Page 283 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 1991
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If this Government ever finds it necessary to convene a royal commission, the public will know immediately that it is a matter of great public concern. We convene inquiries all the time. They are of different degrees of importance, but a royal commission has a significance that other government inquiries do not have.
It is rather puerile for Mr Berry and members of the Opposition to argue that there is no difference and that it does not matter. There is a difference. It does matter. All other sovereign parliaments in Australia have the power to appoint royal commissions and this Government should be no different. If this legislation is defeated, and if Mr Berry ever gets into government again, he may well find that there could be circumstances in which he would wish to appoint a royal commission. It is a futile argument to say that that is not the case.
I want to deal with his 15 minutes of argument about the BWIU and other trade unions. Since he has introduced it, I think it is an opportunity to refute the assertion that this Government is a confrontationist government in confrontation with the trade unions. The Opposition itself noted yesterday that there was a period of industrial relations quiet. Mr Berry asserted that this is because the trade unions are going to wait until this Government goes out of beam before it starts any industrial trouble. How absurd. I bet his mates in the BWIU and the other trade unions would not agree with that. If they have a difference with this Government, they will tell us about it.
The simple difference between a Labor government and this Government is that we talk to the trade unions, and we do it constantly. When there is a problem, we resolve it by negotiation. This legislation is in no way directed at the trade unions in the ACT. If I have a difference with the BWIU or any other trade union and I believe that there are matters to be discussed, I will discuss it with the officials of that union and the Trades and Labour Council. I have no hesitation in doing that. I am doing it constantly.
As much as Mr Berry hates it, I believe that I have a very good working relationship with the trade unions - as do other Ministers of this Government. So, his attempt to link this legislation into some fight with the trade unions, or some vendetta against the trade unions, or some attempt to make this a weapon against the trade unions, is patently absurd and no government would set about such a deliberate course of action. Certainly this one will not. We will continue to use our skills in negotiating and our ability to communicate with the officials of these trade unions rather than pulling a royal commission on them. It is absolutely absurd. While he went to great lengths in his debate to quote politicians and others in other places, nothing that he said about members of this Assembly had any relevance to the case that he was trying to make.
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