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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 2267 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

What the government tried to do outside of the EBA with the nurses was impose upon them a wage rise with attached conditions which the nurses were unable to bargain about.

Mr Humphries: Some nurses were unable to bargain.

MR BERRY: No, all of the nurses were unable to bargain. If they did not accept the offer dictated by the minister, they were not getting anything. We said that they should bring forward the expiry date in order that there could be bargaining in good faith about the issue. So we did not enter the fray. All we did was ask that all of the parties bargain from a common standpoint instead of from the dishonest position which had been adopted by the government.

I have no difficulty with comparisons being drawn between that position and this. This is quite different. These are workers who are getting thrown out of their jobs. This is not about a pay rise for a group of workers. I do not feel vulnerable as a result of Mr Humphries' strident accusations about my having a different position in relation to this matter. In both cases-

Mr Humphries: You do.

MR BERRY: No. In both cases the position was the same. I wanted to see workers get a fair go. You will always get that consistency from me, Mr Humphries. I think you expect that. This is about a fair go.

Earlier on I did not have the Territory Owned Corporations Act in front of me. Subsection (5) of section 17 of that act, "Directions to corporations", says:

I accept that, if that is what the company wants. It is a requirement. You will have to cough up. I think it is fair enough for these workers to get the same treatment as others in the territory. I do not have any difficulty with that at all.

Mr Osborne moved an amendment. I think it is semantics. If the government is so minded, it will ignore a direction if it thinks it can get away with it.

Mr Humphries: That is not true.

MR BERRY: So you might ignore a call but you will not ignore a direction?

Mr Humphries: That is right. That is the convention in this place.

MR BERRY: Mr Osborne ought to be here for this. His amendment puts in an escape clause for the government. We will call on the government, and the government can ignore the call. Mr Osborne and others can walk away and say, "We called on them, and they ignored us." Whatever gets through this place tonight, the government are going to be taken to task in one way or another if they do not support the motion. Mr Humphries tells us that he feels no obligation to support a call.

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