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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (13 February) . . Page.. 76 ..
MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):
afford to run its public service. It did not in the past but today it has because today we have a balanced budget.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I was intrigued by the comments that were made about Henry Taylor. Mr Berry says, "You cannot rely on Henry Taylor. He is no good. Why are we listening to this Henry Taylor, a 19th century British public servant?" I am just a bit intrigued. Why is it that his words from years and years ago are not worth listening to? Is it because he is British?-sorry, Mrs Burke. Is it because he is a civil servant?-oops, with 15,000 public servants, this is something for Mr Berry to worry about. Is it because he is a 19th century public servant? Is it a case of someone from Roman times, whom Mr Quinlan quoted, being okay because he lived a long time ago but someone from the 19th century is no good? I simply note, Mr Deputy Speaker, that Karl Marx also lived in the 19th century. Perhaps Mr Berry would want to have second thoughts about Karl Marx.
Mr Berry launched a predictable attack on Australian workplace agreements. Australian workplace agreements will endure because they are popular. Public servants have chosen to take those issues up as a basis on which to provide better workplace operating arrangements. The government has not forced anybody into an AWA. Public servants have negotiated for that, protected, as Mrs Burke points out, by the Commissioner for Workplace Relations. I think this has provided a very good framework for a large number of public servants in the ACT. They are not secret agreements. The information about those agreements is provided in annual reports, for example, and members can look at those if they want to see what is in those sorts of agreements.
Mr Quinlan says that accrual accounting was introduced by the Labor government. I have to say that when we came to office there was no evidence of any beginning on-
Mr Quinlan: How would you know, Gary?
MR HUMPHRIES: I was in government at the time, that is how. If talking about it, if putting out a media statement about it, amounts to introducing it then we are going to do a lot of introducing in the near future. (Extension of time granted.)
Mr Deputy Speaker, we have worked hard to develop a comprehensive response to issues facing the ACT public service. But in the course of the last few years it needs to be noted that there has been a lot of public service bashing. It has not just been by, according to Mr Berry at least, people in the government. A number of very unfortunate things have been said about ACT public servants and a lot of them have been said by people on that side of the chamber.
Mr Hargreaves: Not by this little bloke, though.
MR HUMPHRIES: I do not know what Mr Hargreaves just said, but I can quote some things that he said about public servants.
Mr Hargreaves: I said, "Not by me."
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