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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 2917 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

appropriate for a Minister to be involved in an early stage at those meetings but that you thought that it was appropriate at the final stage. It was my impression from a quite long way back that the unions were interested in talking to you, Mr De Domenico - through you, Mr Speaker - and you were not available. I guess that the feeling is that you were not willing to be discussing these issues with the unions. Why it is suddenly appropriate is obviously more to do with how desperate the situation got.

I think that this is a matter of public importance. I do not think that it is a fizzer, or whatever you said it was. I think that a lot of people in the ACT have been very badly shocked by the measures that you introduced last week. I think that it is just as well that you pulled back from them.

MR CONNOLLY (4.59): Ms Tucker's closing remarks about the community of Canberra being quite shocked at where this Government had brought us in industrial relations are very relevant to the matter that we are debating today. The people of Canberra have probably got used to Mr De Domenico's bellicose style in relation to industrial relations and union matters. It is a carry-over from when he was in opposition. He has this tough macho rhetoric: "Let us have a fight with the unions; let us get stuck into it".

Debate interrupted.

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 5.00 pm, I propose the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mr De Domenico: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

Debate resumed.

MR CONNOLLY: The people of Canberra probably got pretty used to Mr De Domenico's rhetoric and tended, I suspect, not to pay much attention to it. How shocked people must have been when they unrolled their Canberra Times on Saturday morning to see a headline "Showdown: Govt lockout looms". What state of affairs have we got to in this Territory when the Government is threatening a lockout of its work force? What state of affairs have we reached when public servants are getting messages through their e-mail threatening them with dire consequences if they dare to take part in what have generally been regarded quite properly as their legitimate industrial

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