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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (25 February) . . Page.. 366 ..

MR MOORE: I hear them trying to interject. I shall sit down so that they have another couple of minutes to make any further comments. It seems to me that there is a very good reason to suspend standing orders now and let Mr Berry introduce the legislation so that we have as long as possible to look in detail at the legislation, which I have been fortunate enough to have had a look at because Mr Berry showed it to me.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (11.25): Mr Speaker, this decision was made by the AIRC in January this year. At that stage, did we hear comments from anyone in this Assembly saying that they were planning to pass legislation to overturn it? Even last week in this Assembly - we were sitting last week - did we hear any indication that it was going to happen? The answer is no, Mr Speaker. Mr Berry seeks to suspend standing orders now and bring forward this legislation this week, when those in this Assembly over the last week have been very definite about consultation. They have been very negative about some of the approaches this Government has taken in not talking to the people who will be affected by a piece of legislation. Even today, I understand that the Greens are unhappy about bringing forward a piece of legislation that was tabled last June because they have not spoken to the people who will be affected. The fact is that in this case nobody has been spoken to - not the workers and not the employers. Absolutely nobody has been spoken to. We also have a situation where employers have their two-week rosters in place.

Mr Berry: Ha, ha!

MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry thinks that is funny, Mr Speaker, but it is a reality. If Mr Berry or Mr Moore or anyone else had indicated two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, that they were planning to do this, people in our work force, in small business, would have had an opportunity to put in place contingencies for this to happen. But we found out only on Sunday. Again, people in this place have been very negative about putting legislation on the table and passing it without speaking to the people who will be affected. Those in this place are assuming that employees want the holiday on Monday. We do not know whether they do, because we also know that a very large number of those people do not get to take the holiday anyway, simply because of the unusual nature of the picnic day.

We also know that a number of people are already engaged in enterprise bargains based upon this particular holiday, which is the basis of the AIRC's decision that it can now be a matter for agreement between the parties. Right now, what we are talking about is suspending standing orders to pass a piece of legislation that has not been - - -

Mr Moore: No, to introduce it.

MRS CARNELL: We are suspending standing orders to allow the introduction of legislation on which nobody has been consulted. It is planned to be brought on on Thursday; but nobody in this place really knows what employees, small business people, or anybody else, for that matter, except maybe the unions themselves, think about it. Taking into account comments made by the Greens particularly, how could you possibly support that?

MR SPEAKER: Order! The time for the debate has expired.

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