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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3318 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Later he said:

We stated in the AIRC that the Government neither supports nor opposes the Australian Services Union's application.

That was the general theme of the Government's approach during the debate. That was clearly a misleading comment which was made to the Assembly. It clearly misled the Assembly as to the Government's position. It was a quite deliberate statement which was made to the Assembly in the context of the Government's position.

Mrs Carnell then rose to her feet and, as I recall, derided the Opposition for having the temerity to raise this motion. She certainly curled her lip a little and she said:

We went to our departments that are dealing with matters in this area and said, "What has happened? What earth-shattering new position has somebody taken that makes this a matter of urgency?". The message that came back, as Mr Kaine said, was, "Nothing has changed. The situation is the same. The Government's position is the same as it has been for a number of years now".

The position we have taken is that we do not support or oppose the Australian Services Union application. The reason we do not support it or oppose it is that we are not the employer in this case. We may be the funding arm, but we are not the only funding arm. A lot of our community organisations gain a lot of their money from fundraising ...

In the next sentence she said:

We have never -

remember those words -

opposed the SACS award.

The Government's clear position put to this Assembly by two Ministers involved in the debate - - -

Mrs Carnell: That is the reason we did not oppose that part of the motion. We do not oppose it.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell still says, "We have never opposed it". Today I was surprised to receive a document from the Industrial Relations Commission which is a "notice of appearance to object to an application for common rule". It is a form R49, which is the specified form for a notice of appearance to object. It is in the matter of the Social and Community Services (ACT) Award 1995, and it says:

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