Page 420 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 1993
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MR HUMPHRIES: She has not asked me to withdraw it. Madam Speaker, another lie: The Liberal Party intends to return to the mores of the 1930s, of The Grapes of Wrath; that is a complete and utter lie. The Liberal Party intends to remove the safety net from behind workers, to remove minimum pay and conditions; that is another blatant lie. All those things are lies, and all those things, Madam Speaker, need to be put to rest immediately. The fact of life is that we have proposed, in a Federal context - this has been raised, so I refer to it - to reform industrial relations to give workers in this country the flexibility to deal with their own workplace conditions. What is wrong with that? Absolutely nothing.
This issue before us today is not about Federal politics; it is about the situation of industrial relations in the ACT and, in particular, occupational health and safety standards in this Territory. Mr Berry, as Mr De Domenico has pointed out, made it very clear that he believed in consistent standards across the whole of Australia, that we should remove barriers to national uniformity. That is what he said in his media statement; it is here in black and white. If the conditions that operate on workers are not affected by workplace committees, why do we have those committees in the first place? Clearly, these sorts of standards impact very differently in small workplaces and large workplaces. There is a very relevant difference there. Therefore the question of uniformity between other States and the ACT is a very real issue.
On the basis of Mr Berry's statements that we should be aiming for uniformity, Mr De Domenico has accepted on face value - perhaps a little foolishly - what Mr Berry had to say and has brought forward a Bill to create an important measure of uniformity between the ACT and other States. Yet we hear those opposite say that this is a stunt. The fact of life is that we are about trying to create in the ACT a system which is practical and consistent. It is neither of those things. Another lie, by the way, is that employers in this Territory supported these changes to occupational health and safety laws in October - another blatant and outright lie. The fact of life is that employers in this Territory are deeply unhappy with those changes, and this Bill is an attempt to bring those changes back into line with the expectations of our industry and, indeed, the practices of other employers and other workplaces across Australia. What could be wrong with that?
MS SZUTY (11.53): Madam Speaker, I wish to speak very briefly to this Bill proposed today by Mr De Domenico. One of the reasons I stood for election to the ACT Legislative Assembly last year was the very real instability of the First ACT Legislative Assembly. In our first three years of self-government in the Territory we had three governments. This instability contributed in no small way to Mr Moore and me declaring our support for Chief Minister Rosemary Follett and for stable government in the ACT for three years.
I believe that stable government also demands consistent decision making. What Mr De Domenico is seeking to do with this repeal Bill is to overturn directly a decision taken by this Assembly only last year, presumably with the expectation that either Mr Moore or I will change our minds with regard to this legislation. As Mr Moore has stated, this is emphatically not the case. I supported the Occupational Health and Safety (Amendment) Bill at the in-principle stage and successfully moved an amendment to bring the Bill into effect from 1 July 1993.
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