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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 16 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Let us look at the list again. The first step was to lay a meagre wage claim on the unions and say, "Involved in this are compulsory redundancies". For that read "sackings; fewer members, fewer workers". At this point we have Mr Houlihan involved. He is the maestro of advice on the matter. Then we get lockouts. This is a conciliatory government! It says, "We are going to lock them out; we will lock them out. If they disagree with us we will lock them out". Mr De Domenico swaggers out, saying, "We will lock them out". "Lock them out, Louie". That is a great help in the debate! By the way, those lockout threats are still in place.

Mrs Carnell: No; the section 170 notifications are still in place.

MR BERRY: No; the lockouts are still in place. They have never been removed; they are still threatening.

Mrs Carnell: But they cannot be, because the section 170 notifications are there.

MR BERRY: Why do you not withdraw it? Mrs Carnell takes over. Then she commits the great rates hoax. That could not have been designed to settle people down. Bus drivers, nurses and all the other workers know that it was a lie; they know that the rates base was only 13 per cent of the budget; they know that it has never happened before that wages are transmitted into the rates base - never, not once, not ever! Of course, they know that Mrs Carnell has perpetrated a 4 per cent rates hike this year, when the value of houses has gone down. They know that she is devious; they know that she is dishonest; and they are not going to accept that. Of course, it just drives them further apart.

There were more false claims that patients were in danger. That notion was defeated; she was wiped out in the Industrial Relations Commission on this. She described unionists as "stupid". Mrs Carnell, they are not stupid. They are a wake-up to you. What you have to do, of course, is step back a bit; climb down off your high horse; forget your ego; forget the Federal election; and worry about the community here in the ACT. These workers are people on $23,000 or $25,000 a year. How are they going to respond when they see that you have given an extra $40,000 to Mr Walker? He did not have to apply for his job. Will you give us the list of his productivity improvements? What productivity improvements did he make? Not many, I would suggest. Who decided? You decided it by yourself. There was no independent arbitrator involved. The workers are greedy; the workers are thugs. The classic line is, "If you do not agree with me I will discount your pay rise for the cost of the dispute which I have provoked".

Mrs Carnell: Yes, because it is costing the community.

MR BERRY: You should pay, because you are the one that provoked it; you are the one that called the workers greedy; you are the one that called the workers thugs; you are the one that went after their payroll deductions; you are the one that threatened to discount the pay rise because the workers disagreed; you are the one that has to take responsibility; you are the one that has performed badly; you are the one that deserves to be censured.

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