditions go into the corporate pocket. That is not what this is about. This is about improving the efficiency of organisations without damage to the wages and conditions of workers who work in those places.
Mr Kaine: He would be an expert on corporatisation, of course. He corporatised everything when he was in government.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: The Chief Minister, of course, did not mention that whilst the Labor Government was in place it had - as I said earlier - a very responsible position on the delivery of community services. That is one of the initial issues that I raised in the course of this debate when I referred to schools and hospitals. This Government has demonstrated that it is an expert Government in the cutting back of services. That is, of course, a relevant - - -
Mr Humphries: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I have to ask what schools and hospitals have to do with this debate, none of which are in any format put forward by this Government to be corporatised.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Humphries, I uphold your objection. Mr Berry, we have asked you to skirt round that issue, if you would not mind.
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, you probably were not listening when I also mentioned the same issue with the Chief Minister a little while ago.
Mr Kaine: Yes, and you were told to stick to the point then.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
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