Page 1203 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
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LABOUR MINISTERS CONFERENCE
Ministerial Statement
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement in relation to the conference of Commonwealth, State and Territory Labour Ministers.
Leave granted.
MR BERRY: I would like to report to the Assembly on the conference of Commonwealth, State and Territory Labour Ministers which was held in Brisbane since the Assembly last met. It was held on 30 April and I represented the ACT Government. A number of issues were debated in which the ACT has a significant interest. These included wages policy, the legislation framework, occupational health and safety, and workers compensation.
Assembly members will be aware that there is general acceptance that national wages policy needs to be developed to promote an effective system of enterprise bargaining. At the national level the Keating Labor Government has continued the historic accord process with the ACTU. Before the Federal election accord mark VII was released, covering the three-year period 1993-1996, with the objectives of promoting sustainable employment growth, securing low inflation, reducing unemployment and enhancing international competitiveness. Madam Speaker, after the Keating Government's victory in the election, the Prime Minister, in his speech to the Institute of Directors on 21 April 1993, recommitted his Government to the accord with the trade union movement and outlined a model by which the shared objectives of accord mark VII could be brought into effect. The Commonwealth Government intends to prepare a legislation package to meet that timetable.
The new Federal Industrial Relations Minister, Mr Laurie Brereton, has already embarked on a round of consultations with employers and the employees and their unions, with the Industrial Relations Commission and with academics and experts, to find solutions to the problems of balancing more decentralised wage bargaining processes with the provision of appropriate minimum standards and providing an appropriate role for the Industrial Relations Commission. The Prime Minister and the Federal Minister for Industrial Relations are fully conscious of the need also to consult with States and Territories. Accordingly, Madam Speaker, the conference of Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers in Brisbane was of great significance in terms of the future of employment, industrial relations and wages policy for Australia over the next several years, as Mr De Domenico would agree, in stark contrast to his leader, of course.
Madam Speaker, it was gratifying that there was a broad consensus among the Ministers in Brisbane representing a range of political views. There is general support for efforts to speed up the decentralisation of wages and conditions bargaining, on the one hand, to improve productivity and efficiency and, on the other hand, to give workers real input into the decision making process at the level of the individual plant or firm. There was also agreement about the desirability of appropriate minimum standards to apply to underpin the
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