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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1077 ..

MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. Do you think it was appropriate for you to criticise Mr Cheney, who is well known and highly respected in his field, for the evidence he gave at the Coroner’s Court? Was it because he contradicted the government’s spin on the bushfires?

MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, I stand by the comments I make.

Long Service Leave (Private Sector) Bill 2004

MR STEFANIAK: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, on WIN News last night you said about the Long Service Leave (Private Sector) Bill 2004, “no-one in caucus supports this” apart from Mr Berry. This comment is surprising given that your colleague Mr Hargreaves, as a member of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, approved of this bill in principle on 25 February this year. Mr Berry, on the same day, issued a media release, stating:

It is good legislation, and it delivers on the promise made by Labor in Opposition to protect workers’ long service leave entitlements.

You were a member of caucus when this promise was made, along with five other members of the government. Today’s Canberra Times reports that Ms Gallagher is working on a similar proposal for portability of long service leave. Why did you claim that no-one in caucus supports this proposal apart from Mr Berry, when Mr Hargreaves approved the bill in principle, it was a Labor Party promise at the 2001 election and Ms Gallagher is working on a similar proposal?

MR STANHOPE: Well, nobody supports the particularity of the legislation that you refer to. Certainly, we have a position in relation to this and Ms Gallagher, as Minister for Industrial Relations, is pursuing that—and pursuing it well and actively. In relation to Mr Hargreaves’s position, Mr Hargreaves, as chair of a committee, was representing the parliament.

Mr Hargreaves: Deputy chair.

MR STANHOPE: I shudder to think, Mr Stefaniak, what you suggest about members of the government. I hope it is not the attitude that members of the Liberal Party take when they represent this parliament on a standing or select committee—that they are representing their party. Heaven forbid!

MR STEFANIAK: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. As Mr Hargreaves interjected, he was actually the deputy chair, but my supplementary question is: why did the government not make a submission to the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, opposing this bill, if it was so strongly opposed to it?

MR STANHOPE: The government chose not to.

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