Page 1596 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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How is the money to be collected under this fund to be spent, and what about the so-called training plan? There is no training plan, as mentioned by the ACT Regional Building and Construction Industry Training Council. There is no plan at all, as such. There is only a collection of principles. There is no blueprint for identifying and accomplishing the task of training quality people. We have seen nothing. The training needs of the industry should continue to be met through conventional means, namely, the group apprenticeship scheme, the oldest and the largest, and the CITF scheme, nationally.
The second reason is that the new levy will impose an additional cost on everyone and anyone having any type of construction work done costing over $5,000. It is just another tax on business, another cost to be added to the building of a house, a shed, a garage or anything else.
Mr Berry: Who wrote this for you - somebody with a Liberal Party ticket burning a hole in their pocket?
MR DE DOMENICO: Once again, I look forward to your informed, intelligent contribution to this debate, Mr Berry. One comment I heard was that any person who puts up a carport, a pergola or a garage costing over $5,000 should be prepared to top that up with an additional cost to train the person putting it up. Should not the person putting it up be trained already? We know that in the ACT, because we have one of the best group apprenticeship schemes in the country, the person who puts up that carport will be the best trained person in the country.
Mrs Grassby: Because we have a Labor government. That is why we have the best. You would not know how to.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mrs Grassby, I am particularly looking forward to your intelligent contribution to this debate. As Mrs Grassby would know, some people do a TAFE course, and pay for it themselves, in order to become very good bricklayers. Why should someone who is prepared to put up their own garage or carport, and is trained to do so, have to pay an additional tax? That is how ludicrous that sort of statement is. That brings me into the area of double dipping. Any original estimate would, obviously, cover any such cost. As I have mentioned before, there is also opposition to the Bill within the industry.
The fourth reason, Madam Speaker, is that this Bill seeks to heavily bureaucratise training in the building and construction industry in the ACT. It is nothing but a bid for power. Let us make no bones about it. There were certain noises made by certain unions, even as late as last Friday in the Canberra Weekly - - -
Mr Berry: Anti-union.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry says, "Anti-union". No, we are not anti-union, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: You are.
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