Page 2846 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 October 1992
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Well, no; it is about increasing profits. It is also about basically establishing the old squattocracy in a place of power again and turning back the clock 100 years. Nobody can stand by and put up with that sort of rot. Australian workers will not. Ordinary people are a wake-up to the slick rhetoric and the snake oil salesmen. They will not cop it. Thankfully, they will be sensible enough to ensure that Hewson and Howard never get anywhere near a position where they can implement those sorts of things.
MR DE DOMENICO (3.42): Madam Speaker, let us have a look at the farcical rubbish that we have heard for the past 15 minutes. Mr Berry talked about positives all the time. He talked about a lot of things. Let us have a look at the positives, Madam Speaker, and at some of the facts. There have been several disputes, even in the life of this Assembly. Let us have a look at the bus drivers strikes, the garbage strike, the crane drivers strikes, and other miscellaneous strikes from time to time.
In May, Madam Speaker, the garbage strike was described by the Minister, Mr Terry Connolly, as "the world's silliest industrial dispute". That was said not by Mr Howard or Dr Hewson, but by the right-wing Minister sitting behind Mr Berry. The Canberra Times reported that the ACT Minister for Urban Services, Terry Connolly, had described the strike as the world's silliest industrial dispute. What was the dispute about? Well, one does not know. It was sparked by sharp words spoken by a supervisor to an employee in the maintenance services area. All of a sudden, because of words, there was a strike. The whole of the garbage collection service in Canberra went out because someone decided to say something to one of their employees. Mr Connolly, quite rightly, I might say, said that it was the world's silliest industrial dispute.
When Mr Berry, the Industrial Relations Minister, was asked to intervene, he said, "Oh, no; don't you worry about that. Things will settle themselves. They can ring me up in the morning if they want advice", or words to that effect. But Mr Connolly, quite rightly, took some action, or attempted to take some action. Let us see a bit more about the dispute. Among those present and voting on the strike resolution were - listen to this - interstate shearers in Canberra protesting at the influx of Kiwi competition. They were not Canberrans. That is who voted to go out on a Canberra garbage dispute - interstate shearers. What do you say to that, Mr Minister?
Do you know what Mr Berry, the Industrial Relations Minister, did? He sat on his hands, flat fingered. He sat on his hands and did nothing. He hoisted it over to Mr Connolly, of course, in a different faction. What did Mr Connolly do? Quite rightly, he called it for what it was - the silliest dispute ever. That is what Mr Connolly did. When you start talking about action and positives, Mr Berry, how positive was that? It was not positive. The community was held to ransom by the trade union movement, your mates. So, do not talk to me about positives.
It is the Minister's responsibility to ensure that commonsense wins the day. The Minister and the Government have failed to bring any sense of reality into industrial relations issues in the ACT, and he knows that. The first crane drivers dispute in May cost the Territory millions of dollars and lasted four weeks, I believe. What did Mr Berry do there? He did not act to stop the dispute. Mr Berry stood up in this Assembly and in answer to a question I asked him - - -
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