Page 2730 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 October 1992
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MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Lamont. Nothing has changed with the Liberals' approach to industrial relations.
Mrs Carnell: Have you now read it?
Mr De Domenico: Have you read the document yet?
MR BERRY: Certainly nothing has been changed amongst those opposite. They cannot help but interject instead of being patient and listening to the answer to the question which has been asked. Mr Howard has long been arguing that workers across Australia should be more flexible; that is, they should be prepared to give up their wages and working conditions just to satisfy the Liberals.
Mr De Domenico: Rubbish! That is rubbish.
MR BERRY: Rubbish indeed. "Flexibility" is a word that is often used, and the flexibility is one way. How flexible will it be for the workers? Will they be able to set their own wages and working conditions? Not so. The word "flexible" is used in a very selective way. Today we saw the announcement of an industrial relations policy which is aimed at reducing the wages and working conditions of Australian workers across the board. What will occur, and what is aimed for, is that those workers who are in a strong industrial position will survive but the weaker ones will go under. That is what this industrial relations policy of the Liberals is about. The overall result is reduced costs to employers and the end result is, of course, a fall in living standards for ordinary Australians. That is what the Liberals are about - reducing the living standards of ordinary Australians.
Mr Humphries: I take a point of order, Madam Speaker. It seems to me, in accordance with your earlier ruling that anticipating matters which are not yet before the Assembly is hypothetical, that this matter is surely highly hypothetical and very much not a matter for concern by the ACT Assembly and therefore should not be discussed.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Berry, you have the floor. I do not think there is a point of order. Please continue, Mr Berry.
MR BERRY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a major issue for people in the ACT because, as is well known, Federal awards, which are controlled by the Federal Government, set the wages and working conditions and therefore the living standards for ACT residents. It is true that if the Liberals have their way the living standards of many ACT residents will fall. That is quite aside from the threats to the jobs in the ACT that have already been proposed in the "frightpack" package, the big attack on Canberra by the Liberals.
In relation to the specific issue of industrial relations, there has been almost 90 years of industrial arbitration and conciliation in this country. That was a great step forward in the industrial world. Disputes were able to be settled by the Industrial Relations Commission in its various forms, and they were able to be settled by way of either conciliation or arbitration; the result being that we have had a fairly stable industrial relations climate in Australia, more so than exists in many other countries in the world from which the Liberals seek to import their industrial relations ideas. It is not a new idea, Madam Speaker.
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