Page 142 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 17 February 1993
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The Federal Minister for Industrial Relations, Senator Cook, has been talking about enterprise bargaining and workplace bargaining and how much more efficient things are going to be under enterprise bargaining arrangements. I think it is about time we found out exactly what sort of over-award payments and the like occur in the ACT Government Service. This is not accusing anybody of doing anything untoward, although Mr Connolly will concede that there have been front-page newspaper stories from time to time - not denied by anybody, including Mr Connolly, by the way. When he heard that things seemed to be going on that should not be going on, he quite rightly put his foot down and attempted to wipe these things out - sometimes not as successfully as he would have liked, through no fault of his own, but for obvious reasons that Mr Connolly knows a lot about.
Mr Connolly: Attack me, Tony; say something nasty.
MR DE DOMENICO: It is very difficult to say nasty things about the Minister. He does try very hard to do the right thing by his ideology and beliefs, except that he is not allowed to do that by certain of his colleagues who he would wish perhaps were not there from time to time, faceless people being what they are.
The motion is quite clear. I think it is time we entertained such an inquiry, in view of the current negotiations with the trade union movement about the creation of a separate ACT public service; the relationship that has to the enterprise bargaining that has been happening, according to the Federal Government; and also - let us be realistic - taking into account the fact that it is very likely that we are shortly going to have a change of Federal government. People who try to dismiss that as something that may not happen are not looking at reality.
For all those reasons, Madam Speaker, I think it would be very appropriate for us to say to this Government that it is about time we had a look at what people being paid from the ACT coffers are earning.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.51): The Government will be opposing this motion, but it is an appropriate motion to debate because it once again draws the Liberal Party out of their shell on industrial relations issues. Yesterday we heard Mr De Domenico interjecting with great enthusiasm that he wanted to use the troops in industrial disputes. He interjected and said, "So does Mrs Carnell". Mrs Carnell looked a bit uncomfortable but no doubt had to support the party line. They want to use the troops in industrial relations. They have a policy they are introducing in Victoria whereby, from 1 March, all State awards cease to have effect and we go into this process of individual contract negotiations. I can recall on the ABC Lateline program the representative of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce conceding that, in effect, if you did not like what you were being offered by your employer in difficult economic times, there were plenty of people outside the door who would like the job, and you could either take it or leave it.
That is the process they favour in industrial relations. You have to sign your individual contract with the boss. As was conceded by an employer representative in Victoria, if in difficult economic times, when there is unemployment and there are people waiting outside the door for that job, if you
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