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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4866 ..

MS MacDONALD (continuing):

construction, forestry and manufacturing, my tales of occupational health and safety hazards usually seemed fairly tame.

But I do remember one instance, Mr Deputy Speaker, of a member who was told to stay and answer telephones as the fire alarms blared through the building in which she was working. Because she was a contractor, she rang her supervisor and said, "The fire alarms are going. What should I do?""Well, you have to stay there and answer the phones because that's what we pay you to do, and if you don't stay there and answer those phones we won't get paid and we'll get sacked as the people who actually have the contract in this building."

I just wonder, Mr Deputy Speaker, if it hadn't been a drill, what that supervisor would have said in explanation both to himself or herself and to the rest of the world if that worker had been severely injured as a result of a fire, an explosion or a gas leak even or, if that person had been killed, what they would have said to themselves every night when they went to bed. "It's okay, we managed to keep that contract but such and such is dead. But it's okay at the end of the day because we kept the contract."

I would also like to mention that white-collar workplaces aren't necessarily renowned for being hazardous to the extreme, places where you are going to lose your life. I would quote from my friend Tony Bourke, a member of the Legislative Council in New South Wales, who was talking about his experience as an organiser for the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the shoppies. Tony said:

I have seen work practices, some great and some that I never would have believed if I had not seen them for myself, such as managers telling staff to work in an area covered by two inches of water with electric cables running through it on the basis that their shoes would have thick enough soles to protect them.

Mr Deputy Speaker, this sort of behaviour is just abhorrent and we must send that message out there. As I said before, we must send that message out there that that sort of behaviour is not acceptable and this government will protect the rights of workers and not allow that to happen.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I had the privilege several years ago now to have been involved in the inaugural organising works program, which was a program which got young people-I was then a young person; some people still consider me to be young; I am sure you do, Mr Deputy Speaker-involved with the union movement.

As I said before, a lot of my experiences seem fairly tame because I was working in the government sector where, in general, the working conditions are good. The occupational health and safety hazards are fairly minimal. They have a fairly good attitude to looking after their employees. The reason why? They have to; they have to be out there as leaders and set an example to the rest of the workplace; and they have got the money to do it, the know-how, the people. They are a large organisation. It doesn't mean that occupational health and safety problems don't occur, of course, but it is like having a cut finger compared to having your arm chopped off.

Anyway, when I was an organiser in the organising works program, I remember, at the end of that year, we did a film of all the trainees and their experiences, what they had

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