Page 2843 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 October 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mrs Carnell: And wage levels have been maintained, have they, in real terms?
MR BERRY: It would be handy, Mr Deputy Speaker, if I could give this speech - - -
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Connolly: I take a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. We have a constant dialogue between Mr De Domenico and Mrs Carnell across the other side while the Deputy Chief Minister is speaking. You were fairly robust in your warning to Mr Lamont. I would expect that members opposite might also listen.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, I am quite happy to uphold the point of order. If you wish to talk among yourselves, try to keep your voices down. I have been trying to judge the level. As soon as Mr Berry, the speaker, is drowned out, I shall certainly call whoever is interjecting to order.
MR BERRY: Let us look at the record of this Government in industrial relations. I might point to just two issues in opening on that question, Mr Deputy Speaker - the parental leave and occupational health and safety laws which were derided by those opposite but supported by the greatest conservative in industrial relations history for the Liberal Party, John Howard.
Mr Deputy Speaker, since May 1991 - this is all on the record and this demonstrates how this Government has performed - industrial disputes in the ACT have regularly decreased from the relatively high level of over 60 days lost per 1,000 employees per month, regularly seen during the days of the previous Government, to the range of 18 to 26 days lost per 1,000 employees for the past six months of this year - the lowest level of time lost through industrial disputes in Australia. How can we be criticised on that score? We cannot. Time lost per 1,000 employees in the ACT is about one-twentieth of the time lost over the border in New South Wales under a Liberal administration. In May this year 26 working days were lost per 1,000 employees, compared with 458 days lost per 1,000 employees in New South Wales. How dare the Liberals crow!
The major period of industrial disputation in the ACT over the past year was over the outcome of the report by the Priorities Review Board - much applauded by the Liberals - set up under the previous Government, which succeeded only in enraging all the previous Government's employees, forcing them into industrial confrontation. It was subsequently discarded, and rightly so. This Government believes in consultation, not confrontation, Mr Deputy Speaker, and this is reflected in the figures for time lost through industrial disputes per 1,000 employees.
Similarly, Mr Deputy Speaker, within the ACT Government Service, industrial disputes are at a record low, again, because of a policy of consultation, not confrontation, of working within the system with our employees and, when there is a problem, using the services of the Industrial Relations Commission to work things through. There is no doubt, Mr Deputy Speaker, that from time to time there is conflict in the workplace, but there is always a way of working through these sorts of conflicts using the mechanisms which are available to us. Why fix
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .