Page 777 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
It is as if the Federal Government is waiting with bated breath until Mr Berry says, "Yes, you can go ahead and do it", for them to act. Mr Berry has told us on numerous occasions in this Assembly, and I agree with him, that most awards in the ACT are Federal awards and that the Federal Government does not need to wait for the ACT, although it might want to make sure that everybody is in agreement. Mr Berry's statement went on to say, and this is the humdinger of the whole lot:
... achievement of mutual recognition in occupational health and safety through national uniform outcomes by the end of 1993.
This Assembly has often heard me and other members speak about this issue. Here is Mr Berry saying that he is looking forward to uniform standards in occupational health and safety legislation. What is one of the only jurisdictions that seem to defy all that? The ACT. I have said before, and I will keep saying it until Mr Berry makes good his words, that the ACT is the one out. We are an island in the middle of New South Wales and we do not have uniform standards. It is up to Mr Berry to change that. He went on to say:
... in the meeting ... good progress towards this objective was reported. The National Occupational Health and Safety Commission is well advanced in seeking to achieve harmonisation of existing standards.
Fine words! Mr Berry also said that a report was presented on work towards developing legislative consistency in the field of occupational health and safety. Mr Berry might suggest once again, as he does all the time, that we are waiting for everybody else to come up or down to our standards; we are not waiting for the world, we are up there two-and-a-half steps ahead of everybody else. Unbeknown to Mr Berry, quite obviously, because the theory of public consultation is something he does not believe in, nobody in the private sector or anywhere else agrees with Mr Berry. What Mr Berry says about that is interesting, if you read his words carefully:
I am pleased also to report that the modern occupational health and safety legislation put in place by the first Follett Government ...
That is an interesting observation. In fact, the legislation that was put in place by the first Follett Labor Government fitted in with those uniform standards. As we all know, that first Follett Labor Government put in place legislation which made a designated work group of 20 and not 10, as it is now. So, while Mr Berry was waxing lyrical about the great works done by the first Follett Labor Government, and I was one of those people who agreed with that legislation that put the number of 20, because it coincided with what New South Wales was doing - - -
Mr Berry: No, it did not.
MR DE DOMENICO: Yes, it did. It is the same, Mr Berry. It is 20 now in New South Wales; it was 20 in the ACT until you changed it to 10. There is no denying that, and that is why you referred to the first Follett Labor Government. You did not go on to say what the second Follett Labor Government did. To remind you, we spoke today about unemployment and youth unemployment in particular. In fact, Mr Berry targeted those very industries that he now
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .