Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 57 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

You do not need to be a Rhodes scholar, Mr Speaker. It goes on:

(2) deplores the confrontationist approach taken by the Carnell Government in the current industrial relations dispute;

I suppose there are some grounds to agree with that, but I do not think either side has been innocent in this regard. However, there is perhaps something in that. I think the withdrawal of some of the money last week was a little confrontationist, but I am not the Government. I cannot do anything about money. Paragraph (3) states:

censures the Chief Minister and the Minister for Industrial Relations for their failure to negotiate -

here is the good one -

in good faith in an attempt to come to a settlement of this dispute.

We could stand here and debate for three days and both sides - the unions and the Government - are going to claim that they have been negotiating in good faith. I cannot judge whether or not the Chief Minister or the Minister for Industrial Relations has acted in good faith. Certainly, there has been no enterprise bargaining agreement, which is unfortunate; but these negotiations started only eight months ago. I was not around last time; but the Labor Government took 18 months to come to the previous agreement, so eight months is certainly not in that league. I cannot support this motion when I am asked to vote on good faith.

In relation to Ms Tucker's amendment, as I said before, I have no problem with unions trying to get the best deal they can for their workers. That is their job. Unfortunately, we have a Liberal government in here at the moment and perhaps the unions do not have quite the sway they once had, but that is a fact of life. I personally do not like strikes, but I am not condemning any union that feels it needs to go to that length. Unfortunately, it is the general public who suffer when there is strike action. Nevertheless, I am not going to hold that against the unions.

I do not think asking the unions to withdraw six work bans is asking a lot. I listened to the radio this morning - some members of the TWU are here - and I heard Mr Santi say that he has not had the chance to go to his members to ask them about it. I believe that a vote was taken which he could not overturn. I personally think that, with 106 bans in place, removing six is not a lot. All I ask is that both sides come together and try to resolve it. The longer it goes on the more people are getting hurt.

Mr Berry: And you are not going to do anything about it?

MR OSBORNE: I cannot do anything about it, Wayne.

Mr Berry: Yes, you can. All you have to do is vote for this.

MR OSBORNE: I cannot do anything about money. I cannot tell the Government how to spend money, and this whole dispute is about a 9 per cent increase.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .