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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1640 ..

MR CORBELL: Is it a contraction or an expansion, Chief Minister? Minister, how does this instruction reconcile with the statement that your office and senior officers of your department made in the media recently that you had consulted until you were blue in the face? Minister, why did not the commissioner believe you?

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, the fact that the commissioner has come back and suggested that we consult further is, I think, tantamount to rejecting the case put forward by the Transport Workers Union. She has effectively said, "Are you really sure you have a dispute that should be before this commission?". In fact, the Government did consult on this issue. ACTION management advised the TWU as long ago as 26 May of what we were planning in terms of introducing an eight-weekend trial. They knew three weeks before, effectively, that we were going to allow this pilot study to go ahead. They produced no objections whatsoever until the eve of the trial being put in place. The secretary of the TWU, on my advice, in the time between 26 May and last Friday, in fact, met at least once with ACTION management. ACTION management met also with the TWU caucus. My understanding is that on neither of those occasions did anybody even raise the question as a point of contention. It was not until the eve of the trial, last Friday, that the TWU suddenly decided, "Hey, wait a minute" - - -

Mrs Carnell: It was on that weekend.

MR KAINE: Yes; it was Friday night, was it not, and was it not coincidental that the Labor Party conference was to be held on that weekend? I suggest that the action of the TWU in this case was totally irrational and not based on any logic. There is no substance to their claims that we have somehow dudded them. I would think that the commissioner suggesting that we go away and think about it for a couple of days is good advice for the TWU. If they really think about it for a couple of days, they will withdraw their proposed action and get on with the business of providing a service to the passengers that want to ride on ACTION buses in this town.

One of the factors that I think will lead to the TWU membership deciding not to go any further is the advice to them that, under Commonwealth law, if they do not collect fares, it would be illegal for ACTION to pay them. I think that there are some real factors which the TWU officials need to think about before they jump in up to their neck. There is an old saying: "It is a bit hard to remember that your objective was to drain the swamp when you are up to your armpits in alligators". I think the TWU is going to find itself in that situation.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Corbell?

MR CORBELL: Yes, Mr Speaker. I am glad that the Chief Minister is enforcing amongst her Ministers her rule that they will not attack public servants; or does she not believe bus drivers are public servants? My supplementary question is to the Minister. Why does the Government have to be told repeatedly by the Industrial Relations Commission that they have to consult with their work force? Is the concept of consultation so abhorrent to you that after 14 consecutive losses in the Industrial Relations Commission you still have not learnt the lesson? Can you inform this Assembly why workers, public servants in ACTION, should have any faith in a government that is incapable of acting in good faith?

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