Page 3332 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 24 November 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Since the Minister raises it, let us look at urban services. The Minister at least has displayed the guts to want to put his head up above the barricades behind which the rest of his colleagues are hiding. Here comes the kiss of death, Mr Deputy Speaker. He wants to make some changes. He wants to achieve some level of reform which acknowledges the enormous sinkhole which ACTION constitutes at the moment and the enormous amount of money that is poured into that hole by the ACT community. He wants to see a better return produced for the ACT community as a result of that commitment.
How far has he got? That is the $64,000 question. Arguably, Mr Deputy Speaker, we have not seen achievements of any size. The Minister has announced a number of changes he hopes to achieve large sums of money from. That is what he hopes to achieve, but we have heard only in the last few months that the ACT Government is facing a serious rorting problem with people in ACTION taking sick leave and so on, with the result that we now have a very serious question mark over whether the Government can in fact achieve savings of the kind it has been talking about.
The fact is that this Government's promises are yet to be met and that isolated attempts in one part of the ACT administration are no substitute for a plan and vision across the whole of the ACT Government Service which will achieve the necessary micro-economic reforms. Mr Deputy Speaker, I am dismayed by the lack of commitment the Government has shown on this very important question. I think it behoves us to ask: Just where are we going? Just what commitments have been made? Can we achieve any real and long-lasting level of industrial reform in the ACT if we do not change the practices which apply in our workplaces, in particular industrial practices?
The Minister for Industrial Relations today was asked about workplace practices and in particular whether he would support workplace agreements of the kind outlined in the Jobsback policy. That at least, Mr Deputy Speaker, is a plan. It is a vision for doing something about the state of our country. I gave the Government a chance. I asked, "Where is your commitment? Where is your alternative vision for what is going to happen in this Territory?". The answer was, "We do not like the way you are doing things and we will be different. Somehow we will be different". It is just not good enough. It is not good enough for the people of this Territory or for the people of this country. Increasingly, Mr Deputy Speaker, they will reject empty rhetoric of that kind in favour of real action of the kind which Jobsback represents.
Some people have bleated in this chamber even today about attacks on working people and the working conditions of Australian workers. The fact of life, Mr Deputy Speaker, is that if we do not put the spotlight on those work practices we will find, in five or 10 or 20 years' time or more, that the one million unemployed we currently suffer in this country will be many more and the suffering will be much greater. We cannot continue to rely on temporary fixes such as casinos, floriades and so on, through the tourist industry, to save our bacon. We have to find permanent solutions - solutions which will give us the chance to face the future with confidence. We cannot afford to remain a mendicant community. We must embrace the future, and that means adopting the sorts of changes which are so important to making that future a reality.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .