Page 1498 - Week 05 - Thursday, 12 May 1994
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MR BERRY: Well, the sporting sanctions. Mrs Thatcher, of Great Britain, was one of the great supporters of apartheid.
Mr De Domenico: Did Mrs Thatcher live in Australia?
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr De Domenico, I remind you of a point of order that Mr Kaine took in regard to Mr Lamont. Order!
MR BERRY: Where were you, Mr De Domenico, when collectivism was at work to ensure that change would happen in South Africa? You were not up there at the South African Embassy. No, no. You were howling about it. The Liberals will always oppose collectivism because it gives individuals some strength out of the unity of purpose of groups of people pursuing a particular calling. These same old howls occurred in the 1850s when the eight-hour day came along in Victoria. Newspapers editorialised that the country was about to collapse into a great heap because of the achievements of the trade union movement. They howled about unlawful behaviour. They said that there was outrageous behaviour on building sites which earned these new and important advances for working people. Of course the conservatives howled then.
They howled again in the lead-up to the formation of the Australian Labor Party towards the end of the century, in 1891. They howled about collectivism. Of course, they howled again when Justice Higgins came down with that very important Harvester judgment which ensured that working people and their families would receive enough income to keep them well and secure, and keep them under a roof. I do not expect that they will ever stop howling, but it would be nice if there was not so much hypocrisy.
Why is it that they howl about the broader trade union movement? We heard no howls when the AMA were taking action against the community in the ACT with the same collective approach. There were no howls when the wealthy doctors were taking it out on the community and sending the sick and injured interstate. There were no howls, because that union represents the well off and they would not want to upset that particular group. Out there in the medical profession there are a lot of people who do not belong to the AMA, and would not belong to it. There are a lot of people who do not agree with what the AMA gets up to. At the same time there was not one sound from the Liberals opposite when they could have condemned those actions.
Mrs Carnell: We did.
MR BERRY: Ask Mrs Carnell from the Pharmacy Guild about the ring-around.
Mrs Carnell: What about it? Come on. Put it on the record.
MR BERRY: What about it? Tell us about how you judge prospective employees in the various pharmacies and report to each other on that score.
Mrs Carnell: I know nothing about that.
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