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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 10 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 2638 ..


MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, Mrs Carnell continues to squirm because she has been caught out on this issue. I think this Assembly owes the people who work at Jindalee a vote of honesty because they consistently have had honeyed words and honeyed public statements from Mrs Carnell which would indicate to them that they were going to be guaranteed certain conditions, including guaranteed conditions for those casual staff.

Now Mrs Carnell, misleadingly, has tried to implement this caveat of 12 months' employment. That was never implied in any of her public statements because in those days she needed to convince other members in this place to support her motion to sell it. Now that she has convinced those people to support her, Mr Speaker, she must adhere to her promises. None of those workers should be disadvantaged and Mrs Carnell has to come to the party in relation to all of those casual staff. They have to be provided with proper access to jobs of the same order that they have now.

Mrs Carnell: They will be placed; which is no guarantees, and on the casual list. That is what they - - -

MR BERRY: Here she goes. Mrs Carnell comes out with the big lie again. She is at it again. You just cannot help yourself, can you? She says, "We will put them on the casual list". She cannot help herself. More honeyed promises. That means not a damn thing, Mr Speaker. It means they are not guaranteed anything. They will be put on a list of people who might get a possie in some other place.

Ms Follett: On the incompatible list, if you ask me.

MR BERRY: Yes, that is right. You people are the pits. You can imagine it, can't you? "Pick out the incompatible ones. Have a look at them. That is the one from Jindalee. They caused a bit of a stir a little while ago. No chance of them staying on the casual list. If they are, they can stay right at the bottom". No, Mr Speaker, this Chief Minister has to be forced to adhere to her promises. She has to be forced to her publicly stated position in relation to health centres. Continually, before the last election, she supported them. She has to be forced to maintain those ancillary services, like her colleague Mr Humphries, the former Health Minister, was forced to stop the sale of the Kippax Health Centre.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (12.18): Mr Speaker, we are getting used to these stunts every Tuesday of a sitting fortnight or sitting week. All the business on the Assembly agenda is suspended so that we can deal with some ultra urgent motion from the Labor Party on some crucial issue that, apparently, comes up the day before or the day of the meeting. We cannot be told in advance about these debates coming forward. That is probably pretty typical, I suppose. Today's motion, however, is a little bit more cynical than most. The wording of the motion is quite interesting. It calls on the Government to make a number of changes in the structure of Health. It is a wide-ranging motion. Structures of the health centres are affected; Jindalee Nursing Home and so on; ancillary services; and then the motion says:


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