Page 149 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 17 February 1993
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MR DE DOMENICO (12.13), in reply: Let us get it straight, Madam Speaker. Mr Lamont was quite obviously not prepared to speak on his own motion.
Mr Lamont: Give me another 10 minutes.
MR DE DOMENICO: No, you have had your turn. Mr Lamont made some comments which were incorrect. The Liberal Party has been up front with its industrial relations policy, both nationally and at the local level in the ACT. I have yet to see Mr Lamont's Government's industrial relations policy, except that during the election campaign I read a document that said that they would give preference to union members, and things of that nature. That is what Mr Lamont believes to be modern industrial relations.
Let me reiterate, for the sake of Mr Lamont, that the ACT Liberal Party's industrial relations policy is a public document. I am sure Mr Lamont has a copy of it; I know that the Trades and Labour Council has a copy of it. They did not seem to disagree too vehemently with it, as I recall Mr McDonald's views on it on radio recently. The Liberal Party's up-front, publicly known industrial relations policy does not abolish the award system, as Mr Lamont was pretending it did. It does not, I repeat, abolish the award system. It sets up an alternative system that sits side by side with the existing Federal system. Whether you like it or whether you do not, or whether Mr Lamont likes it or not, Madam Speaker, that is what it does. It does not cut wages and conditions but encourages a system of remuneration tied to productivity. People from overseas who come to this country from time to time - two gentlemen were here the day before yesterday, in fact - talk about productivity, quality and innovation. That is what we have to talk about. That is what a clever country does. You are not going to do that, with the industrial relations views of Mr Lamont and the people on his side of the house.
The Liberal Party policy does not destroy unions. It acknowledges the unions' right to exist, but it also gives the individual the right not to join a union. Madam Speaker, I am sure that even Mr Lamont from time to time would agree that you and anybody else in this Territory have a right to join a union and a right not to join a union. We are giving individuals the right to choose. I am sure that that does not sit very nicely with you, Mr Lamont, and the people on your side of the house, but we like to think that individuals in this Territory are smart enough to choose to join or not to join a union. That is what the policy does.
I will tell you what else it does, Madam Speaker. It is about choice in negotiating the most suitable employment relationship between employer and employees. Mr Lamont waxed lyrical about Mr Kennett. Let me quote this comment made on 4 February:
Alan Brown, the Transport Minister, has welcomed today's historic breakthrough agreement with the Australian Tramways and Motor Omnibus Employees Association.
That is not a right-wing group, as I am sure Mr Lamont will know, but a left-wing union in Victoria, sitting down with a Liberal government - the Kennett Government - and negotiating something to the satisfaction of both the employer and the employee. That is what industrial relations is all about, Mr Lamont, and that is what the Liberal Party policy is all about. For you to stand up here, after your years of involvement in the trade union movement, and disparage what people on this side of the house are trying to do is sheer humbug.
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