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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (14 December) . . Page.. 3047 ..
MR STEFANIAK (continuing):
Mr Speaker, we have honoured our commitment, which we made before the election, to maintain funding in real terms in the education budget. As I indicated yesterday, there is some $206m - a little bit extra - for this financial year. That involves supplementation of about $7.77m for this financial year. The 3.9 per cent wage increase over the next 30 months is, as is every other bit of expenditure in the education budget, part of that global envelope and will come from that. As the Minister for Industrial Relations said in this Assembly on 5 December last, the Government's agenda is clear, up front, on the table, with no strings attached. Teachers, like other ACT government employees, are not required to make productivity gains in order to fund the proposed 3.9 per cent salary rise to be received over the next 21/2 years, based on a rate of 1.3 per cent per annum.
Those proposals were put on the table to promote discussion of productivity improvements, Mr Speaker, and this is central to the whole concept of enterprise bargaining. Ms McRae, if further pay increases are to be considered we can negotiate what gains in productivity are necessary to offset pay increases of more than 3.9 per cent over the next 21/2 years. That is consistent with the Government's approach right across the system.
MS McRAE: Mr Stefaniak, I think you will have to concede that the Industrial Relations Minister has misled the house. You have just told us about all the productivity gains and the strings attached to the 3.9 per cent. This is the advice the department has given. This is just what you have outlined now. The supplementary question is this: Will you concede that the Industrial Relations Minister has misled this house?
MR STEFANIAK: Really, Mr Speaker, I think the member is being quite ridiculous. I reiterate that I do not think she understands what industrial relations and enterprise bargaining are all about.
MS TUCKER: My question is to you, Mr Speaker. You are getting lots of attention today. I refer you to your refusal to allow Community Aid Abroad to display an exhibition on East Timor in the Assembly exhibition space. What is the justification for this decision? Was it based on the inappropriate remarks made by you in today's Chronicle, which Ms Follett has already alluded to, and do you believe that MLAs should not have a professional interest in international human rights abuse?
MR SPEAKER: No; the decision was taken, having examined what was going to be displayed. Frankly, we understood at first - - -
Ms Follett: You are censoring it as well.
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