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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (7 August) . . Page.. 2439 ..
MR BERRY (continuing):
Mr Speaker, proposed section 13A (3), at page 4 of the bill, states:
On receiving an application, the commissioner must establish a committee consisting of-
(a) a person nominated by the relevant chief executive; and
(b) a person nominated by the commissioner; and
(c) an independent officer;
In our view, the independent officer can hardly be described as independent if he is appointed by the commissioner. Under the MPRA process, relevant unions have a close involvement and that independence should be preserved.
Mr Speaker, I should also draw the Assembly's attention to a record of findings of a matter before the Industrial Relations Commission on 6 November 2000. The record of findings-document C No 90526 of 2000-goes to the issue of an industrial dispute involving the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. The document states, in part:
The parties to an industrial dispute are Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance on the one part and all Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly including "The chief executive officers" how so ever titled and any statutory authority, corporation, commission, administrative unit or autonomous instrumentality of the Australian Capital Territory Government on the other part, but excluding ActewAGL.
The subject matters which are in dispute, in so far as they are industrial matters within the Act, are set out in the Letter of Demand and Log of Claims of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance dated 30 November 2000.
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table this document, which establishes that there is an industrial relations dispute before the Industrial Relations Commission in relation to this very matter.
Leave granted.
MR BERRY: Thank you. I present the following paper:
Australian Industrial Relations Commission-Record of findings concerning an industrial dispute between the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and all Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, dated 6 November 2001.
It strikes me as inappropriate for the Assembly to move to make changes to legislation which impinge upon this industrial relations dispute and further proceedings before the Industrial Relations Commission. I therefore call upon members to oppose this bill.
Debate on the legislation has been adjourned once. I think at this point we should just oppose it and let the matter be properly settled in the industrial relations arena. If subsequently we are required to deal with this matter, we can do so in due course.
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