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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 8 Hansard (25 August) . . Page.. 2417 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I table copies of the Industrial Relations Commission recommendation, along with the correspondence between the Nursing Federation and the Canberra hospital, to demonstrate to members how hard the Canberra Hospital has worked to seek to have negotiations continue. A further step was added today when the Nursing Federation wrote to the Chief Minister, Ms Carnell - sending copies to me, to Professor Ellwood, the acting CEO, to Peter McPhillips, chairperson of the committee in the ACT Community and Health Care Service Board, to Mr Stanhope and to Mr Osborne - to put their offer on the table.

I have been in touch with the Canberra Hospital, and less than an hour ago they informed me that they are preparing a counter-offer to the Nursing Federation. The counter-offer will be based on the matter raised by the Nursing Federation in the letter referring to New South Wales rates. The counter-offer by the hospital is not one that will satisfy the federation, but it is a genuine counter-offer which is a starting point for negotiation.

The hospital has informed me that they will offer the same salary, the same conditions and the same structure as New South Wales. If you want to look at New South Wales, they are comfortable about doing that. They are putting that in writing, and that will go to the federation as a counter-offer, as a starting point for negotiation. The Government is serious about negotiation. It has always been serious about negotiation. As for me having a hands-on role, while the hospital is making the decisions, while the hospital is the negotiator - that is, the employer dealing with the employee - of course I have been very aware of what has been going on. My office has been in contact with the hospital at least half a dozen times a day, probably more on most days.

Mr Osborne, I welcome this motion because it reiterates what we are doing. We are very keen to see negotiations. We are very keen to see the end of disruption, as indeed I am sure the nurses are. Nobody likes taking industrial action. They know the impact it has on their patients and the impact it has on their pay and so forth, but there is a genuine concern for the hospital to negotiate.

Of course, all the advances of the hospital have included the crucial principle that industrial action must cease as a precondition of negotiations, and so far the ANF has refused to cease such action, which I believe demonstrates a lack of good faith. You can have good faith negotiations only when industrial action ceases.

In another move to help resolve the situation, the Health and Community Care Service Board, the ultimate legal employer of the Canberra Hospital staff, has appointed an industrial relations subcommittee. This committee is chaired by board member Ms Prue Power, herself a former secretary of the Nursing Federation with great experience in industrial relations. Every member here, and I am sure every member of the Nursing Federation in the gallery, will remember the contribution that Prue Power made to the Nursing Federation and to nursing in this Territory.

Recognising the situation was at an impasse, as the ANF had backed themselves into a corner from which they were having difficulty extracting themselves, the industrial relations subcommittee determined to explore mediation. The olive branch was extended to the ANF on Monday. I think it was to the great discredit of the ANF

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