Page 1207 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
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Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, Mr De Domenico ought to agree with me and say, "Mr Berry is being very truthful because what he is telling us now is exactly what the Follett Government set out to do in 1989, and it continued with the process when it came to government again this last time". We have said that we will improve occupational health and safety for the work force, and we will work very hard to make sure that every worker in the ACT has the right to come home in as good condition as that in which he went to work. We will continue to do that. Our occupational health and safety legislation, with its designated work groups and the framework of cooperation which we have set in place - which a Labor government has set in place - will ensure that that is delivered. We have said that we will deliver on harmonious standards which are established by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission. Worksafe Australia was one of the target areas of the Liberals in the last Federal election. They were going to do it over, get rid of it.
Who is this person over here, Tony De Domenico, who argues that safety standards for workers in the ACT should go down, that insurance costs and injuries should go up and the viability of business should go down the gurgler? Mr De Domenico also laboured on the issue of the Government's approach to - - -
Mr De Domenico: I have never laboured in my life, let me tell you.
MR BERRY: That is right; you would not work in an iron lung. This Government has consistently taken an all-of-government approach when it comes to wages. We gave that commitment to the workers of the ACT when we put in place our framework agreement. We will stand by that commitment. We have it in place now and it will survive. Workers out there who have signed up for that framework agreement have the money jingling in their pockets, Mr De Domenico - just like the little knives in yours.
Our approach to workers in the ACT has been consistent, and we will continue with our approach. We are about providing satisfactory wages for all ACT workers. We will not embark on a system of exploitation which has been proposed by the Liberals in the past. You cannot hide what you stood behind just by electing a new leader or doing an old one over; you cannot change your clothing. You are the people who have exploitation of workers as your policy. You set out to set up workplace arrangements where the weaker will go under but the strong will survive. The strong will always survive. What the Liberals set out to do was to exploit the weaker ones in their industrial relations system. I expect that these days, now that they have been well and truly done over, we will hear less and less of that policy as they dress up the new facade of the Liberals. But it will shatter again, as it always does; it will shatter again and fall away as it always does.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, our participation in this very important conference enables us to pursue Labor's ideals with the Federal Labor Government which will enhance the opportunities for workers in this country and ensure protection for their wages and working conditions, but at the same time will work on those important issues of unemployment, international competitiveness, and, of course, those areas of occupational health and safety and workers compensation which I have already spoken about. We said to the ACT Government Service that we would mirror their wages agreement and we are not going to contract out their workers compensation.
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