Page 5654 - Week 17 - Thursday, 5 December 1991
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Government Service - Staff Reductions
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is of the Chief Minister. Can the Chief Minister confirm the thrust of comments made by Mr John Wilson of the Trades and Labour Council on today's morning news on the ABC? In particular, can she confirm that her Government has reached agreement with the Trades and Labour Council that no blue-collar workers will lose their jobs under the Labor Government? Will she also advise the Assembly of the terms of any agreement that she has reached with the Trades and Labour Council, and will she advise what jobs or positions and what portfolio responsibility that undertaking covers?
MS FOLLETT: I defer to Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, staffing across all sectors of the Government Service is a matter of concern to the trade union movement. But the Government has made it clear to the unions - and I have been involved in some negotiations with the Labour Council on this score - that those staffing reductions which were anticipated in the budget should be achieved in administrative positions and that services should not be affected. There was no agreement that blue-collar workers would be excluded from the process.
MR HUMPHRIES: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. If Mr Berry says that, in fact, there is an agreement that no blue-collar jobs will be cut, does the Minister acknowledge that, if 275 jobs should be cut out of the health system, white-collar workers in those circumstances would include doctors and nurses? Does the Government intend to include those non-blue-collar workers within the terms of its exemption as agreed between the Government and the TLC?
MR BERRY: There is no exemption. You were not listening.
Cyclists - Safety Helmets
MRS NOLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is addressed to Mr Connolly in his capacity as Minister for Urban Services. Mr Connolly, under the Federal Government black spot funding program, of which we are a part, compulsory safety helmet wearing for cyclists was to come into effect on 1 January 1992. Can you advise me why the Government has not as yet introduced legislation which will make it compulsory for cyclists to wear helmets as of 1 January?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mrs Nolan for the question. Certainly, 1 January next year was the deadline for a range of initiatives on the black spot program. Some of them have been introduced and passed, and some remain to be passed. I met with Minister Brown some months after coming into government and discussed with him our intention still
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