Page 1094 - Week 04 - Thursday, 1 April 1993
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This is, Madam Speaker, a bit of a bodgy approach by the Liberals, because they seek to make something out of what is a normal industrial relations process where decisions of government are forged into industrial agreements. The Government has made a decision in relation to this matter and we will work very hard to forge an agreement which will be long lasting. We know that the overwhelming majority of the union movement in the ACT is committed to the course that we originally adopted and we will not abandon those people who made that early commitment. Neither will we abandon the ETU in their pursuit of an industrial outcome with which they can live. I am confident that we will be able to work our way to a successful agreement, again recognising that conflict is a part of industrial relations; but it is only the Labor Party that can work through it.
MR WESTENDE (4.57): Madam Speaker, the Government's failure to ratify the agreement between ACTEW and its employees is most regrettable. Any employer, whether government or private enterprise, knows that its biggest asset is its employees. Why alienate them? Why not work in "unionism", that very word meaning working together? The incredible situation of the Government's failure to ratify an enterprise agreement in ACTEW is a classic example of a lack of vision and commitment to the future. What we have to realise in this country is that we are moving forward, and in many quarters and on both sides of politics there are attempts to respond to the demands of change.
The very essence of the future of enterprise agreements in this country is employers and employees alike working cooperatively together to achieve productivity improvements and remuneration outcomes tailored to an organisation's particular requirements, including the needs of staff. However, enterprise bargaining is much more than two groups trying to strike the best deal for themselves. It is much wider than this. It is about mobilising and equipping the work force with new vision and hope, not only for themselves but for the future of their children. The ACTU president, Martin Ferguson, was reported in the 3 April 1992 - I emphasise 1992 - edition of Business Review Weekly as saying:
The fact is that enterprise bargaining is not simply about wages and conditions. It is about changing the entire industrial culture at the workplace.
I think what Martin Ferguson was getting at was that we have to get away from the mentality of a confrontationist approach to industrial relations. I have been an employer for 23 years, prior to entering this place, and I have never had an industrial dispute. I realise, as do most employers, whether government or private enterprise, the value of my employees. We have to see the workplace as being a creative environment where employers and employees work in accord to strive for improvements in productivity and efficiency for the betterment of both the employer and the employee. As the previous Federal Minister for Industrial Relations, Senator Cook, said in reference to progress with workplace bargaining in the Australian Public Service:
What we are doing here is opening the door to the imagination of public servants and their departmental heads to come up with ways in which they can make their agency more efficient and get a reward out of doing so.
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