Page 3341 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 24 November 1992
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attitude, by this Government opposite, going to the stage where even the Chief Minister said on Sunday, "Oh, sure we support our mates in Victoria and everybody has the right to strike", and so they have. Hopefully, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Chief Minister will also realise that, should any ACT government employees decide to strike on 30 November, they should not be paid for not being at work.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.11): It is really a pity that there are not more people present in the gallery this afternoon to be exposed to this extraordinary Liberal approach to industrial relations - this mad scatter gun of accusations and allegations that are made about various things that are alleged to have occurred in the workplace, with no coherence, with no logical approach - and to hear the nice soothing sentiments that are echoed. Mr De Domenico says, "We will not cut anyone's wages". How closely that resembles Mr Kennett the week before the election. "No workers will lose a dollar", said Mr Kennett. A couple of days later, out goes the leave loading, out goes holiday pay, out go thousands of jobs. The same day, the Liberal Party vote themselves huge pay rises and reintroduce the silver service in the parliamentary dining room. This is the Liberal approach to industrial relations. Treat the people like idiots, make all these soothing statements that no-one will be worse off, and then attack people's fundamental conditions.
Mr De Domenico seems to get some comfort from Mr Halfpenny being reported as saying that some savings can be made in the school system. I am sure we all agree that there can be savings across government. This Government is delivering. Mr Halfpenny says, "We do not know how to do it". Mr De Domenico seems to think that is some massive concession. The way you achieve cuts is to sit down, negotiate and work in cooperation. You do not just go in and sack thousands of people, shut down 50-odd schools, and carry on in that confrontational manner which is causing havoc in the Victorian community. I was in Victoria last week. I was having a morning coffee in the area near Spring Street where most of the Victorian public servants tend to work, and the faces on the street as people were going into work that morning were extraordinary - grim ashen looks because nobody knows whether Victorian public servants are going to have a job next week. Nobody can trust that Government. No-one can accept what they have to say. They have shown such bad faith that their whole process of negotiating with their work force has fallen apart.
One of the fundamentals about this Government's approach to industrial relations is trust with the trade union movement. We will from time to time have disagreements. We have had some fairly widely publicised disagreements. That is in the nature of things. But at the end of the day we will resolve those disagreements in the commission. That is what happened in relation to the much vaunted issue about allowances within ACTEW. One union disagreed with what we did in relation to those ACTEW allowances. They thought that I had taken the wrong step. I met with them beforehand and said, "Well, we have a disagreement here. We will resolve it in the commission". That is what has happened. That means that we can continue in good faith. What union could possibly negotiate with these people opposite who make these assertions that no workers' wages will be affected when they are looking for their vote, and then a couple of days later, let alone weeks after, in Victoria, by legislative fiat pushed through at 3 o'clock in the morning, chop off conditions that have been enjoyed for many years? That is not the way to achieve reform.
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