Page 1919 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 June 1994
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Mr Kaine: It is incomprehensible as well.
MR DE DOMENICO: It is incomprehensible legislation that no-one understands. For a start, nobody likes it. Mr Kaine quite rightly said, "Let us have a look at who does not like this legislation". We know that ACTEW does not like it. We know that the Public Sector Union does not like it. We know that certain individual unions do not like it. We know that the Office of the DPP does not like it. We know that the Legal Aid Commission does not like it.
We also know that the Trades and Labour Council does not like it. How do we know that? Last year I can recall a letter from the Trades and Labour Council - from Ms Sheehan, I think - saying to the Chief Minister that in the opinion of the Trades and Labour Council, after they negotiated with the unions, not one union, for example, involved in ACTEW wanted ACTEW to be part of the ACT public service. This is Ms Sheehan writing to the Chief Minister. Once again, on the same road to Damascus, it seems that people have changed their minds between then and now. They have made more moves than Boris Spassky, for heaven's sake. People do not know exactly what they want.
Let us have a look at some of the other issues. We know, for example, that the Chief Minister would dearly love this Bill to be debated and passed tonight. We know that amendments to Federal legislation are going to be made by the Senate. I believe that those amendments are not going to be debated until 26 or 27 June, in a couple of weeks' time. The Federal Parliament is making amendments to its Act - which, quite obviously, are going to have an effect on what we pass here in this place - on 27 June. The Chief Minister, in press articles and on television, is saying, "This is not negotiable. It is the Liberals' fault. They are trying to stall to prevent this thing from happening". I have here a Bill of some 200-odd pages, plus 109 amendments, plus a report from the select committee, plus all sorts of things. But the Bill is not negotiable. It must be passed tonight. The Government is going to do everything this week so that it can get a public service in by 1 July.
In the same breath, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Chief Minister says, "We want a flexible, forward thinking, new public service with all sorts of fantastic things in it". We are not going to get it. We need to take time to make sure that we allow ourselves the opportunity of creating something that can be unique. Let us have a look at what we can create. We have a dual responsibility, and we all know that. We have a State government-style responsibility as well as a municipal responsibility. Have we bothered to talk to some municipal councils about what their views are? I dare say that the answer to that is: Probably not. The Tourism Committee has been to Brisbane and talked to the Brisbane City Council. But has the Public Service Committee had a chance to really look into some of the questions that it needs to ask itself?
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