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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 546 ..

MR BERRY: These are the sorts of silly arguments that people are starting to run in relation to this picnic day. People treat these holidays as a day of recreation. They are encouraged to go to the union picnic day, where they get good value for their money. If bosses want their employees to work on days which are normally recreation days, they have to pay a penalty. That is the way the system has worked.

Mr Whitecross: Or negotiate.

MR BERRY: Or negotiate a different set of circumstances; not rip the holiday off.

Mrs Carnell made a great deal out of the need to reduce costs. Of course, what she was talking about, in the context of reducing costs, was the economic circumstances of the Territory and what a dreadful state we are in; we need to cut out the union picnic day because the Territory is in a dreadful state. Who caused the dreadful state we are in? The first one that put us on the slippery dip was Kate Carnell. Who greased the slippery dip? John Howard. They are the people that need to be blamed, and it would be a better use of the employer organisations' time if they were out there putting the pressure on your Government and the Federal Government to restore some prosperity here.

Mrs Carnell: The Auditor-General said you guys are to blame.

Mr Whitecross: That is not what the Auditor-General said.

Mrs Carnell: He did.

Mr Whitecross: The Auditor-General said nothing about picnic day. You do not know what you are talking about.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Whitecross and Mrs Carnell, if you want to talk, go outside and do it; Mr Berry has the call.

MR BERRY: Do not try to blame the union picnic day for the perils of the Territory which have been created by two Liberal governments. Nobody is going to cop that sort of nonsense.

Much has been said about the need to get this holiday in context; it is unfair because in Victoria they get only 10. They get 10 plus one because there is a safety net in place. The Full Bench of the commission stepped in to stop the rip-off that was attempted by the Liberal Government there. The minimum, of course, is now in place. Mr Speaker, in the ACT the standard is 12 holidays.

Mr Humphries: It was.

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries interjects, "It was". They are trying to rip one off. The standard is 12 public holidays. We have Canberra Day, of course, and the bank holiday in addition to the 10 holidays. The bank holiday is for the finance sector. There is an extra holiday for public sector workers in the Christmas-New Year period.

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