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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2404 ..

MR BERRY: The undertaking that I am looking for is that unions will have the same rights of distribution on the Internet as your managers. Give it.

Mrs Carnell: They can have the same access as I do as Chief Minister.

MR BERRY: No, you will not give it.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry, you have the floor. Mrs Carnell does not. She will have the opportunity to respond in due course. Stop provoking her.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell needs no provocation to run off at the mouth. Mr Speaker, that issue is very clear in relation to industrial relations management.

We also have a question within the Chief Minister's Department about the way that occupational health and safety is dealt with. We have seen a very serious attack - I think I can describe it as that - on the management of occupational health and the emphasis on occupation health and safety within her department. We saw something like a 30 per cent cut in the people who work in her department in relation to these matters. That flows through into the provision of occupational health and safety protection for workers out there in the workplace. The Liberals have long been opponents of progressive occupational health and safety laws each time that occupational health and safety laws have been introduced in this Assembly. They have been questioned by the Liberals and watered down wherever possible; and opposed, wherever possible, when it came to strengthening the rights of workers out there in the workplace to appropriate protection. I think that philosophy prevails loud and long within the Chief Minister's Department. I think the budget as it stands does nothing to strengthen the leaps forward which were made in 1989 when the Occupational Health and Safety Act was introduced here in the ACT.

Mrs Carnell often has trumpeted her support for the women's movement. I note that she was one who was welcoming participants to the National Women's Health Conference. A circular which came to me pointed out some of the other roles which Mrs Carnell has had in women's health. Of course, this goes back to the Chief Minister's Department. I think everybody has a right to know about this. Since Mrs Carnell came to power on 18 February she has made a range of cuts to ACT services. We go back to the Liberals in 1989 when Mr Stefaniak was the mover and shaker in relation to the reduction of the budget in relation to women's services. So it is still there; the same old ideology still peeps through. The abortion counselling service, the pregnancy advisory service and the pregnancy support service, according to this publication, were defunded. Funding will be available for one service, and it has been put out to tender.

The Canberra women's health centre counselling service was defunded. Access for women to health centres is a most important issue, particularly women who are unable to afford private sector medical services. The salaried medical service has been cut and Mrs Carnell plans to sell some health centres. That is particularly relevant in my electorate. Salaried doctors at the Melba Health Centre provided a valued service to the community for many years.

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