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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 8 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 2415 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I think it is important to say that everybody here respects the work done by nurses at the Canberra Hospital. We also recognise that there are concerns at the Canberra Hospital. We are not so naive as to think that they are just pretending. Of course we know that when nurses walk off the job they have real concerns. It is those real concerns that the hospital hopes to deal with.

The Industrial Relations Commission said, "There is room to negotiate. Get to the negotiating table". The Canberra Hospital management said, "Yes, we will come to the negotiating table". It took the recommendation of the Industrial Relations Commission seriously, but unfortunately the Nursing Federation decided that they would prefer to go down the path of industrial action.

Hopefully, the motion will be seen as an expression by this Assembly that it believes that negotiations are the proper place for resolving disputes between employer and employee. That is the right way to do things. No doubt the Industrial Relations Commission would agree. It is exactly what it recommended a fortnight ago.

Finally, this motion should be seen as echoing the Government's call that negotiations should take place instead of disruptive industrial action like that initiated by the ANF. I expect that all members, except perhaps Mr Stanhope, who has joined in strike action with the ANF, will agree with me in that. Mr Stanhope, every single Health Minister in this Territory has been in exactly the same position as I am in at this moment in dealing with the Nursing Federation.

Mr Berry: You are getting off lightly, Michael.

MR MOORE: I think it is every single Minister, Mr Berry. I can see the smile on your face as you chuckle. You can remember the time you were dealing with them and had to call in mediation, and indeed the hospital - - -

Ms Carnell: That was mediation with the VMOs.

MR MOORE: That was with the VMOs. I apologise if I was slightly inaccurate. But it is not inaccurate to say that you had major conflict with the Nursing Federation. It is appropriate to give members a full history of the negotiation of this EBA. The previous EBA began in 1996 and its nominal expiry came in February this year. In fact, the Canberra Hospital attempted to conclude a new EBA months early, during 1998. As attempts to reach agreement with the ANF did not succeed, the hospital put the vote directly to staff in a democratic ballot held last December.

The offer was based on substituting salary rises with access to salary packaging, generating an effective pay rise of up to 10 per cent at no cost to the ACT taxpayer. Unfortunately, the ANF campaigned against this agreement. The campaign, I believe, was characterised by misinformation and scare tactics, and staff voted the agreement down. It is worth mentioning that the failure of that ballot has denied nurses an increase in take-home pay of hundreds of dollars a month. Of course, that can never be recovered.

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