Page 411 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 1993
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MADAM SPEAKER: Order, members! Standing order 39 does not permit you even to interrupt. Would you please refrain.
MR MOORE: Madam Speaker, the point is that there was a great deal of consultation on this Bill. As you may recall, Madam Speaker, Ms Szuty and I on a number of occasions, together and separately, met with both sides of the debate. We met with a whole range of people in small business presenting one point of view. We visited the Trades and Labour Council's occupational health and safety school. We went through a great deal of consultation, culminating in a meeting at the National Convention Centre, where we heard the views of both the Minister and industry. Having listened very carefully to their views, we then drew our conclusion, and that is not going to change.
We have a situation where small businesses are now being approached, thanks to Ms Szuty's amendment relating to 1 July, by officers from Mr Berry's department explaining the ramifications for them of the occupational health and safety legislation. If this Bill were to lie on the table, there would be some doubt over whether it would go through - if the Bill was genuine, if there was a possibility of change. There is no possibility of change, and I think therefore that it is most appropriate that the Liberals do not have the opportunity to try to convince people and to undermine small business in doing this. They know that it is a matter that has been lost. This is a simple election ploy where they are prepared to sacrifice the feelings of small business to build up false hopes. That is what this is about - building up false hopes and then undermining those false hopes.
Following my discussion with Ms Szuty, we are not prepared to allow the Liberals to build up false hopes just so that they can give Mr Stefaniak and the person they have standing for Fraser the opportunity to give small business some indication that they might in some way be better off under a Liberal Federal government. Maybe they will and maybe they will not; but, giving this tool to the Liberals, which would in so many ways build up those false hopes and then undermine them, would be entirely inappropriate. For that reason in particular, Madam Speaker, I think it is appropriate that we consider this matter urgent, and that we protect small business by dealing with it today.
MR HUMPHRIES (11.17): We have heard it all now: The Liberals might convince people. That is a reason not to consider legislation. Consider the precedent you are setting, Mr Moore - through you, Madam Speaker. You do not think the Bill is going to get through. You know that it is not going to get through because you know which way you are going to vote. You know what is going to happen to the Bill, but you do not want it to lie on the table because it might get people's hopes up. Some people in this community who have spoken to you and to Ms Szuty and others and who believe that what has happened with this Bill is the wrong decision for this Territory might be spending some time trying to get their point of view across to you and to Ms Szuty and to this Government. You do not want them to have that time, do you? You want to knock them off before they have a chance to make their point of view known to the Government and to you lot, and you cannot stand the pressure. That is the answer. You cannot stand the pressure.
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