Page 4717 - Week 15 - Thursday, 16 December 1993
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MR DE DOMENICO (12.31), in reply: I thank most members for their support. May I very quickly respond once again to Mr Berry's statement that this Bill is a stunt. I suggest through you, Madam Speaker, that, with any motion, piece of legislation or amendment brought into this Assembly as early as June this year, Mr Berry has been given a chance by this Assembly to do something about it - - -
Mr Berry: I did not bring any legislation in.
MR DE DOMENICO: I did.
Mr Berry: You did.
MR DE DOMENICO: Yes, I did. If Mr Berry is given a chance in good faith by this Assembly to do something about it and then does nothing about it, how can he and the Government he represents then expect this Assembly to support them? In no way known can they? How can Mr Berry continue to talk about stunts, continue to play the man on this issue and still expect this Assembly to support him? I ask how he can be supported when, in a letter to him dated 22 September this year, the chairman of the Long Service Leave Board stated:
In accordance with section 37(3) of the Long Service Leave (Building and Construction Industry) Act, the board recommends that you adopt a levy on employees' wages at 1 per cent with effect from 1 July 1992.
This is what the chairman of the board has recommended to Mr Berry for the sixth time, I believe. He recommended as far back as 1991 that Mr Berry should have reduced the levy to one per cent. How can it be a stunt, Mr Berry, in the light of the recommendations that you have been receiving, not just from the chairman of your board but in three consecutive reports of the independent actuary, who also happened to be the Commonwealth Actuary at one stage? The chairman of your board and three actuarial reports all say the same thing. The Auditor-General of the ACT Government says the same thing, and the industry says the same thing. How can that be classified as a political stunt? It is not a political stunt.
Mr Moore, Ms Szuty and Mr Stevenson quite eloquently said that you have had enough time to do what you said to the Assembly that you would do. Time is up. The Assembly will now make sure that what this Assembly decided ought to happen will happen. I commend the members who have spoken for their support for this Bill.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport): I seek leave to make a short response, Madam Speaker.
Leave granted.
MR BERRY: Mr De Domenico asked the question yet again. I can tell him why we can delay this. We are going to do it properly and not half-baked. That is the issue that does not seem to have sunk into his head so far. We accept that there will be a need for change. It will be based on a properly calculated outcome in the best interests of the industry and with the entire net in place to look after the training needs of workers in the industry. There has been no effort by you to do any of the other legislation which is required to supplement this Bill. This Bill is half-baked. It deals with only one part of the formula and it makes you look silly - - -
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