Page 2002 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 8 September 1992
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We will continue to pursue a course of action which is aimed at sensible industrial relations and reasonable consultation at all levels, with a view to managing our respective portfolios properly. That is something that the Liberals were never able to do. We will continue to pursue that course. It is sensible to take into account the views of unions. If the Trades and Labour Council - - -
Mr Humphries: What about this view? Is this view right or is it wrong?
MR BERRY: The view that has been expressed or the view that you have drawn to our attention from a reported comment on the television is a view which may or may not be raised in industrial relations forums. If it is raised it will be dealt with appropriately, but it will be dealt with in a way which is aimed at a sensible outcome in the interests of better industrial relations. That is something that you do not comprehend. I know that you do not comprehend that issue, but we will continue to address it in that way.
MR HUMPHRIES: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I remind the Minister, first of all, that the Alliance Government had fewer industrial days lost than the Labor Government had, and has had in the subsequent time since the Alliance Government. I ask the Minister, specifically: Does he agree that nursing in the ACT public hospital system is already so far stretched that it would not be capable of any further reductions in resource levels allocated to that function in our hospitals? That is what she was saying.
MR BERRY: Mr Humphries asks essentially the same question as before. The answer did not sink in.
Mr Humphries: There was not an answer; that is why.
MR BERRY: The Liberals expect that the Labor Party in government will stand up here and give them the answers that they want so that they can go and knock up a quick press release expressing their respective ideological positions. What I will say to you again is that we will take into account any view that a trade union official might wish to express in relation to the terms and conditions of employment in any of our respective portfolio areas.
The nurses and other workers within the hospital system are all working hard. There is no question about that. The hospital is operating more efficiently. It will continue to operate efficiently. When industrial issues are raised, as in the case of a recent industrial announcement by one of the unions involved in the hospital system, the health system will deal with it appropriately. It will not be out snatching cheap headlines. It will be in there trying to sort out the issues that the union members and their union officials seek to raise in the industrial arena.
There is no point, Madam Speaker, in getting involved in a huge media debate with the Liberals about what is going on in industrial relations. There is no point in that at all. What we are concerned about is dealing with the problem. When the nurses raise problems about their wages and working conditions within the hospital system or anywhere else we are always happy to deal with them, and we will always deal with them with a view to a sensible industrial outcome.
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