Page 812 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 March 1991
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system over the next few years. Despite what have been enormous changes in this area, there really has not been a significant level of industrial disputation. In fact, of 970 working days lost under the Alliance Government, a total of 675 were lost as a result of a single industrial dispute, and that was, of course, that week-long strike by members of the Hospital Employees Federation in December last year.
Mr Speaker, we spoke last night about good wars and just wars and wars that should not have been fought and so on. I think, Mr Speaker, that was one particular industrial dispute from which the ACT has profited handsomely. The evidence of that is that the considerable lack of cooperation that has been forthcoming from the Hospital Employees Federation over the last who knows how many years has been removed. This Government did not create that dispute; but it certainly delivered a very important benefit to the future administration of this Territory, and in particular to the industrial relations scene in this Territory, by taking on the HEF and winning on that occasion. As I said, 675 working days were lost as a result of that week-long dispute. In my view, Mr Speaker, those were working days that were well lost in the sense that the product of that dispute was well worth the effort.
The remainder is about 300 working days lost in the health sector in the last 15 months. Compare that with a total of 340 working days lost due to strike action in the health sector under Ms Follett - despite the fact that so far we have had twice as long in government as she had. I would have to say that those facts do not point to a disastrous and crumbling industrial relations scene; they point to competent government; they point to, in fact, a very smooth and generally productive working relationship between this Government and the trade union movement.
In the education area, just to return to that for a moment, there have been major matters of concern; major restructuring proposals have been put forward and carried out in the education sector, and one would have thought that they would have generated enormous industrial disputation. That has not been the case. Even in the area of teacher salaries, which has been a major ongoing concern to both teachers and the Government, that entire matter, lasting some months and recently resolved, in fact, resulted in almost no industrial days being lost because of the teachers' concern about the progress of talks. That is a pretty good record, Mr Speaker. I think that those opposite should be a little more careful to quote the facts when they next go out into the community and say what disastrous industrial relations have ensued under this Government.
With the full support and involvement of employers and unions in the ACT, the ACT Alliance Government has established a tripartite Industrial Relations Advisory Council - a very important development, I think. The
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