Page 1126 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 1991
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terminology in legislation is important to allow equality under the law for both sexes. The necessary changes to the Act have been proposed and are listed in the explanatory memorandum. Mr Speaker, I present the explanatory memorandum to the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Ms Follett) adjourned.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY (AMENDMENT) BILL 1991
Debate resumed from 14 March 1991, on motion by Mr Kaine:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR BERRY (10.34): This Bill, of course, has been referred to by the Chief Minister and it talks about a number of important aspects. One is in relation to the review of decisions provisions, and that in itself is important because of the inability of the Commonwealth, for one reason or another, to provide the necessary changes to enable these reviews to be conducted in the Industrial Relations Commission as was originally intended. Other matters relating to the payment of representatives and the obligation of employers in relation to notice of events are also very important issues in the context of this legislation.
The only difficulty that the Labor Opposition has with the legislation is that the Government has allowed only seven days for consultation to occur between the Opposition and constituents. We learned very late yesterday that the Trades and Labour Council had not even seen the Bill. That is an outrageous position, given that the Chief Minister has said on so many occasions that he has a lot of contact with the trade unions around the Territory and that his consultation, for the purposes of public consumption, is as near perfect as it could be. We have proven in the last couple of days that that is just not the case.
I have been informed this morning that the Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee, which, of course, has representatives of the Trades and Labour Council on it, was advised of the issue and did approve of it; but, that aside, one has to make it clear that the numbers on those committees are not weighted in favour of the trade union movement, and never have been. The fact of the matter is, Mr Speaker, that this Bill is being rushed through this Assembly with only seven days' notice. It would have been better to have had more time, to enable the opposition members of this Assembly to have consultation with their constituents.
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