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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (13 February) . . Page.. 61 ..

Purchase agreement

Paper

Mr Moore presented the following paper:

Questions without notice

Nurses-Canberra Hospital

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, while I am on my feet, I would like to elaborate on an answer I gave in question time with regard to the ANF coming to my office. I think Mr Osborne asked had the ANF sought a meeting. I received a fax on the evening of 8 February communicating a series of resolutions from a union meeting, which I mentioned earlier. I will table the fax as evidence of the misrepresentations by the ANF, of which I have spoken.

The fax made reference to union desire to negotiate directly with me over the variation. The minister, as I explained, is not the proper party to negotiate a variation under the industrial rules. It is a matter for the Canberra Hospital, et cetera.

I challenge the ANF to stop vetoing rights of staff to vote on this issue and to stop misrepresenting the details of the package to nurses. False statements in the documents I will table include attempts by the Canberra Hospital and ACT Community Care to extract concessions. There have been no such attempts. The draft variation includes the matters outlined in the package.

Secondly, Mr Speaker, they claim that nurses have not been provided with copies. The Canberra Hospital has engaged in a very extensive information campaign and management have attempted to assist the ANF with last minute photocopying issues. Note that photocopying reproductions for the purposes of union member discussions is certainly not an obligation of the Canberra Hospital, but they have been prepared to assist with it and cooperation has been provided to try to further the negotiations.

Finally, Mr Speaker, it has been claimed that a forced trade-off of jobs and conditions is fused to the offer. The ANF is misrepresenting roster flexibility as a trade-off when in fact there is a voluntary benefit available to nurses only with their agreement. References to jobs being traded off is simply false, and I table the following papers:

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