Page 3437 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 25 November 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, please!
MS FOLLETT: I believe that the question was directed to me, Madam Speaker, rather than to Mr Kaine.
Mr Kaine: Well, why don't you tell her the same thing?
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister has the floor.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, it is an excellent question from Ms Ellis; it is very timely. Following, as it does, on Mr Kaine's attack on the public sector, which we have just heard and which we have seen in action in States where the Liberals hold government, I think it is timely indeed to assure the Assembly and our own Government Service that the ACT staff will certainly not be falling behind their counterparts in the Commonwealth service.
The agreement with the unions which the Commonwealth has recently concluded is a general framework for local workplace productivity enhancement and a broad range of efficiency measures which will have a general effect across the public service and also, of course, for associated pay increases which are linked to productivity and performance improvements. The Government has examined the terms of the Commonwealth agreement. We consider that they represent a valuable tool to assist the process of work force change and to link the achievement of programs to pay.
For technical reasons that have to do with the definition of a single business in the Industrial Relations Act, it does appear that ACT Government Service staff cannot be encompassed with Commonwealth staff within the one enterprise agreement. That being the case, we have taken the view that the best way to proceed is for an ACT Government Service agreement to be designed to mirror the arrangements reached in the Commonwealth service, both in terms of its content and in terms of its timing. We have approached the unions on that basis and they have recently agreed with that view.
Madam Speaker, the Commonwealth arrangements will be replicated in the ACT Government Service agreement, the intention being that pay rises in the two agreements will operate from the same payday. We are in the process of completing the necessary industrial procedures, which includes appearing before the Industrial Relations Commission - a body, incidentally, which members opposite would abolish. The intention is that the Commonwealth and ACT Government Service agreements will be presented to the commission together for certification over the next week or so.
The ACT Government Service agreement will apply to staff under the Public Service Act and those whose terms and conditions are linked to the Public Service Act arrangements. Other groups such as the nurses, teachers and firefighters are being given the opportunity to enter into a similar enterprise agreement with us, but specific terms may need to be arrived at for inclusion in agreements relating to those groups. I repeat my assurance, Madam Speaker, that the Government remains committed to the policy of maintaining parity in terms of conditions of employment between the ACT Government Service and the Commonwealth Public Service.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .