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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (11 May) . . Page.. 1447 ..
MR MOORE (continuing):
Mr Speaker, it is also important to note that the Office of the Status of Women in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is currently conducting a research project into the needs of older women which includes the issue of elder abuse. This report will provide a depth of understanding of the issues of elder abuse that is currently not available in the ACT. I would encourage members to make sure they understand where that inquiry is up to and perhaps coordinate the information so that it is not necessary to rediscover the wheel.
The committee has yet another significant challenge before us, as has been the case in the past. When this committee brings down reports we take them very seriously and we do what we can to implement its recommendations.
It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 77.
Motion (by Mr Berry ) agreed to:
Amendment (Ms Tucker's ) agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
MR BERRY (12.12): I move:
That provisions No (10) (b) of Instruments Nos 81 and 82 of 2000, made under the Legislative Assembly (Members' Staff) Act 1989 relating to the terms and conditions of employment of staff pursuant to sections 11 (2) and 6 (2) of the Act, respectively, be disallowed, pursuant to section 6 of the Subordinate Laws Act 1989.
Mr Speaker, this motion of disallowance goes to a very serious matter of principle in relation to the provision of annual leave for working people. The government's approach to this has been an ideological one. I suspect that during the course of debate on the matter we will hear the government use the word "choice" over and over again, saying that this improves choice for workers. Mr Speaker, the end result of this sort of provision is that annual leave provisions will be diminished. There is no doubt about that.
Let me deal briefly with the history of annual leave in this country. Australian industrial arbitration, as many will recall, began in the early part of the 20th century, and for many of those years arbitral tribunals were reluctant to include annual leave in the award provisions. In those days this was completely in the hands of employers and employers decided when their employees could have time off, and, indeed, whether they would get paid for that time off. That persisted through the depressing years of the great depression.
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