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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 541 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The other really big issue, of course, in this is small business. We have worked with the Liberal Government to protect small business through trading hours. However, I am extremely disappointed at the inconsistency of this Government when they claim that we do not care about small business because we are putting this picnic day into legislation so that it is guaranteed. The really sad thing about that is that this Liberal Government has refused repeatedly to look at the concentration of ownership in the retail sector. That is where there is a huge underlying problem. This Government has also refused to support reform legislation to look at the huge issues around tenancy for small business. These are underlying structural problems. If you really want to see development of small business in this town - and I agree there are jobs in small business - why do you not make it a consistent approach of the Liberal Party, instead of just picking up one thing?

The picnic day is not going to affect the overall situation for small business in the ACT. We need to be looking at the underlying factors in how the economy is or is not working. I think it is just politically expedient for you to say that this is a major issue. This is a major issue, not for small business but for equity in industrial relations. If you really want to support small business, I am happy to bring up again our Bills which are looking at trying to deal with the concentration within the retail sector and also to reform tenancy legislation which is inequitable to small business.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (12.18): Mr Speaker, I want to make a short contribution to the debate. Obviously, the Bill is going to pass today, but the question needs to be asked whether the passage of the Bill will actually result in the legislation becoming effective. The reality is that employer organisations in the Territory used the Industrial Relations Commission process to reach a conclusion, or what they thought was a conclusion, back in January of this year, on the availability of that twelfth holiday. Having, as they thought, concluded the issue, not having been faced, I understand, with an appeal on that subject, they are now confronted with legislation which is going to pass the house today to supposedly reinstate that holiday, come this following Monday.

Mr Speaker, I have no doubt - I understand they are threatening to do so - that they will actually take the matter to an appropriate court. Whether it is the Federal Court or the Supreme Court, I do not know. Presumably, they will seek some relief against the implementation of this decision. They will have at least a prima facie basis on which to do so, because, as Mr Berry has frequently told us, on industrial matters where awards under Federal legislation govern the general pay and conditions of employees, then the Federal Government's capacity to set rules through agencies such as the Industrial Relations Commission is the process for covering the field and such rules override the jurisdiction of the ACT. That is why Mr Berry has said in the past that the ACT cannot legislate for voluntary unionism in this Territory. Federal awards often provide for inconsistent arrangements, and that prevents the Territory from legislating in this field. The argument has been very strong on those occasions that we cannot intervene in what are federally governed situations. It appears that is not the case where the Federal system, from Mr Berry's point of view, breaks down.

Mr Speaker, the most likely consequence of all this action in today's debate is certainly that there will be a holiday on Monday for that certain category of workers who are covered by these awards; that there will be an action in a court of some kind to challenge it; and that most likely the legislation will be bogged down. I take these advices seriously.

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