Page 410 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 1993
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The other reason he put forward is the real one. The real reason why Mr Berry wants this debated now instead of in three weeks' time is that there is a Federal election on 13 March and he is trying to anticipate the outcome of that election. He knows darned well that on 14 March the Labor Government at the Federal level is gone and there will be a completely new approach to industrial relations. He is going to have to live with a Hewson coalition government with a vastly different attitude towards industrial relations from Mr Berry's, at which time he will be out of step with the rest of the country, as he is now. He will be totally out of step with the rest of the country on this issue, as he is now.
Madam Speaker, on those two points alone he has completely destroyed his argument that the matter should be dealt with urgently. It should not be dealt with as urgently as the Minister puts forward. There should be further debate with the community out there - the thing Mr Berry talks about but does not do. There should be further debate to see whether this move is a good thing. I repeat: It was put into effect in October, over the objections of the Opposition and over the objections of the employers in this city.
Mr Berry: You have done this without talking to them. Shame on you!
MR KAINE: I have not done it without talking to them. How many of them have you spoken to? You claim to be a consultative government; but, on the Health Bill yesterday and a couple of others you are going to ram through the Assembly this afternoon, you have consulted with nobody. You have consulted with nobody on this issue either - except the trade unions. That is why you want to get it fixed. You want your cosy deal with the trade unions before John Hewson can stick you on this issue, and he will. He will put into effect an industrial relations regime that is going to get this country off its knees, and you are trying to put the ACT out of this framework. You are trying to set in concrete arrangements that nobody else in Australia will have, and yet you talk about uniformity. You are not interested in uniformity. You are interested only in imposing on industry in this Territory the trade union regime you support. That is to the detriment of the Territory.
I submit, Madam Speaker, that he has in no way established any case for urgency in this matter. Quite frankly, I am appalled that a Minister seeks to establish urgency for a private members Bill. I thought that was for private members to determine; but no, not this Minister. He can see that his position is going to be very hard to sustain in less than three weeks' time, so he wants to set it in concrete now, thinking that somehow this is going to be perpetuated. Frankly, it does not matter what the Minister does today. In three weeks' time the industrial regime is going to change in Australia and he is going to have to live with that, no matter what he does today.
MR MOORE (11.13): I rise to support the urgency motion for a number of reasons. Unlike Mr Kaine, I shall address the issue of urgency, Madam Speaker. The issue of urgency has come up because of the pain to small business that will be caused by this Bill sitting on the table and providing some doubt over what is going to happen.
Mr Kaine: You cannot let any Bill sit on the table for five minutes around here - even a private members one.
Mr De Domenico: It does not take effect until July.
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