Page 821 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 March 1991
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Mr Speaker, the unions involved in those issues have shown, in my view, sensitivity and understanding at all times. In particular, Mr Speaker, whilst the Chief Minister was on leave I had occasion to deal with the Professional Officers Association on an issue relating to entry rates for three-year trained recruits to the Government Service. The issue at hand was whether the Commonwealth proposition put by the Commonwealth Industrial Relations Minister, Senator Peter Cook, that different scales of rates could apply across career sectors which, by their impact, discriminated between men and women, should be supported. Acting on advice and information from my advisers in my acting role, and forming my own view on events, the ACT Government took a different view from the Commonwealth Government before the Industrial Relations Commission in Melbourne before Commissioner Judith Cohen, and I was pleased to note that the ACT submission won through. That was a credit to the stance that had been taken within the ACT Government on that issue.
It went unheralded, and I want to put on record the fact that a journalist's news report of that event was strangely not run in the Canberra Times at the time. Instead, the next morning, an extraordinary editorial appeared berating the fact that women would get equal rates of pay with men. That was an extraordinary editorial, but what it did not cover was a detailed story prepared by a competent journalist. My understanding is, of course, that the Canberra Times is only one of those ships that leak at the top. My understanding is that the journalist's story was not run on that issue because this Government took a different line from the Federal Industrial Relations Minister and supported a significant decision of the commission.
Mr Speaker, the other aspect of the Government's management relationship with the unions, so far as my department is concerned, is their considerable involvement in broader community issues through the social justice areas of welfare and community services. It is a great credit to the unions that they can understand the cross-pressures in those areas and can assist the Government to resolve issues.
I am very hopeful that we can get a career structure going - we have already changed one in the disability service area - and proper awards established for many of the auxiliary and ancillary workers who perform such meritorious work at places like the John Knight Hostel and other disability institutions. There is work there for the unions to perform on their own pitch, and I am quite sure that the Government would react positively to that area. Mr Speaker, I rise to congratulate those officers of Mr Kaine's department who handle this difficult area, and I rise at the same time to congratulate the unions for the understanding that they have shown during this period of great change in the Territory.
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