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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 501 ..

MR SPEAKER: I have upheld the point of order, so if we could get back to the subject it would also help.

MR BERRY: Okay. The issue goes back to whether or not papers are being made available in this place.

MR SPEAKER: That is correct.

MR BERRY: There is a very important issue here. What has happened is that young women have been told by senior managers to put papers in shopping bags and walk them through the picket line. It is not the first time. The cowards over there are not game to try to do it themselves, because they would be pulled up at the picket line.

Mr De Domenico: So it is all right to intimidate?

MR BERRY: No. What they do is use young employees to come over here to the picket lines. It is not the first time this has happened in history. This has been happening for decades. The cowards are not game to do it themselves, so they get young employees to do it. They are being sent over here, instructed to bring important documents over to the Chief Minister, by people who know the significance of a goods and services picket line. That is outrageous from your managers. You people still sit there, barefaced, and refuse to accept any responsibility for what is going on outside. It is all your responsibility, and it is your responsibility that young employees are being directed by more senior employees to carry papers through the picket line because they do not have the guts to do it themselves.

Mr De Domenico: How do you know that?

MR BERRY: Because I have seen it. You have only to look out the window and you see them carrying plastic bags with it in. Do not give me that. You people still will not accept the responsibility for it. I just find you unbelievable.

Mrs Carnell: They want to do their job and they do not want to be harassed.

MR BERRY: Of course, they are instructed by more senior people. In any event, that picket line is your doing. Accept the responsibility for it, get around the negotiating table, stop abusing the unionists.

Mrs Carnell: We are negotiating right now.

MR BERRY: It would do you a lot of good if you shut up in this place and stopped abusing unionists in here. It does not sort out the industrial dispute, with you in here abusing unionists and workers all the time. It is highly unproductive and will get us nowhere. You have been doing it in the newspapers, on the television, on the radio, and you have kept it up. You have caused it out there, so accept the responsibility for it, for heaven's sake.

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