Page 3504 - Week 11 - Thursday, 14 October 1993
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Once again, I believe that there are certain members of that Economic Priorities Advisory Committee who are very concerned because, notwithstanding all the recommendations put forward by that committee, very little has been done by this Government.
So in every respect this Government has failed to do its job. It has failed to do its duty. It adopts the scatter gun approach, plucks figures out of the air - $17m for a voluntary separation scheme or voluntary divorce scheme; call it what you will - and does not talk to anyone. Is it any wonder that it goes to the Industrial Relations Commission, and gets chucked out by the commission? Is it any wonder that for the first time in living memory the Liberal Party in the ACT and the trade union movement are speaking with one voice? They are saying, "Hey, listen. You have spoken to nobody. You have targeted nothing. You have put in place various aspects of voluntary separation schemes and done various things through the Industrial Relations Commission. You have sent in a Minister who has approved things through Cabinet, not realising that what the Cabinet has just approved goes against what you have negotiated with the trade union movement". That is a wonderful way of handling industrial relations! No wonder the teachers are concerned; no wonder the nurses are concerned; no wonder the trade unions are concerned; no wonder the Opposition is concerned.
It seems that the only people who are not concerned are the Government. Who will forget that wonderful interview on the Matthew Abraham show after the Industrial Relations Commission made its finding? Mr Berry was asked, "What are you going to do about it?". Mr Berry said, "Oh, well, I am going to have to read the decision first before I make up my mind". Everybody in town could have given Mr Berry a copy of the decision. Everybody else knew about it, but the Minister for Industrial Relations did not have a clue. It was like punching junket. This Government has failed in all respects. It is too gutless to make decisions. It leaves all the decisions to be made by the public service because it just simply does not know what it wants to do. When it does make a decision it is usually the wrong decision, as this one has been proven to be.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.29): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I point out before I start that Mr De Domenico has attempted to mislead the Assembly in his reference to Mr Berry's response on the Matthew Abraham show about the Industrial Relations Commission's decision. Mr Berry said, absolutely correctly, that the Government needed to see the reasons for the decision. If Mr De Domenico had read the decision he would have seen that the commissioner specifically offered to provide reasons. The Government therefore took up the commissioner on that offer. At this point, of course, we have not yet received those reasons. I think it is shameful for Mr De Domenico to try to score a cheap point such as that, when in fact the basis of his point scoring is absolutely untruthful.
The Opposition has raised this matter of public importance and alleged that we have not targeted the voluntary separation scheme. The Opposition quite clearly does not understand the budget strategy; nor indeed do they understand - - -
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