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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 3864 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Government Amendment 4 inserts a new definition of final protection order and substitutes a new definition of interim orderto support the provisions inserted by Government Amendment 2.

Government Amendment 5 inserts a new definition of interim protection order to also support the provisions inserted by Government Amendment 2.

Government Amendment 6 is an amendment to the Crimes Act 1900 and it provides for the renumbering of Part 17 of that Act. There are currently two sections 578 and the second section 578 is renumbered by this amendment as section 579. The amendment also corrects a cross reference to the definition of domestic violence offence.

Amendments agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Long Service Leave (Cleaning, Building and Property Services) Amendment Bill 2001

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

MR BERRY (9.47): Mr Speaker, some time ago I introduced the Long Service Leave (Cleaning, Building and Property Services) Bill 1999 to address a problem which had developed in relation to access to long service leave by workers in the cleaning industry. It was reported to me that because of changes in the way cleaning businesses operated, it was unlikely that many cleaners would ever get access to long service leave. In fact, I was told that, because of the changing nature of employment, a worker who had been working in the industry for 25 years had never had access to accrued long service leave.

Members in this Assembly generously supported the moves to put in place a centrally funded system, in line with what has been in existence for about 20 years in the construction industry. The model was similar to the construction industry model, except that the conditions were slightly less favourable. The construction industry enjoys conditions, at least in terms of accrual, similar to those in the public sector in the ACT. The accrual rates for the cleaning industry were modelled on the rates that apply generally in the ACT.

At the time it was decided, after consultation with employers, that a levy of, I think, 2 per cent would be applied. A board was set up and reports to me suggested that some refinements had to occur to deal with the nuances of the industry and the way that employees worked, which was considered to be a little different to that which applied in the construction industry. The need for refinement was always expected, though this could not have been anticipated when the bill was introduced.

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