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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 526 ..

HOLIDAYS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1997

Debate resumed from 25 February 1997, on motion by Mr Berry:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR KAINE (Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Industrial Relations) (11.18): Mr Speaker, I find it quite strange that the Assembly is being asked to debate such legislation under the circumstances that are being forced upon us. There are two reasons. I am a bit surprised at one. The first is that Mr Berry and the Labor Party seem to have departed totally from their previous approach to decisions by the Industrial Relations Commission and now seek to take a different view. I think it needs to be put on record that this is a major departure by the Labor Party from their attitude towards this commission. I need do no more than quote several extracts from Hansard over the last couple of years on this matter. On 17 April 1996, Ms McRae made an impassioned plea to this Assembly to "let the independent umpire decide".

Ms McRae: I was not talking about the commission. Do not misquote me.

MR KAINE: Yes, you were. The debate had to do with the Industrial Relations Commission and you exhorted the Government to "let the independent umpire decide".

Mr Berry: Trevor, go to the substance of the issue. Do not waste time on rhetoric.

MR KAINE: I am dealing with the substance, Mr Berry.

Ms McRae: If you are talking about me, you are not.

MR KAINE: It reflects the attitude of the Labor Party, long established, to the Industrial Relations Commission. On 20 February 1996 no less a person than Ms Follett criticised the Liberal Party because the Liberal Party, she said, was going to take the umpire out of the equation. In other words, the Labor Party supported the umpire and the Liberal Party was trying to take the umpire out of the equation; therefore, that was reprehensible. Mr Whitecross, on 15 May 1996, said:

It is the Liberal Party that wants the Industrial Relations Commission taken out of the equation ... That is the Liberals' agenda, and that is why the Liberals want to take the umpire out of the equation.

I am quoting these because they express the longstanding attitude of the Labor Party towards the Industrial Relations Commission. Mr Berry, on 27 February last year, on the issue of rosters for nurses, said:

We were supportive of the umpire, of course, which has not been the case with this Government. It was the umpire who was supported by the Australian Labor Party, and it will ever continue to be so.

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