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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 3372 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

That is what we would like to put to them. Unfortunately, the framework is not the preferred method of the Nursing Federation which, as I understand it, would prefer to have a single agreement covering the whole of the Territory. If we did that, Mr Berry, I would not have the wherewithal to provide nurses with anything like that kind of return in their salary. In other words, Mr Berry, I do like nurses enough to trust them to make their own decisions. Secondly, I will provide, if I can, a significant increase in their wages, because this is about individual nurses being able to make their decisions.

I will just go back to the way I started. I said, Mr Berry, that approximately 150 of the 200 or so nurses indicated that they would be remaining in the wards. I understand that 50 or so nurses joined the stoppage, and they are entitled to do that, and then other nurses who were off duty came and joined them, giving, I am told, a total of about 100 nurses in this industrial action. Mr Berry, I do not like industrial action. When you were the Minister and you were having a significant dispute with the Nursing Federation over the triple-eight roster, I am sure that you did not like having the dispute. None of us likes disputes - at least, none of us on this side of the dispute mechanism. I presume that the federation would prefer not to operate with these sorts of dispute mechanisms; but if in the end I go into dispute with the Nursing Federation in order to give ordinary nurses a significant increase in their salary, I am prepared to do it.

MR BERRY: I have a supplementary question. Minister, will you accept the challenge to take this matter back to the Industrial Relations Commission and let the umpire decide whether you have handled this matter correctly, in accordance with her strong recommendation? Will you accept the challenge - yes or no?

MR MOORE: Mr Berry, the Nursing Federation - - -

Mr Berry: Yes or no? Yes or no?

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment; he is answering the question.

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, I am not going to answer Mr Berry's question with a yes or a no. Next he will be asking me whether I have stopped beating my wife - yes or no. Mr Berry, you would be aware that, under the industrial relations system, if the federation wants to go back to the commission it is entitled to do so. I am sure the Nursing Federation, reading the letters that they write, will be doing what they can to convince their members that this enterprise - - -

Mr Berry: You are fumbling.

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, it is particularly difficult to answer questions when Mr Berry interjects on every second word. An occasional interjection of the sort that we get from Mr Hargreaves, which is very rare and is right to the point, is an acceptable bit of parliamentary practice, but the constant bantering from Mr Berry where he has got his mouth in gear but his mind in neutral is incredibly difficult to deal with.

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