Page 3313 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 24 November 1992
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MR BERRY: Mr Humphries talks about the "jobsack" package, not the Jobsback package. You just cannot consider one small aspect of it without considering the lot. If we take into account the GST and the entire industrial relations policy being promoted by Hewson and his colleagues, and, I suggest, being promoted by those opposite, then workers in the ACT and other places will be in deep trouble. We do not support the approach that is being taken by Hewson. Hewson's approach overall is bad for workers. It reduces their power to negotiate. It will take away the protection of the Industrial Relations Commission and it will take away many other protections that are afforded to workers. It will also reduce their standard of living, but that is not something the Liberals have ever cared about when it comes to working people.
In relation to workplace bargaining, that arrangement is being dealt with very effectively by the Federal Labor Government in concert with the unions, and in particular the ACTU. That is the approach we support in industrial relations. We support an approach that is consultative and works in the interests of workers and the community as a whole. We support the approach that has delivered higher standards of living across this country than would otherwise be the case if the Liberals were to have their way. They are promoting lower standards of living for Australian workers and their families. They are promoting less powerful workers in the workplace to ensure that that occurs. We do not support that approach.
MR HUMPHRIES: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I think Mr Berry was unhappy with the Jobsback workplace agreements arrangement. I ask him, therefore, how he reconciles that position with the Labor Party's own policy platform in the ACT? Paragraph 3.5.2 states in relation to an ACT Labor government:
Support the signing of Workplace Agreements as a way of improving occupational health and safety standards, as well as industrial relations generally.
How is that different in any real sense from what has been talked about in the Jobsback package?
MR BERRY: I saw the notice in the newspaper which talks about industrial relations as an essential element of micro-economic reform. I listened to Mr Humphries's supplementary question and I wondered, "Does this person know anything at all about industrial relations?". Obviously not.
Mr Humphries: What is the difference, Wayne?
MR BERRY: The very different approach I have already outlined in my response to his earlier question. You cannot compare the Labor Party's approach to workplace bargaining to that which is being proposed by Hewson and this motley crowd opposite. We are talking about an industrial relations environment where workers retain their power to protect themselves - not the environment which would be imposed upon them by Hewson and this lot opposite if they had the chance, where workers would have that power reduced. They do not want to see workers negotiating with power in the workplace. We do not support the approach that is taken by the Liberals, and you cannot compare your approach with ours.
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