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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 55 ..

MR BERRY: Action any time. I can say to you, Mr Moore, that the teachers are going to be terribly disappointed with your performance if you persist in failing to support this censure motion. They have joined with the rest of the union movement to fight this Government and you cannot leave them out of it.

Mrs Carnell: So that is what he is doing here, fighting the Government, not working for the - - -

Mr De Domenico: Attack the bosses.

MR BERRY: You have to fight. If you do not - - -

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry has the floor.

MR BERRY: If you fold in front of this conservative Government opposite you lose, so you have to fight. It is as simple as that. The teachers have clearly joined with the other unions because they know that divided they would find themselves in a spot of bother, and that is exactly what the Government wants.

Mr Moore, I say to you that I think this is a censure motion that is worth supporting. It is about the performance of a government that has failed to deal with an industrial question it ought to deal with. It is an industrial question that affects the entire government work force, not just the teachers or other groups; it is an industrial question that has been around for far too long; and it is an industrial question that could easily have been dealt with were it not for the stubbornness, the provocation of Mrs Carnell in particular and of Mr De Domenico. I will whip through the chronology again. We all remember the lockouts.

Mr De Domenico: What lockouts?

MR BERRY: The lockouts that were threatened by this Government have not been withdrawn. The great rates hoax, that dishonest rates hoax, which would have enraged workers in the community; the defeated and discredited claim that patients' lives were in danger; the claim from Mrs Carnell that unionists were stupid; Mr De Domenico describing workers as greedy; Mrs Carnell re-entering the debate, describing workers as thugs and discounting the pay rise because the workers disagreed with her. Those are the issues on which this censure motion must be decided. Mrs Carnell has failed the community of the ACT miserably on the issue of this industrial dispute. She has taken repeated actions aimed at elevating the dispute, and she must be delighted because her actions have been successful. If there are any claims about deliberate action in relation to this issue, they lie with Mrs Carnell.

So far as the amendment is concerned, Mr Speaker, Labor will be supporting the amendment. We believe that our censure motion would have stood on its own because it would have driven the Government back into negotiation with the relevant unions. It is an important issue and it deserves to be supported.

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