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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (21 February) . . Page.. 105 ..

Mr Berry: We are safe. It is only the gallery that gets the house closed now.

MR SPEAKER: Order! That may not always be the case.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, this offer was made in very good faith and I hope that it will be considered by all the teachers and, of course, by the teachers union. It is an example of what can be achieved on an agency-specific basis, which was the Government's original approach to enterprise bargaining. By contrast, the approach demanded by the Trades and Labour Council involving government-wide negotiations has only led up blind alleys. I think you only had to look outside this building this morning to see what happens when you go down that path.

I would like to acknowledge the role played by Mr Moore in acting as a circuit-breaker with regard to this revised offer to teachers. I note that Mr Moore has been vilified this morning by many senior union officials. It is worth noting that these are the same union officials who publicly claim that they want to negotiate, yet when somebody puts forward a proposal that could lead to progress they are condemned. It is yet again proof that there is very little willingness on behalf of the Trades and Labour Council to enter into good faith negotiations. They are unable to deliver just six of the over 100 bans that are in place for talks to be able to go ahead on Monday.

Having reached a deadlock with the TLC, the Government will be pursuing negotiations with individual unions. With regard to the teachers, the offer put last night is a significant offer. It is worth $60 a week on average and involves no increases in class sizes and no reduction in teacher numbers. I would urge the Australian Education Union to consider what is best for their members, the teachers, rather than being dictated to by the Trades and Labour Council. I was fascinated this morning to hear Mr Pyner knock back this offer on behalf of the teachers. The reality is that an offer of $60 a week is a major offer. Mr Haggar has said quite definitely in a note to all teachers today that it is a significant offer, that it is worth considering, and that the decision will be made by teachers, and that is exactly what should happen - unlike what Jeremy Pyner tried to do this morning, knocking it back on behalf of other people.

The problem we have had all the way through this dispute is the domination of the TLC, it being unwilling to allow the people down on the ground, the people who will be affected by this, to make decisions about their own workplace. That is what we are after here.

Mr Berry: This is the good old Liberal rhetoric. This is the old H.R. Nicholls Society.

Mr De Domenico: It is called commonsense.

MRS CARNELL: It is called looking after workers and letting them have a say in their workplace.

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