Page 4056 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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Anybody who listens to Mr Berry on radio in the morning would believe that that is exactly what is happening - the old arm twisting, even with the nurses. This is not the Liberal Party saying anything; this is the Australian Nursing Federation saying what they think of Mr Berry's credibility: Zilch. They are saying, "Mr Berry, you could not settle a Ludo game. You could not settle anything, mate, because you have archaic ideological bents that prevent you from acting rationally".
Let us go into the history. The contracts for the ACT VMOs were renegotiated in 1987-88, before self-government. Guess who was in power then? Not a Liberal Party government but a Federal Labor government. This was negotiated in 1987-88 under a Federal Labor government. In 1990 the ACT VMO contracts were negotiated with little difficulty and no acrimony. In 1990 perfect negotiations went through, not even involving the then Minister. The Health Department got together with the VMOs - - -
Ms Ellis: He did not act then either.
MR DE DOMENICO: There was no need. It was settled before the Minister got involved. Let us compare that with what we have now. Currently we have no VMOs working. We have the community of the ACT suffering, because this Minister opposite here, gutless, cannot go in eyeball to eyeball to talk to the AMA. He will not do it himself. He will send in the troops, let them do all the arguing for him, and perhaps if it is settled at the end he will stick up his hand, like Mr Hawke used to do in the 1960s and 1970s, and say, "Gee, aren't I good". That is how you handle industrial relations. He goes on radio and calls doctors parasites. That is the way to settle industrial relations disputes, according to this Minister. It is no wonder that we are in the situation we find ourselves in now.
Mrs Carnell quite clearly said what the facts are in New South Wales. Mr Lamont stood up and said, "But what do they do in New South Wales?". They adopt a certain practice in New South Wales because under the New South Wales Hospitals Act that is what they have to do. Quite obviously, Mr Lamont and Mr Berry have not read the contract that was signed by the two parties in 1990. Once again, it is a contract both parties have to abide by. If Mr Berry was concerned about what was happening he would have abided by the contract, and said, "Listen, if you are concerned, let us start talking three months before 20 November". So three months before 20 November, or prior to that date, if Mr Berry was concerned he should have got together with the doctors. He could have settled it by 20 November, as happened in 1990, and we would not have found ourselves in this situation.
Did that happen? Of course it did not happen, because Mr Berry needed a few wins. He needed to try to cut down his overspending of his health budget. How do you do that? Put the jackboots into the visiting medical officers. After all, he considers them to be parasites. He said so on the Matthew Abraham show. This dispute is all about the inability of this Health Minister, of this Industrial Relations Minister, of this Government, to sit down eyeball to eyeball - - -
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