Page 4061 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 24 November 1993
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time ago, was that there would have to be a set of conditions and pay which was less than they were getting at the present time. They have accepted that. Have they asked for more, Madam Chief Minister? Have they asked for the same? If they have not asked for the same and they have not asked for more, they must be asking for less, must they not, logically?
The VMOs are not free of guilt in this debate, let us make that quite clear; but the fact of life is that neither is this Government and neither is this Minister. We cannot accept a resolution of a dispute through this place which somehow argues that the Government is all right and the VMOs are all wrong and that the VMOs must capitulate completely to the Government's position in order to settle this dispute. That is what Mr Berry wants. He says, "Settle the dispute on our terms".
Mr Berry: No.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, yes, yes. He is saying, "Settle this dispute on our terms". The Minister says no. Let me read this motion:
That the Legislative Assembly urge the Visiting Medical Officers -
there is no mention of the Government -
to end their strike in public hospitals and accept arbitration as the means for resolving the current dispute.
That is the Government's position. That and that alone is the Government's position. This motion asks the Assembly to endorse the Government's position fully and to denounce that of the VMOs equally fully. The rhetoric by the Minister in this dispute has not been designed to settle this process. In fact, his rhetoric has been reminiscent of the most inflammatory language of what Mr Berry would probably call the conservatives in putting down strikes in the past. It reminded me of nothing more than the sort of remarks we used to hear from Joh Bjelke-Petersen in denouncing striking electricity workers or people like that.
Mr Lamont: Look what happened in the pilots strike.
MR HUMPHRIES: Possibly, yes, but certainly others denouncing strikes against a conservative government, so-called, elsewhere in Australia: "We will not be held to ransom; these people are intransigent; these people are parasites on the system". That is inflammatory language. It is not designed to settle this dispute - in fact, I would suggest quite the contrary. It is designed to inflame the dispute. It is designed to prolong the dispute. It seems to be a dispute this Government wants to have. It wants it to reach the stage where people are actually going to get hurt, and that is absolutely disgraceful.
It is not the only example of confrontation and a confrontational style within this Government. The nurses, as Mr De Domenico pointed out, are also locked in mortal combat with the Government. The things they have said about this Minister indicate very clearly that the one common denominator in all these industrial confrontations throughout the health system is Mr Wayne Berry, the Minister for Health, the man who pours petrol on a fire, the man who wants to make these disputes go to the point where disaster strikes, where people actually get hurt. That is what Mr Berry is all about, and he has succeeded in reaching that stage.
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