Page 1486 - Week 05 - Thursday, 12 May 1994
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This is a letter from their own comrade. This is a letter signed by a Mr Desmond Heaney, the ACT secretary of the Automotive, Food, Metals and Engineering Union. I am talking about the power of the unions and their influence over this Government. I quote from Mr Heaney's letter to Ms Follett, dated 2 February 1994:
Regional Council places a notice that besides notifying a dispute in the AIRC and holding ACT Government R/F members meeting. We will not support at preselection those candidates we believe are not competent for the positions they seek.
Here we have the secretary of a well-respected union saying to the Government, "Unless you do what we tell you, you will not be preselected". There it is.
Let me turn to the last thing I would like to talk about on this MPI, Mr Deputy Speaker. Perhaps it affects members of this Assembly as well. I have been advised of an attempt by an artisan to deliver some work that he was commissioned to do in this Assembly. He was refused entry to this building, to this parliament, unless he could show that he had a union ticket. This person was forced to join a union before being allowed into this place.
Mr Humphries: Is this true?
MR DE DOMENICO: I would like that question to be asked. Is it true? If it is true that this person was refused entry to this parliament, to this house, because he was not a member of the union, what is the Government going to do about it? That is what we would like to know. This person was from interstate, Mr Deputy Speaker. It will be very interesting to know what this Government is going to do about this sort of thing.
Mr Deputy Speaker, they can sit over there and laugh and scoff and do whatever they like; but this Government, these members over on the other side, are in the grasp of the trade union movement in the ACT. They are the laughing-stock of the rest of the country, of even their own party, and we know why. This is all about preselection. This is all about making sure that they get the funding necessary to try to win elections. Put succinctly, I would like answers to the questions. Instead of Mr Lamont jumping up and down, I would like him, in the spirit of this place, to answer the questions that I have asked. Are all the things that I have asked true? Let us hear your contribution.
MR LAMONT (Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Housing and Community Services, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (3.26): It is my turn, is it?
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: If you wish to take the opportunity, Mr Lamont, yes.
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