Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4892 ..

Clause 1 agreed to.

Clause 2.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (9.06): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 4919].

This amendment just delays the commencement of this legislation till 1 March 2004, and that was in response to discussions I had with Mrs Cross, Ms Tucker and members of industry who wanted a period of time after the bill was passed to allow for education of their members and for education by WorkCover. I agreed to this amendment after they raised their concerns with me.

MR PRATT (9.06): Mr Speaker, we will support this amendment, and this thing is fait accompli. We will support this because it at least will allow more time for consultation with business and with other interests and perhaps time in which the government might look to make it a lot fairer than what it currently is.

MRS CROSS (9.07): Mr Speaker, I wanted to thank the minister and her office, Mr Purtill and Ms Shakespeare for their co-operation on this. My involvement in discussing the concerns with the minister had its genesis at a Master Builders Association lunch that I was invited to a few weeks ago, and it was interesting at that lunch that key stakeholders said to me that they didn't have too many concerns with this bill but the concerns that they had they wanted to discuss; so we discussed them.

Something I didn't mention before was Mr David Dawes and Frank Gillingham on behalf of the MBA were extremely calm, balanced and reasonable in dealing with the concerns that their industry had. They in fact had actually studied the bill quite thoroughly. They understood the bill, and it was refreshing for me to meet people who represent a peak body which this new bill affects more than most other industries and who were very reasonable in dealing with their concerns.

At the first-round table meeting that I had, which included the MBA among a number of other peak industry bodies in the ACT, it was the voice of reason and calm of Frank Gillingham of the MBA that in fact prevailed and helped just introduce some calm into the discussion.

I made it very clear to the meeting with businesses that I was not going to support this bill unless the businesses themselves found that the bill addressed their concerns. This first amendment of Ms Gallagher's does that. It does address some of the concerns. I will speak to the second amendment later. I wanted to thank the minister for being reasonable and I also wanted to acknowledge the work of the MBA and also the work of the HIA by David O'Keefe and Caroline Lemezina.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 2, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 3 and 4, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .