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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (27 March) . . Page.. 958 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

proposed by the union leadership rejecting the offer. It is understood that in the initial vote about 80 members were for rejecting the package, with about 50 supporting the package. No secret ballot was provided.

At this time the ANF began to harden its public commentary and refer to an ongoing campaign in preparation for the expiry of the agreement in November. References to electoral tactics and ACT election candidates also began. ANF also began demanding to negotiate directly with government, bypassing the other parties to the current EBA.

On Monday, 19 February, the 12th week since the offer was made, I attempted to arrange a meeting with the ANF. On behalf of the government, I wanted to discuss criticisms of the policy parameters of the package, but equally I insisted that any detailed variation must be a genuine agreement between the signatory parties. The ANF did not agree to meet with me on this basis. Indeed, they were not cooperative in agreeing to meet at all.

During this period political rhetoric by the ANF and the Labor Party dramatically increased. On Friday, 23 February, and Monday, February 26, I made the only two formal press statements on the matter since December, not counting announcements of the Calvary outcome. Both these statements dealt with my call for the matter to be referred to all staff for a democratic vote. That was their extent.

As a result of the expressed rejections of the offer and with the budget decision-making process looming, I wrote to all the EBA signatories at TCH and ACT Community Care on 1 March indicating that the government needed a final answer by Monday, 19 March in order to finalise the 2001/2002 budget. The ANF was publicly reported to have disbelieved that the deadline would apply.

By this point almost all negotiations between parties had ceased. The chief executive of the Canberra Hospital reported that the ANF were refusing to meet with him to progress the issue. He and his senior staff continued their efforts to communicate directly with staff. During this period 196 nurses signed a petition demanding a secret ballot and 82 staff agreed to accept the offer.

On Thursday, 15 March I wrote again to all parties to alert them to the fast approaching deadline. It appears that for the first time the ANF realised that the deadline was in place for real reasons.

The chief executive of the Canberra Hospital, Mr Rayment, at this point attempted a final change to the proposed EBA variation, subjecting two of the workplace reforms to be worked out during a career structure review. He asked me for clarification of whether these changes were within the policy parameters of the package, and I confirmed that they were.

Mr Rayment spoke with ANF officials on the morning of Friday, 16 March. He urged the union to call a members meeting for Monday to consider this offer. In fact, the ANF officials did not call such a meeting; nor did they take any steps to inform their members of this final offer. Many staff were, however, informed of the situation through a staff update issued by the chief executive. The deadline passed on Monday without action by the ANF, and I confirmed that it would be applied.

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