Page 5131 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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foreseeable future. Mr Humphries is kidding himself if he thinks that anything is going to change in that respect. There will be, for the foreseeable future, a significant set of laws which apply federally, which govern Federal awards and unions that are federally registered.
But again, it does not really matter, because what we are talking about is whether or not a piece of Federal legislation should prevail over a law that we seek to make here. The fact of the matter is that it will, and there is nothing that we can do about it. I say that that is good; Mr Stefaniak and Mr Humphries say that it is bad. But that, again, is not the issue. It is whether or not Mr Stefaniak's amendment will work, and it will not. I think I can finish up there, and urge that members oppose the amendment.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (6.06): I think that Mr Berry speaks from a position of interest, and he is not looking at the broader issue at all. As usual, of course, he misrepresents the case when he says that the Liberal Party is opposed to trade unionism. Let us be quite clear: The Liberal Party is not opposed to trade unionism. I am as well aware as Mr Berry is of the history of the trade union movement in Australia. It has had its rightful place and still does. But, when you take it to the point that it leads to discrimination - and that is what this Bill is about - and when discrimination is entrenched and we are trying to remove it and legislate against it, then it is just as proper and correct that we should move to make that illegal as it is to make any other form of discrimination illegal.
In our society there are a great many other forms of discrimination which perhaps have not received the same degree of formal legal discrimination as trade unionism but which are very highly developed forms of discrimination, nonetheless. I am sure that the Chief Minister would agree that women have been fighting for many years now to remove discrimination against women. The discrimination against women had become entrenched in our societal arrangements. Properly, women have moved to remove that discrimination. This Bill is just one further step in removing discrimination against women because they are women.
What we are attempting to do is to amend this discrimination Bill to say that one should not be discriminated against because one has membership or does not have membership of a trade union.
Mr Berry: Discriminated in favour of.
MR KAINE: You see, Mr Berry is talking about favourable discrimination. There are things like affirmative action and the like that go over the top of the hill a little bit in terms of discrimination against women, too. The fact that discrimination is built into a Federal Act does not make it right.
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