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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Thursday, 5 August 2004) . . Page.. 3516 ..

MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: under standing order 118B, the Chief Minister should not be debating the question; he should be answering the question.

MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, you asked the Chief Minister why he would not answer the question, and he is entitled to respond to it.

MR STANHOPE: You asked me for the basis of the nature of the answer I have given to these questions, and I am giving you the basis and the reason for why I have answered the questions in the way that I have. I will not climb into the gutter with you. I will not get down there into the gutter with you, Mrs Dunne, or with your colleagues. We have seen it all week—the innuendo, the slurs, the lies, the deceit, the descent into the gutter of you and your colleagues and your determination to seek to drag us down to your level.

I know, you know, the people of Canberra know how pitifully you purport to represent the interests of the people of Canberra. I know precisely what your standing in this community is. I know exactly where you stand in the minds and the thinking and the feeling of the people of Canberra. I know in what little regard you are held. I know what your personal approval ratings are. The difficulty you have is that you know. Grasping as you are for some advantage and some relevance, in your determination not to be obliterated in the poll that is coming in 10 weeks time you will do what you feel you need to do to gain some credibility, some credence and some support from the public in any way that you can. You have no policies; you have no standing; you have no integrity; you have no support. As an opposition you are a laughing stock.

You represent that, Mrs Dunne, with this appalling, paltry question you have put, this attempt to denigrate me and drag me down to your level, this attempt to drag us all into the gutter with you and your colleagues—where, I have to concede, you look very comfortable. You look at home down there in the rubbish and the nonsense. You look to be in your element. You look and sound it.

Long service leave

MR HARGREAVES: My question is directed to the Minister for Industrial Relations. Has the minister received any recent advice concerning issues of non-compliance with the Long Service Leave (Contract Cleaning Industry) Act 1999?

MS GALLAGHER: It is with some concern that I answer Mr Hargreaves’s question. As members know we have laws that regulate our workplaces in the ACT. We provide regulation and advice on matters of occupational health and safety, workers compensation and, importantly, areas such as long service leave. Recently I had brought to my attention a matter of concern that has a significant monetary impact. The Long Service Leave Board is the government body that polices long service leave compliance. It ensures that employees’ entitlements are secure and that employers pay that entitlement, or that it is paid as a levy to industry based long service leave funds.

Mr Speaker, as you are well aware, currently in the ACT we have two such funds in the construction and cleaning industries which serve to protect employees’ entitlements in those industries. There is no guarantee that these employers, who use every dubious means at their disposal, will ever be brought fully into compliance with long service

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