Page 2304 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 June 1994
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The third reason why this Bill should be deferred, Madam Speaker, is that the Government is not yet clear on what it wants to do. I found in my letterbox over the weekend a wad of paper from the Government. It was their amendments. There was a covering note that said, "There are further amendments which will be presented to you on Monday". Today is Wednesday and I have not seen those amendments. So the Government has not even delivered on what it told me on Saturday that it intended to deliver. Where are the amendments that it said were still under consideration and which I would have on Monday? These affect, very considerably, the interests of our public servants, because I understand that they deal with the Commonwealth Public Service Act section 50 transfers, which have been a major bone of contention with the trade unions right from the beginning. We do not have those amendments.
Furthermore, I was told by telephone only yesterday that the Government was changing its approach in connection with the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Legal Aid Commission. For them to do so would require amendments further to the ones that have been tabled already. I do not have those amendments. I do not know, as of this moment, what the Government's intentions are in connection with the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Legal Aid Commission. I do not know what the Government's intentions are in connection with the controversial issue of section 50 transfers under the Commonwealth Public Service Act.
There are those three matters. How many other issues are there that the Government has not sorted out yet and has not even told us about? Presumably, they are just sitting on them in the hope that after this Bill is put into place they will be able to fix any problems that surface. In connection with another matter, the report of the select committee, which the Government so arbitrarily rejected last week, expressed some concerns on behalf of the ACT Electricity and Water Authority. I understand that there have been negotiations with the professional officers of the ACT Electricity and Water Authority and that some agreement has been reached. But what is the nature of the agreement? I do not know. Since their concerns were properly expressed to a select committee of this Assembly whose report was arbitrarily set aside by the Government, just what arrangement have they made? Are these professional officers of the ACT Electricity and Water Authority satisfied with the outcome? The Government has an obligation to tell us, since they arbitrarily set aside the recommendations of the select committee.
There are major issues here that have yet to be resolved as matters of principle. The Government, if it had any decency at all, would resolve them before it expects this Assembly to go ahead and debate the Bill. Madam Speaker, I believe that the Government is not acting in good faith on this matter. It has set its mind on a target and it is determined to achieve that target no matter what - no matter whose interests are overridden; no matter whether we are creating a second-rate public service when we have the opportunity to create the best, the most proficient and the most efficient public service in Australia. They expect us to come here today with some sort of good faith.
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