Page 823 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 March 1991
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MR BERRY: He does not even understand what the social wage is. He says, "How have we attacked the social wage?". Does he not understand that the delivery of health services is part of the social wage, and 1,500 people are waiting for a hospital bed in our hospital system? Does he not understand that the provision of schools is part of the social wage, and people are concerned about cuts in that area? That is the difficulty in dealing with these members opposite. They do not understand the issues that confront workers; they do not understand the issues that are involved in industrial relations.
I have to say that on top of that, Mr Speaker, there is a campaign going on against workers in the health system to prevent them from speaking out and pursuing rights which would normally be construed as industrial. We know that nurses who have complained about their professional and industrial conditions have been threatened - their careers have been threatened. We know that this Government intends to pursue those secrecy provisions which it set out in its Health Services Act to prevent workers from complaining and speaking out. That is what this Government is about, and that is what industrial relations is about. It is about allowing workers to pursue their industrial rights. This Government does not want them to do that; they are being threatened. What the unions in this town are doing is working for the return of a progressive government, and they will get one.
The Priorities Review Board, of course, was another debacle which led to thousands of people rallying against the Government because it took the wrong tack, and, of course, we are yet to see whether this Government will pursue the Priorities Review Board report in toto. There is a hidden agenda, Mr Speaker; the trade union movement is aware of that.
Mr Humphries, of course, goes on about the theatrics of politics in this Territory - something which he would know plenty about. He has been trying to cover up the chaos in the hospital system for months. He has been trying to cover it up, but it cannot be covered up any more. We know that there are 1,500 people waiting for a bed in our hospital system. We know that the Minister did nothing for 15 months after it was uncovered - by Labor, I should add - that his hospital system was in trouble in the budget area. He has done nothing.
I am pleased that Mr Duby raised the South Curtin school, because he was the architect of all the troubles that developed there. It was that Government opposite which tried to turn a political dispute into an industrial one. It wanted to involve the trade union movement to divert attention, so that it could have a good old fight with the trade unions - a traditional fight between the conservatives and the workers over this issue of schools - but it failed because the Industrial Relations Commission found out what the Government was up to and would not play
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