Page 3343 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 24 November 1992
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The significant thing is an agreement by the drivers that their representatives, their delegates, work with government to achieve these changes and an indication from the drivers that they think that this matter can be advanced without industrial disputation. So, there was a paid stop-work meeting in order to put before the drivers the sort of change that government is expecting from them and to get a mandate from the drivers for their representatives to work through that process of change. We will not agree on every issue. It would be extraordinary if we did. But we will continue to work with the workplace - the drivers and the workshops - to achieve change and reform. That is a most appropriate process.
We have also taken some drivers and some mechanics off line and had them working full time on this process of change. But I am sure that I can continue to report back to this Assembly that we are making progress in ACTION - progress that was conspicuously absent under the former Government. Just look at the Advance Bank Trends magazine.
Mr De Domenico: Last Friday week.
MR CONNOLLY: It was the edition before, in fact, Mr De Domenico. A graph showed the deficit continuing to increase and suddenly turning around in the last 12 months. That is a significant achievement of this Government. There was an interjection, "Will they always get paid when they go on strike?". No. The basis of going on strike is that you withdraw your labour, and you expect not to get paid. That happened on those occasions when disputes occurred. But it is appropriate from time to time for management to say, "Workers, we think there are issues of such importance coming up, that will affect you so greatly, that we should have a paid stop period for you to consult with us". That is the hallmark of this Government. We will deliver results on that.
I should refer to the so-called illegal payments that were endorsed by the commission and that Mr De Domenico seemed to think were some sort of behind closed doors deal that was done last year between the Government and the drivers. The only problem with that, Mr De Domenico, is that that process was highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee, which noted that it was an appropriate course of action. The suggestion that this was some sort of dirty deal done in a back room is rather inconsistent with the Public Accounts Committee chaired by your own leader, which noted that appropriate action had taken place. The commission thought those payments were appropriate, and they were retrospectively validated. The ACTEW issue was one where the commission said that the claimed payments were not appropriate, and they were not validated. Madam Speaker, any suggestion to the contrary is a furphy that needs to be nailed.
I would like to go beyond ACTION, because that is the area that in the past I have spent most time on. With DUS and the recycling plant at the Belconnen tip, a significant change has been achieved through negotiation. The workers there run across a range of unions. There is no demarcation. We are able to move workers through that line without any problems about which union they are members of. There has been significant change across the whole of the ACT workplace. We are achieving lots of reforms on the ground which will lead to a far greater level of productivity. We have the results, not the rhetoric.
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