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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (25 February) . . Page.. 372 ..

MR BERRY: Mr Kaine, in his newfound hat of Industrial Relations Minister, has to work out that before you open your mouth you have to do a bit of research. The first thing you have to do is have a look at a couple of the decisions in relation to it. The Industrial Relations Commission made it pretty clear that it is the role of this legislature to decide what the public holidays will be.

Mr Speaker, I am quite proud to stand in this place and act decisively to protect the union picnic day, to ensure that my constituents in the community are protected. I am pleased now that this Government has declared its position, because we will be able to advertise that this Government has kept another secret under its hat. They intend to attack holidays out in the community.

Mr Kaine: We do not intend to attack anything.

MR BERRY: Vote with me, Mr Kaine, if you do not intend to attack anything. In that way we will have the holiday in place.

Mr Kaine: I will defend my position without attacking anybody. The only person I will attack is you.

MR BERRY: There you go. Mr Kaine wants to attack the man, not talk about the issue. He says he will attack me. What we need to do is deal with the issue here, and the Liberals at least have kept their heads down. On Sunday, Mr Kaine did not want to say anything about it because he did not know enough about the issue. You seem full of information now, but you are a bit short on substance because you have not read the decisions. I suggest that you go away and do it; you would be better informed as a result. I know that the phones will be ringing in the Liberal Party office from their various employer friends, who would attack these conditions. Mind you, there is a strong group of employers out there who do not like this because they believe that it was reached by agreement and ought to stand. Once the precedent is set, people get on the bandwagon and go after these conditions because they think it is quite fashionable to do so.

I do not make any pretence about my position. I came here as a Labor politician to advance the position of workers and the community generally. I did not come here to undermine wages and working conditions, as did the Liberals. They really and truly believe that by attacking workers they can make it good for everybody. As I said a little while ago, the best way to deal with the issue is to examine your conscience. You will soon find out who is the cause of the recession we have here in the ACT. The first cause was Mrs Carnell. She was the one who started to bring the economy down - - -

MR SPEAKER: Relevance, Mr Berry. We are talking about a picnic day, not about a recession, as I understand it.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, it might cause you Liberals to twitch, but your leader is the one who put this Territory on the slippery slide, and John Howard came along with a pot of grease. He is the one who put this Territory on the slippery slide downhill. He is the one who is causing the most difficulty for small businesses out there.

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