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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (1 September) . . Page.. 2713 ..
MR HUMPHRIES: I am quite happy to support a level of offer which reflects a level of parity across the board with the Government unless, of course, it is possible for people to produce productivity savings or offsets which provide a way of paying more. This Government, I think quite generously, has been able to indicate that it is prepared to pay workers significantly more than they would otherwise get if the workers themselves, through their industrial organisations or otherwise, can come forward and suggest ways of being able to produce the money that would pay for those pay rises on a sustainable basis. We are not talking about the Government here. It is not me, the Treasurer, who has the money; it is the community.
That is why, Mr Speaker, there has been a significant bonus paid to ACTEW workers. They formed a productivity partnership with the ACTEW management that said, "If you work with us to get savings in the system, reduce our overheads and so on, you can share the profits that flow from that". They have done that. If other areas of government can - - -
Mr Quinlan: Was that prearranged?
MR HUMPHRIES: It was prearranged, yes. It was an agreement in advance. It was worked through and the workers delivered on the agreement and they got the benefits from it, Mr Speaker. The Government will be in those sorts of arrangements across the board if they can be shown to benefit the organisation and produce savings.
I know that Mr Berry and others prefer the sort of one in, all in arrangement where everyone gets the same thing no matter how deserving they might be or how productive their workplace is. The rest of the world has moved away from that kind of industrial environment. The rest of the world has moved into productivity based pay increases and towards working at a workplace level to achieve optimal outcomes for both management and for workers and for the enterprise as a whole. Mr Speaker, the offer stands to firefighters to work with them to be able to find reasonable savings that will in turn produce sustainable pay rises. I do not have the capacity to produce money out of thin air for pay rises that are not funded through that mechanism.
MS TUCKER: My question is to the Chief Minister and is in regard to this Government's response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. I would like the Chief Minister to tell the Assembly whether her Government is sympathetic to recommendation 235 that reads:
That policies of government and the practices of agencies which have involvement with Aboriginal juveniles in the welfare and criminal justice systems should recognise and be committed to ensuring, through legislative enactment, that the primary sources of advice about the interests and welfare of Aboriginal juveniles should be the families and community groups of the juveniles and specialist Aboriginal organisations ...
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